Ambrose, Stephen E. 1936–2002

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Ambrose, Stephen E. 1936–2002

(Stephen Edward Ambrose)

PERSONAL: Born January 10, 1936, in Decatur, IL; died of lung cancer, October 13, 2002, in Bay Saint Louis, MS; son of Stephen Hedges (a family physician) and Rosepha (Trippe) Ambrose; married Judith Dorlester, 1957 (died, 1966); married Moira Buckley, 1967; children: (first marriage) Stephanie (Tubbs), Barry Halleck; (adopted) Andrew, Grace, Hugh. Ethnicity: "English." Education: University of Wisconsin, B.S., 1957, Ph.D., 1963; Louisiana State University, M.A., 1958 Politics: Republican. Religion: Congregationalist.

CAREER: Louisiana State University, New Orleans, (now University of New Orleans), assistant professor, 1960–64, professor, 1971–89, Alumni Distinguished Professor of History, 1982–95, Boyd Professor of History, 1989–95, professor emeritus, 1995–2002; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, associate professor of history, 1964–69; U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI, Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History, 1969–70; Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of War and Peace, 1970–71; founder of Eisenhower Center, 1983, director, 1983–95, director emeritus, 1995–2002; founder and president of National D-Day Museum, New Orleans, 2000–02. Visiting assistant professor, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1963–64; Mary Ball Washington Professor, University College, Dublin, Ireland, 1981–82; visiting professor, University of California, Berkeley, 1986; Howard Johnson Visiting Professor of Military History, Army War College, 1989; senior fellow, Rutgers Center for Historic Analysis, 1993. Interviewee on television documentary Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, 1997. Historical consultant on feature film Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg, 1998. Military service: Reserve Officer Training Corps.

MEMBER: American Committee on World War II (member, board of directors), American Historical Association, American Military Institute (member, board of directors; member, board of trustees, 1971–74), Organization of American Historians, Conference on History of Second World War (member of American Committee), SANE (member, board of directors), Society for American Historians of Foreign Relations, Southern Historical Association, Lewis and Clark Heritage Trail Foundation (member, board of directors), Big Blue Athletic Association, Chi Psi.

AWARDS, HONORS: Freedom Foundation National Book Award, for Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952.

WRITINGS:

Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1962.

Upton and the Army, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1964.

Duty, Honor, and Country: A History of West Point, Johns Hopkins Press (Baltimore, MD), 1966.

Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945: The Decision to Halt at the Elbe, Norton (New York, NY), 1967, reprinted, 2000.

The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1970.

Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1938, Penguin (New York, NY), 1971, 8th edition (with Douglas G. Brinkley), 1997.

General Ike: Abeline to Berlin (for children), Harper (New York, NY), 1973.

Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors, illustrations by Kenneth Francis Dewey, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1975.

(With Richard H. Immerman) Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1981.

(With Richard H. Immerman) Milton S. Eisenhower: Educational Statesman, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1983.

Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, PresidentElect, 1890–1952 (Book of the Month Club choice; also see below), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983, abridged version published as Eisenhower: Soldier and President, 1990.

Eisenhower: The President (also see below), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1984.

Pegasus Bridge: 6 June 1944, Allen & Unwin (London, England), 1984, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985.

(Author of introduction) Hitler's Mistakes, Morrow (New York, NY), 1987.

Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1987.

Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972 (Book of the Month Club alternate), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1989.

(Author of introduction) Handbook on German Military Forces, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1990.

Nixon: The Ruin and Recovery of a Politician, 1973–1990, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1991.

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992, 2001.

D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1994.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1996.

Americans at War (essays), University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 1997.

Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1997.

The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys—The Men of World War II, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1998.

Lewis & Clark: Voyage of Discovery, photographs by Sam Abell, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 1998.

Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals, illustrated by Jon Friedman, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

Nothing like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won, Atheneum (New York, NY), 2001.

The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Douglas E. Brinkley) The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today, photography by Sam Abell, National Geographic (Washington, DC), 2002.

This Vast Land: A Young Man's Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.

EDITOR

A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 1961.

Institutions in Modern America: Innovation in Structure and Process, Johns Hopkins Press (Baltimore, MD), 1967.

(Assistant editor) Alfred Chandler, editor, The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower: The War Years, five volumes, Johns Hopkins Press (Baltimore, MD), 1970.

(With James A. Barber, Jr.) The Military and American Society, Free Press (New York, NY), 1972.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Wisdom of Dwight D. Eisenhower: Quotations from Ike's Speeches and Writings, 1939–1969, Eisenhower Center, 1990.

