What is the author's style in The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough?

McCullough writes with a particular eye and ear for local color. McCullough paints rich word pictures of events leading up to the tragedy, the downriver race of the wave of destruction following the catastrophic failure of the South Fork dam, and the massive rescue, relief, and rebuilding efforts that follow in the wake.

McCullough's writing gives the reader a far richer feel for how tragedy touches individual lives than from today's news anchors hovering in helicopters and offering thirty-second sound bites while covering contemporary "acts of God." The story of Johnstown and the other towns in the Conemaugh Valley is told movingly but without falling into mawkishness and may well inspire some to visit Johnstown to tour the Flood Museum and see the high-water marks left on the few buildings that survive May 31, 1889.