Courage

Courage is a common thread running through many of the stories collected in David McCullough's Brave Companions. They include eminent scientists, brilliant engineers, bone-weary common laborers, glamorous pioneer aviators, a political activist, a generation that emerges from economic depression to defeat totalitarianism, and an ex-president content to serve in Congress and battle against an illegal war and imposition of a Gag Rule that prevents debate on the divisive question of slavery. For many, courage is an unavoidable part of accomplishing what they desire, exploring unknown regions (Alexander von Humboldt and his partner, Dr. Aime Bonpland), well equipped by 18th-century standards, but woefully by today's, whose love of nature have them paddle and climb through hazardous landscapes that frequently threaten death.

Others, like the workers on the Panama Railroad and Brooklyn Bridge, accept exceedingly high risk of injury or death, because they need jobs. The number of project executives...