(With Gunter Bischof) Eisenhower and the German POWs: Facts against Falsehood, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1992.

C.L. Sulzberger, American Heritage New History of World War II, revised version, Viking (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Douglas G. Brinkley) Witness to America: An Illustrated Documentary History of the United States from the Revolution to Today, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

OTHER

Author of television documentary, Eisenhower: Supreme Commander, British Broadcasting Corporation, 1973. Author of biweekly column, Baltimore Evening Sun, beginning 1968. Contributor to The Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia, edited by Richard S. Kirkendall, G.K. Hall, 1989; What If? The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been: Essays, edited by Robert Cowley, Putnam, 1999; and No End Save Victory: Perspectives on World War II, edited by Robert Cowley, Putnam, 2001. Authenticator, New Standard Encyclopedia, 1994. Contributor of reviews and articles to numerous journals and newspapers, including American Heritage, American History Illustrated, American Historical Review, Foreign Affairs, Harvard Magazine, Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary History, Times Literary Supplement, New York Times Book Review, Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives, Quarterly Journal of Military History, and U.S. News and World Report. Contributing editor of Quarterly Journal of Military History. Member of board of editors of Military Affairs.

Duty, Honor, and Country: A History of West Point has been translated into Spanish; Eisenhower: The President, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, and Pegasus Bridge: 6 June 1944, have been translated into French; Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American War-riors has been translated into German and Italian; The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower has been translated into Norwegian, Spanish, and Romanian; Eisenhower: Soldier and President has been translated into French, German, and Russian; and Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1938 has been translated into Arabic, Norwegian, Romanian, Spanish, and Turkish. An abridged edition of Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment was translated into French and published under the title Les Services Secrets d'Eisenhower.

ADAPTATIONS: Band of Brothers was adapted for a ten-part Home Box Office (HBO) miniseries, 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Stephen E. Ambrose was a "military historian and biographer whose books recounting the combat feats of American soldiers and airmen fueled a national fascination with the generation that fought World War II," according to New York Times writer Richard Goldstein. Historian and biographer, Ambrose wrote about generals, presidents, explorers, major military battles, railroads, and foreign policy in his three dozen books, always demonstrating an uncommon ability to bring history and historical actors to vivid life. Ambrose had already had a productive and distinguished career as an author when events of the late 1990s increased his fame. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West became a best-seller, and Ambrose served as a historical consultant on Steven Spielberg's 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan.

Ambrose, who retired in 1995 from a professorship at the University of New Orleans, was also well known for his multi-volume biographies of presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon. Ambrose labored for nearly twenty years on the Eisenhower volumes and ten years on the Nixon volumes, both times with results that critics praised for their meticulous research and balance. Unfortunately, toward the end of his life, Ambrose's success was somewhat eclipsed by accusations of plagiarism in his 2001 book The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany. Although he survived the scandal by saying he had properly footnoted the passages, Ambrose did not escape being grouped with several other academics accused of plagiarism in a rash of scandals in academia during that same time. Nevertheless, he continued to be praised for his role in helping to popularize the study of World War II in America. He died in 2002 from lung cancer; the posthumous This Vast Land: A Young Man's Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was published in 2003.

Ambrose grew up in Whitewater, Wisconsin. A high-school football captain and prom king, he went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he decided to major in history. After earning his B.A. in 1957, Ambrose moved on to a master's degree program at Louisiana State University, and then returned to the University of Wisconsin to earn a Ph.D. in history in 1963. During graduate school Ambrose published a biography of General Henry Halleck, who had served as chief of staff to President Abraham Lincoln. A few years later, while Ambrose was working as an assistant professor at Louisiana State University, he received a phone call from an admirer of the book. The caller was former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"I was flabbergasted," Ambrose once told New York Times Book Review contributor Herbert Mitgang. President Eisenhower told Ambrose that he liked the author's book, had thought about writing a work on Halleck himself, and invited Ambrose to come to his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, home to talk; he also asked Ambrose if he would be interested in working on the Eisenhower papers. Ambrose recalled: "I told him, 'General, I'd prefer to write your biography.' He replied, 'I'd like to have you any way I can.'" So began Ambrose's long association with the life and career of President Eisenhower, an association that allowed him to produce a multi-volume set of edited papers; a biography of Milton S. Eisenhower, the president's brother; two books on Eisenhower's military career, Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945: The Decision to Halt at the Elbe and The Supreme Commander: Eisenhower; an analysis of Eisenhower's relationship with the espionage community; and a two-volume biography.

In the introduction to Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, Ambrose describes Eisenhower as "decisive, well disciplined, courageous, dedicated … intensely curious about people and places, often refreshingly naive, fun-loving—in short a wonderful man to know or be around." Despite his clear liking for the former president, most reviewers felt that Ambrose developed an even-handed portrait of the man who is widely perceived to have been, in the words of Time reviewer Donald Morrison, both a "canny leader who brilliantly outmaneuvered subordinates and statesmen," and a "mediocre President … slow of wit and out of touch with the currents of upheaval swirling beneath the calm surface of the 1950s." In reconciling these two views, Ambrose "provided the most complete and objective work yet on the general who became President," wrote Drew Middleton in the New York Times Book Review. New Yorker contributor Naomi Bliven said that the biography "offers the beguiling mixture of nostalgia and illumination we find in old newsreels, along with an abundance of themes for reflection."

Reviewers praised Ambrose's reassessment of a president who had been reviled as a bumbling, inefficient leader, a president who, in the words of reviewer Richard Rhodes of Chicago's Tribune Books, "golfed too much, knew little and did nothing." Ambrose acknowledges such public perception, wrote Henry Brandon in the Washington Post Book World, but his biography portrays Eisenhower as "a man in charge if not always in control, a born leader and a deft pilot who knows how to weather storms." In volume two, Eisenhower: The President, Ambrose highlights the fact that "Ike," as he was affectionately known, kept his country out of war for eight turbulent years, stood up to a burgeoning military-industrial complex, and managed to maintain domestic economic prosperity.

Though most reviewers praised Ambrose for his equanimity, some thought that he failed to advance a compelling interpretation of the voluminous data he compiled. Los Angeles Times Book Review contributor Kenneth Reich complained that the book was too restrained. "It seems sad," he wrote, "when someone has obviously put in so much effort yet fails to go beyond evenhandedness…. [This] biography of Eisenhower emerges as a dull parade of data." Ivan R. Dee, writing in the Chicago Tribune Books, said that the problem was that "a reader can arrive at opposite judgments about Eisenhower's performance based upon the evidence Ambrose presents." Dee pointed to Eisenhower's handling of civil rights, the U-2 spying incident, and Middle Eastern politics as examples of Eisenhower's failed leadership which Ambrose does not acknowledge.

After nearly twenty years of writing about one of America's best-loved presidents, Ambrose turned his attention to a man he said had once been "the most hated and feared man in America," President Richard M. Nixon. A number of writers had penned psychological portraits of Nixon that attempted to account for his seeming cruelty, his terrific drive to succeed, his failure to admit fault for the Watergate controversy, and his subsequent resignation in the face of impeachment proceedings. But in 1987 Ambrose began a comprehensive three-volume work on Richard Nixon, undertaking a carefully researched, scholarly biography on one of the most controversial presidents of the twentieth century. Reviewing the first volume, Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962, Washington Post Book World reviewer Richard Harwood echoed the praise of many critics, noting Ambrose's ability to "examine with a surgeon's neutrality all the clichés and stereotypical assumptions about the character of this strange and fascinating man." Political analyst Sidney Blumenthal wrote in the New Republic that "Ambrose has written the standard, a middle point of reference, around which all Nixonia may be organized."

In the trilogy, Ambrose follows Nixon from his humble beginnings in Yorba Linda, California, to his academic success at Duke University, to his bitter 1950 senate campaign, to his troubled tenure as Eisenhower's vice president, and finally to the rise and fall of his own presidency. Along the way, Ambrose debunks many of the myths about Nixon, picturing Nixon's childhood as happy, not sad, writing that Nixon's opponents initiated much of the mud-slinging for which he became known, and demonstrating that the political dirty work Nixon performed while vice president was done at President Eisenhower's insistence. The third volume, Nixon: Ruin and Recovery, focuses on the resuscitation of the former president's reputation throughout the 1980s. Spectator reviewer Anthony Howard wrote that Ambrose "crowned the edifice of his impressive trilogy with an admirably fair-minded last volume covering easily the most controversial aspect of what was already a singularly resilient political career." Throughout the three volumes, Ambrose does not excuse Nixon for the excesses that characterized his political career, nor does he attempt to provide an explanation of what motivated Nixon to behave as he did; instead, he shows what happened and lets the reader decide.

Ambrose's reluctance to offer insights into Nixon's motivations frustrated some critics. New York Times reviewer Christopher Lehmann-Haupt complained that "there is something passive about the way Mr. Ambrose tells Mr. Nixon's story. He seems always confined by context, praising his subject for this, condemning him for that. He lacks the lift of a driving thesis." Ronald Steel, writing in the New York Times Book Review, echoed this appraisal, suggesting that Ambrose "is better at providing information than at delving into the dark recesses of character." And Gary Wills, whose own Nixon Agonistes attempted to probe the dark recesses of Nixon's character, thought that Ambrose's concern for the facts made him overlook an essential undercurrent in Nixon's life.

Edward Z. Friedenberg saw Ambrose's hesitancy to pass judgment on Nixon in a slightly different light. Writing in the Toronto Globe and Mail, he claimed that "Ambrose seems largely content to explain the hostility Nixon aroused in terms of his personality," but contended that "Nixon's enemies hated not merely the man but his (and his country's) policies." According to Friedenberg, Ambrose's equanimity led him to excuse the most sinister elements of Nixon's presidency: his policy toward Vietnam and his drive to do whatever it might take to win that conflict. R.W. Apple, Jr. wrote in the New York Times Book Review, however, that "it is Mr. Ambrose's achievement to immerse himself in Mr. Nixon's life and keep his cool…. The result is a portrait that is all its subject is not: evenhanded and thoroughly reliable." Ambrose himself told New York Times Book Review contributor Alex Ward, "I make no claim to finding the key to the man—he's so complicated that it would take Shakespeare to do him justice."

Ambrose again focused on World War II in Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, detailing that company's numerous engagements and exploits. Ambrose based his book on the stories he collected from the surviving members of the company as part of his work for the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans. The soldiers told Ambrose of their predawn drop behind enemy lines on D-Day and of their eventual capture of German leader Adolf Hitler's private retreat, "Eagle's Nest." The result, wrote New York Times Book Review contributor and combat veteran Harry G. Summers, Jr., is "a harrowing story" that captures "the true essence of a combat rifle company." Times Literary Supplement reviewer M.R.D. Foot asserted that the book "is full of insights into the nature of comradeship, as well as brutally frank description: noise, stench, discomfort, hunger and fear are all there, tied together in a masterly narrative flow."

Ambrose continued with World War II subject matter in D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II. Ambrose drew on soldiers' oral histories on file at the Eisenhower Center and accounts from other eyewitnesses to tell the story of the landing of Allied troops on June 6, 1944, in the famous invasion along the coast of France's Normandy region. He deals with the strategies and personalities of the commanders, Eisenhower and German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, but the stories of ordinary soldiers form the heart of the book. "The descriptions of individual ordeals on the bloody beach of Omaha make this book outstanding," praised Raleigh Trevelyan in the New York Times Book Review. Trevelyan noted that Ambrose cites Cornelius Ryan's 1959 work, The Longest Day, as an inspiration for his book. "Like that account, D-Day, June 6, 1944 is mostly about people, but goes even further in evoking the horror, the endurance, the daring and, indeed, the human failings at Omaha Beach and other places along the Calvados coastline," Trevelyan observed. New Leader contributor William L. O'Neill found it "unlikely" that any other historian "will produce a book like D-Day, June 6, 1944, with its wealth of detail, absorbing vignettes, and rich anecdotal material." Ambrose, he added, "brings to his new work the narrative drive, thorough research and muscular prose he is justly famous for." In the National Forum, Leah Rawls Atkins pronounced the book "the definitive account of America's landing on the French coast," adding that "D-Day is not a quick read, but it is a satisfying one. The bloody tales of carnage are thankfully relieved by Ambrose's selection of humorous anecdotes and perceptive quotations that linger in the reader's mind."

Undaunted Courage brought Ambrose additional accolades. He had long been fascinated by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's exploratory journey from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. He had read the pair's journals in 1975, and since then had visited numerous sites along Lewis and Clark's trail. He had wanted to write about the expedition for years, and decided to do so after becoming convinced there was sufficient fresh material available to warrant a new biography of Lewis (he found out another well-regarded historian was planning a book on Clark). Undaunted Courage, therefore, is a comprehensive study of Lewis as well as of his 1804–1806 trek with Clark and their party to the Pacific and back, through an expanse of land the United States had just acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase. President Thomas Jefferson hoped the land would contain an all-water route to the Pacific; Lewis and Clark found that no such route existed, but they did bring back a plethora of information about the new territory. The expedition turned out to be the pinnacle of Lewis's life; he was a failure as the subsequent governor of the Louisiana territory, and he suffered from alcohol abuse and depression, committing suicide at age thirty-five in 1809. Though some historians have suggested Lewis was murdered, Ambrose finds no evidence that Lewis's death was anything other than a suicide.

"A remarkably balanced historian, Ambrose is neither a revisionist nor an apologist," remarked Malcolm Jones, Jr., in his Newsweek review of Undaunted Courage. For instance, Jones noted, Ambrose shows that Lewis was not always honest with the Native Americans the party encountered, but still maintained a degree of respect for them. "Here and elsewhere, Ambrose weighs shortcomings against positive attributes and ultimately presents us with a convincing hero," the critic averred. In the New York Times Book Review, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. re-ported that Lewis emerges "as an outstanding explorer and hero, fair, energetic, beloved by his men and greatly self-disciplined, but also occasionally impetuous and arrogant, and possessed of a flaring temper that could get him into trouble." Yale Review contributor Howard Lamar likewise praised Ambrose's portrait of Lewis: "Ambrose with good reason not only rescues Meriwether Lewis from two centuries of obscurity but presents him as a fascinating, complex, strong, contradictory individual. What Ambrose has done is to make Lewis a real person, a hero who was at once a frontiersman and near poet." What's more, Lamar related, Ambrose "portrays Thomas Jefferson as a more shrewd, highly political, and tough figure than we usually encounter in American texts … standing midway between the opposite categories of dreamer and schemer." In Wild West, Dale Walker lauded Ambrose's analysis of Lewis's relationship with Jefferson, his mentor; this "has never been explored so deeply," Walker asserted. Walker also complimented Ambrose's "meticulous reconstruction" of Lewis and Clark's journey, saying, "all the joys and miseries of that greatest exploration in our history come to life in the author's measured prose." Lamar summed up the book by declaring that the well-known story of the expedition "is so well told by Ambrose that it seems a fresh, new saga. Undaunted Courage may well remain the most effectively narrated American adventure story to appear in this decade."

Ambrose's association with the story of Lewis and Clark continued as he contributed text to a photography book covering the pair's route, and he subsequently appeared in Ken Burns's documentary film about the expedition. He also returned to the subject of World War II, writing Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany and The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys—The Men of World War II. Citizen Soldiers chronicles the final eleven months of the war in Europe through interviews with the men who served on the front lines, who had often been neglected by the historians who focused primarily on their leaders. "Almost no one except the surviving participants has any comprehension of the vicious, unrelenting, blood-stained conflict that continued through every day and every night of the eleven months from D-Day to the German surrender on V-E Day," observed Charles W. Bailery in a Washington Monthly review of the book. "Citizen Soldiers fills that gap. In the process, Ambrose has produced not only an authoritative history but a powerful and painful anti-war testament as well." Carlo D'Este, writing in the New York Times Book Review, thought that "in Ambrose's capable hands, the bloody and dramatic battles fought in northwest Europe in 1944–45 come alive as never before." Among other things, D'Este noted, Ambrose details how not only bullets and grenades but also frostbite and disease were dangerous enemies of ordinary soldiers, and he decries the military's racial segregation and some aspects of the Army's inefficiency. Added Malcolm Jones, Jr., in Newsweek: "Without ever questioning the necessity of fighting, Ambrose provides one of the best looks yet at the dark side of the 'good' war." D'Este concluded, "Citizen Soldiers is an unforgettable testament to the World War II generation."

In The Victors, Ambrose drew on his previous World War II books to produce a portrait of the U.S. Army, from Eisenhower's appointment to lead the forces in Europe through the end of the war. "Ambrose fans will have a distinct sense of deja vu," remarked Nathaniel Tripp in the New York Times Book Review. "Still, there is a lot to be said for having it all under one cover, for combining Ambrose's compelling portrait of Eisenhower's leadership with the vivid experiences of the infantrymen, and following the campaign from conception to conclusion." This has a downside as well, Tripp contended, because "in the compression of thousands of pages from his earlier books into just under 400 here, many illuminating and insightful details have been lost and jingoism comes to the fore." National Review contributor Josiah Bunting III, however, felt that Ambrose had done exactly what he set out to do: to demonstrate "that the essential goodness of a moral, democratic society makes of its citizens military defenders who will triumph over enemies whose soldiers are the product of totalitarian, racist, and authoritarian regimes. Ambrose accomplishes this with great power."

As a kind of addendum to his other books on history, Ambrose wrote Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals. Described by Kevin Hymel of Military History as "a quick 140-page read that is hard to put down," the book explores "a common thread shared among players in military history: their camaraderie." Discussing Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ambrose portrays both the president's warm friendship with his brother Milton and his often strained relationship with General George S. Patton. Eisenhower respected and needed Patton's military talents, but was often irritated by the general's behavior. With regard to Richard M. Nixon, Ambrose suggests that Nixon's failure to develop close friendships with those around him may have contributed to his downfall. In an autobiographical vein, Ambrose takes a look at camaraderie in his own life and the bonds he has formed with friends and relatives, particularly his own father. Other friendships discussed in the book include those between Lewis and Clark, and between George Custer of Little Big Horn fame and his broth-ers. Hymel found Comrades to be "a fresh look at most of his [Ambrose's] favorite personalities, revealing new insights," and concluded by suggesting: "Read it and then pass it to your father or your son." Gilbert Taylor of Booklist described the volume as "quickly perusable, congenial confessions for the author's huge readership."

In a change of pace from military and political history, Ambrose offered Nothing like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869. In chapters that alternate between the construction of the Central Pacific line in the West and the Union Pacific line in the East, Ambrose paints a broad and comprehensive picture that encompasses the planning of the transcontinental railroad, the financing of its construction, and the day-to-day labor of the workers who made it a reality. The volume also covers the impact of the railroad on the settling of America. Nancy Spillman of Booklist characterized the work as relating "a spellbinding combination of entrepreneurial foresight, Herculean human fortitude, and prescient political wisdom." Henry Kisor of the New York Times Book Review stated: "Ambrose's scholarship seems impeccable, supported by copious notes and an extensive bibliography. He writes a brisk, colloquial, straightforward prose that not only is easy to read but also bears the reader on shoulders of wonder and excitement." Kisor concluded: "Nothing like It in the World may be a popular history, but it is also a complex one, and the several maps of the route as well as a section of contemporary photographs greatly aid the reader's understanding of its builders' grand accomplishment."

Ambrose again turned to World War II for his subject matter with both The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won, a volume for young adults, and The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany. Reviewing The Good Fight for School Library Journal, Cindy Darling stated: "Whenever a celebrated historian produces a volume for young people, one wonders if he will write for them or merely condense and chop. Ambrose does write for them, in a beautifully abbreviated style." Arranged chronologically, moving from the origins of World War II through the Marshall Plan, The Good Fight consists of a series of one-page essays complemented by fact boxes, numerous photographs, and maps. Randy Meyer of Booklist credited it with being "an excellent balance between the big picture and the humanizing details," and went on to praise Ambrose's style as "authoritative and warm." However, in an article for the Atlantic Monthly titled "The Real War—Stephan Ambrose's GIs Are Plaster Saints Engaged in a Sanctified Crusade," Benjamin Schwarz offered a very different opinion of The Good Fight. According to Schwartz, "Ambrose's version of events retroactively imposes an elevated meaning on the American side of the war…. The Good Fight is littered with lofty cant." Schwartz also disagreed with Ambrose's interpretations on numerous specific counts, such as the Normandy invasion, which Ambrose depicts as an attempt by the United States "to free France from Nazi tyranny," while Schwartz defined it as primarily an effort "to establish a literal and figurative beachhead in Western Europe." Schwartz concluded with a broader criticism of the author's work, stating that "the great problem with Ambrose's books—especially this one—is that they fail to treat history as tragic, ironic, paradoxical, and ambiguous. If readers are old enough to study an event that involved the deaths of more than sixty million people, they are old enough to learn that one studies history not to simplify issues but to illuminate their complexities."

In The Wild Blue, Ambrose recounts the experiences of the men who flew B-24 bombers over Nazi Germany in the Allied attempt to cripple the Axis war machine. Rather than attempting to chronicle the experience of all the men involved in the campaign, Ambrose focuses on a single bomber crew commanded by future Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern. McGovern and his crew flew a total of thirty-five missions, the maximum number allowed. Lev Raphael of the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service stated: "Ambrose does a good job of putting readers in the middle of combat, and makes us appreciate how exhausting and dangerous it was for crews, who had a survival rate of fifty percent." Although Sean McCann of Book faulted Ambrose for failing to examine the larger question of the effectiveness of the Allied campaign of strategic bombing, he also commented that "in a remarkable string of vivid histories … Ambrose has done more than anyone else to remind us of the heroic struggles American soldiers endured during World War II and of the valiant cause for which they fought." In January of 2002, The Wild Blue received a barrage of attention, although not the kind of attention Ambrose hoped for. The author later admitted to plagiarizing passages found in The Wild Blue. The material was taken from Dr. Thomas Childers's 1995 book, The Wings of Morning. Ambrose issued an apology and stated that future editions of the book would be corrected. Childers, a longtime fan of Ambrose's work, accepted the apology and told People, "I thought it was a classy thing to do." The attention led to further investigations of plagiarism in Ambrose's work. The author told a Time, contributor that from that point on he would "cite and have quotation marks around anything I take out of secondary works."

Later that same year, Ambrose, a long-time smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died in the fall of 2002, just as his memoir, To America: Personal Reflections of a Historian, and his illustrated history, The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today, were published. In the first book, Ambrose blends personal history with reflections on topics in American history from the Battle of New Orleans to the Vietnam War. A contributor for Publishers Weekly felt that there are too few personal recollections in this book: "readers looking for [Ambrose's] life story will have to take notes and write it themselves." Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews critic found the book to be a "blend of memoir, canned book-talks, and synopses" providing a "breezy, self-congratulatory survey of the author's career." Book contributor Terry Teachout called To America an "informal, almost chatty quasi-memoir," but regretted that the author "says nothing about the charges of plagiarism that darkened his final months, or the widespread feeling among colleagues that his work became less serious as it grew more popular." For Booklist's Gilbert Taylor, however, the memoir was more successful. Taylor felt that "Ambrose reveals his beliefs and attitudes in this reflective ramble." Reviewing Ambrose's collaborative effort with Douglas C. Brinkley, The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation, Library Journal contributor Charlie Cowling noted that the book relates the history of the river from the early nineteenth century up to modern times, and "promises to appeal to a wide range of readers." Taylor, writing in Booklist, concluded, "Variegated and ruminative about the Mississippi's physical and literary centrality to American history, Ambrose and Brinkley's exploration will justly attract great attention." And a critic for Publishers Weekly had further praise for the same title, commenting that "this absorbing book should please any lay enthusiast of American history."

At the time of his death, Ambrose was at work on another treatment of the Lewis and Clark story, this time approaching it from a fictional angle in a book written for young adults. Published in 2003, This Vast Land: A Young Man's Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is Ambrose's only work of fiction. It purports to be the journal of the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark party, that of seventeen-year-old George Shannon, and is written in a "voice that is both strong and authentic," according to Horn Book contributor Betty Carter. Shannon is, Carter further noted, "far from a one-dimensional character," and it is through him that readers experience the hardships of the expedition. Booklist's Roger Leslie found the book "very easy reading," and went on to commend the fact that Ambrose's protagonist ultimately rejects the prejudice of some of the other white explorers, offering "a positive message about diversity." Kliatt's Paula Rohrlick felt that events depicted in Shan-non's journal in brief entries, while "giving the narrative a choppy feel," "are often dramatic and the descriptions are colorful and frequently earthy." And Mary Mueller of School Library Journal wrote that This Vast Land would be a "good choice for older teens who are interested in this fascinating expedition."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Ambrose, Stephen E., Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983.

Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Volume 44, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 145, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Monthly, June, 2001, Benjamin Schwartz, "The Real War—Stephan Ambrose's GIs Are Plaster Saints Engaged in a Sanctified Crusade," p. 100.

Book, July, 2001, Sean McCann, review of The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany, p. 64; January-February, 2003, Terry Teachout, review of To America: Personal Reflections of a Historian, p. 75.

Booklist, June 1, 1999, Gilbert Taylor, review of Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals, p. 1752; March 1, 2001, Nancy Spillman, review of Nothing like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869, p. 1295; July, 2001, Randy Meyer, review of The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won, p. 2008; September 15, 2002, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Mississippi and the Making of America: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today, p. 178; November 1, 2002, Gilbert Taylor, review of To America, p. 450; April 1, 2003, Will Manley, "Who Makes History?," p. 1357; September 1, 2003, Roger Leslie, review of This Vast Land: A Young Man's Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, p. 77

Chicago Tribune, March 24, 1985.

Commonweal, April 24, 1998, p. 13.

Fortune, August 8, 1994, p. 108.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 16, 1985; July 25, 1987; November 4, 1989.

Horn Book, January-February, 2004, Betty Carter, review of This Vast Land, p. 78.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2002, review of To America, p. 1511; August 1, 2003, review of This Vast Land, p. 101.

Kliatt, September, 2003, Paula Rohrlick, review of This Vast Land, p. 5.

Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, Lev Raphael, review of The Wild Blue, p. K5470.

Library Journal, October 15, 2002, Charlie Cowling, review of The Mississippi and the Making of America, p. 83; January, 2003, Randall M. Miller, review of To America, p. 130.

London Review of Books, July 4, 1985, pp. 5-6.

Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1981; January 10, 2002.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 4, 1984, Kenneth Reich, review of Eisenhower: The President; June 21, 1987, p. 12; October 15, 1989; November 24, 1991, pp. 4, 11.

Maclean's, June 6, 1994, p. 56.

Military History, April, 2000, Kevin Hymel, review of Comrades, p. 68.

Nation, February 28, 1972.

National Forum, fall, 1994, Leah Rawls Atkins, review of D-Day, June 6, 1944, p. 45; spring, 2001, Pat Kaetz, review of Nothing like It in the World, p. 39.

National Review, December 21, 1998, Josiah Bunting III, review of The Victors, p. 60.

New Leader, March 5, 1990, pp. 16-17; June 6, 1994, William L. O'Neill, review of D-Day, June 6, 1944, p. 12.

New Orleans Magazine, December, 1998, p. 56.

New Republic, July 6, 1987, Sidney Blumenthal, review of Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962, pp. 30-34.

Newsweek, April 27, 1987; February 19, 1996, p. 70; August 26, 1996, p. 46; November 17, 1997, Malcolm Jones, Jr., review of Citizen Soldiers, p. 89.

New Yorker, July 1, 1985, Naomi Bliven, review of Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, pp. 95-97.

New York Review of Books, May 6, 1971.

New York Times, April 23, 1987; November 9, 1989; January 11, 2002.

New York Times Book Review, October 4, 1970, p. 5; September 19, 1983, Drew Middleton, review of Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952; December 9, 1984, pp. 1, 46-47; April 28, 1985; April 26, 1987; November 12, 1989, pp. 1, 65-66; November 24, 1991, pp. 3, 25; September 6, 1992, Harry G. Summers, review of Band of Brothers, p. 11; May 29, 1994, Raleigh Trevelyan, review of D-Day, June 6, 1944, p. 1; March 10, 1996, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., review of Undaunted Courage, p. 9; December 21, 1997, Carlo D'Este, review of Citizen Soldiers, p. 10; November 22, 1998, Nathaniel Tripp, review of The Victors, p. 14; September 17, 2000, Henry Kisor, "Working on the Railroad."

People, July 1, 1996, p. 101; November 3, 1997, p. 17; January 19, 1998, p. 34; January 21, 2002, p. 15.

Publishers Weekly, January 22, 1996, p. 50; August 27, 2001, Daisy Maryles, Dick Donahue, "Into the Wild Blue," p. 17; September 30, 2002, review of The Mississippi and the Making of America, p. 62; November 11, 2002, review of To America, p. 54; August 25, 2003, review of This Vast Land: A Young Man's Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, p. 66.

School Library Journal, May, 2001, Cindy Darling, review of The Good Fight, p. 161; September 2003, Mary Mueller, review of This Vast Land, p. 209.

Spectator, July 4, 1987, pp. 32-33; February 1, 1992, Anthony Howard, review of Nixon: Ruin and Recovery, p. 32.

Time, October 3, 1983, Donald Morrison, review of Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, pp. 79-80; May 4, 1987, p. 101; November 6, 1989, pp. 100-102; November 24, 1997, p. 108; January 21, 2002, p. 130.

Times Literary Supplement, June 1, 1967, p. 486; November 5, 1971, p. 1398; February 8, 1985, p. 135; December 25, 1987, p. 1424; August 21, 1992, M.R.D. Foot, review of Band of Brothers, p. 20.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), October 16, 1983, Richard Rhodes, review of Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952; October 7, 1984, Ivan R. Dee, review of Eisenhower: The President, pp. 1, 24; April 12, 1987, p. 3; July 19, 1992, p. 6.

U.S. News & World Report, January 21, 2002, Jay Tolson, "Whose Own Words?," p. 52.

Wall Street Journal, January 22, 2002, Mark Lewis, "Don't Indict Popular History," p. A20.

Washington Monthly, December, 1997, Charles W. Bailery, review of Citizen Soldiers, p. 49.

Washington Post Book World, September 11, 1983, Henry Brandon, review of Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, pp. 1, 4; September 30, 1984; May 3, 1987, Richard Harwood, review of Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962; November 12, 1989, pp. 1, 13; November 10, 1991, p. 5.

Wild West, December, 1996, Dale Walker, review of Undaunted Courage, p. 74.

Yale Review, October, 1997, Howard Lamar, review of Undaunted Courage, p. 146.