Stephen
E. Ambrose 1936-2002
Major
Works
- Upton and the Army
- Band of Brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment,
101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
- Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff
- Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment
- Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy 1938-1992
- Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two
American Warriors
- Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945
- Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point
- The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight
D. Eisenhower
- Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect
1890-1952
- Eisenhower: The President
- Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944
- Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962
- Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972
- Eisenhower: Soldier and President
- Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990
- Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment,
101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's
Nest
- D-Day: June 6, 1944: the Climactic Battle of World
War II
- Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson,
and the Opening of the American West
- CITIZEN SOLDIERS: The U.S. Army From the Normandy
Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June
7, 1944-May 7, 1945.
- Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons,
Pals
- Character Above All : Stephen Ambrose on Dwight D.
Eisenhower
- Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since
1938
- The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the
B-24s over Germany
- Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals (1999)
- To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian
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Stephen
E. Ambrose: A Biography
by Jarret L. Clark (SHS)
Historian Stephen E. Ambrose has had
a very interesting and singular career. As a young man, he experienced
the same yearning to get out and see the world as do so many
people of that age. He found his escape, as well as his true
calling, in college. His career was jump-started when his first
book caught the attention of the President of the United States.
(Carlin 102) Today, as the author of more than nineteen books,
the Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, resident enjoys
the well-earned rewards that his talent and insight have brought
him.
Ambrose was born the second son of three of a US Navy doctor
and a housewife. As a boy, he grew up in the town of Whitewater,
Wisconsin. Whitewater was the epitome of a small town, complete
with picket fences and unlocked doors. The young Ambrose found
it absolutely suffocating. "There was no taste, no culture"
says Ambrose. "All these Republicans who made over $10,000 a
year ran the town, and my old man was one of them. I couldn't
wait to get out of that godforsaken place." His way out came
in the form of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where
he gained his Bachelor's degree and later his Ph.D. in American
history (Carlin 102). He also gained a strong Marxist
viewpoint, which he later abandoned in light of his historical
studies and close association with Dwight Eisenhower. (Ringle)
While an undergraduate, he played football, was a member of
Chi Psi fraternity, and was on the Union's Speaker's Bureau.
(Graham)
It was as a sophomore majoring in pre-med at UW-Madison that
Ambrose walked into a class entitled "Representative Americans,"
taught by a Professor William Hesseltine, at the suggestion
of his college advisor (Graham). Ambrose was instantly
fascinated. "I had no idea that history was about flesh-and-blood
people," he recalls. " I was wowed by the way he (the professor)
drew you into the story. He hadn't said ten sentences
when I had decided what I wanted to do with my life. I went
up to him after the lecture, and I said, 'How do I do what you
do for a living?' And he laughed and said, 'Stick around. We'll
show you'" (Denver Post). Ambrose never looked
back. Today he is one of the best-known historians in America
and is recognized as the foremost expert on Presidents Richard
Nixon and Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Graham)
 Ambrose
published his first book, a biography of General Henry Halleck,
Chief of Staff for Abraham Lincoln, while working on his doctorate
at UW-Madison. (Graham). Little did he know that
General Halleck had fans in high places. President Dwight Eisenhower
read the book shortly after it came out and promptly called
Ambrose, asking him to help edit the Eisenhower papers and later
to write a biography of the president (Carlin 102). Ambrose
took an instant liking to the former president, perhaps due
in part to his service in the United States Army. "The
men I admire most are soldiers, sailors, professional military,"
says Ambrose. "Way more than politicians." (Ringle) His fondness
for the president may also be partly due to the easy narrative
quality of the president's life, something Ambrose says he finds
lacking in contemporary academic history. His belief is that
in order to interest today's young Americans, you must first
tell them about the country's heroes, like George Washington
and Meriwether Lewis, and only afterward teach the demographics
and formulations so prevalent in modern history classes (Denver
Post). Ambrose first and foremost considers himself
a storyteller. "It's an honorable profession. Homer founded
it," says Ambrose. "It's not bad company you're in when you
make your living telling stories." (Graham)
 One
of Stephen Ambrose's favorite stories is that of the expedition
of Lewis and Clark and the trail it blazed to the West. It was
a copy of the journals of Lewis and Clark, given to him by an
aunt, that sparked Ambrose's interest in the subject. (Carlin
102-103) "In the late fall of 1975, I read the journals of Lewis
and Clark and was entranced from the first sentence," Ambrose
reminisces. It was from these journals that the Ambrose got
the idea of where to spend the nation's two hundredth
birthday. He and his family would follow the trail of
the expedition and on the Fourth of July, they would camp at
Lemma Pass, where Lewis became the first white man to cross
the continental divide. "Through the late spring we made our
way up the Missouri River, stopping at Lewis and Clark campsites
along
the way. We canoed the river at every stop. Each night around
the fire, we would read aloud from the journals" (Ambrose 46).
The camaraderie felt on the trail has drawn the Ambrose family
back every summer for the past twenty years. It was only a matter
of time before Ambrose felt compelled to write about the story
he loves (Ringle). "I've walked every step of that trail,"
he says. "I've made wakes [on the river] where Lewis made wakes,
and I've sat around his campfires...You don't see power lines,
you don't see bridges or ranches. You see what the explorers
saw" (Carlin 101-102). "In 1993 we invited the smartest
people we knew to join us for a Missouri River trip, a July
Fourth commute at Lemma and a horseback crossing on the Lolo
Trail. I was getting ready to write Undaunted Courage
and wanted to know what questions popped into bright people's
minds after a day on the trail and a reading of the journals
around the campfire" (Ambrose 47.) This technique seems to have
been effective because Undaunted Courage is celebrating
its forty-eighth week on the New York Times bestseller
list as of this writing. Ambrose admits to being astonished
by the success of Undaunted Courage. "That was
wonderful when Newsweek called and said visitor
numbers were up fifteen per cent at all stops along the trail
this year," he says. Many of the travelers site Ambrose's book
as the reason for their visit. "That's the real payoff," says
Ambrose ( Graham). Ambrose's feelings for the trail can
be summed up in one anecdote from this phenomenal storyteller.
"You know, when I was doing my research on Nixon in California,
I remember talking to one of his former high school classmates
back in Yorba Linda. He was still a Nixon supporter. But he
wanted to be sure that I understood one thing. He said 'You
know, Dick Nixon wasn't the sort of guy you'd ever ask to go
backpacking with you.' I've always thought that told you a lot
about Nixon" (Ringle).
 Stephen
E. Ambrose is the author of numerous books of history, including
the New York Times bestsellers Undaunted
Courage and D-Day, as well as multi-volume
biographies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.
He is founder of the Eisenhower Center and President of the
National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. His most recent books
are Comrades : Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals andThe
Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany.
He lives most of the year in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi,
but he also maintains a house in Helena, Montana.
UPDATE:
Historian Stephen Ambrose died of lung cancer on October 13,
2002, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, at the age of 66. The author
of more than 35 books, he was an historian who became a best-selling
author. Much of his career he was a professor at the University
of New Orleans where he founded the Eisenhower Center for American
Studies. He also founded the National D-Day Museum.
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A Review
of Undaunted
Courage: Meriwether
Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
by
Jarret L. Clark (SHS)
 Stephen
E. Ambrose is known for writing a number of outstanding books
concerning the lives of exceptional Americans. In Undaunted
Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening
of the American West, Ambrose brings to light the wonder
and excitement of a journey through uncharted wilderness. The
book is predominantly a biography of one half of the Lewis and
Clark duo, namely, Meriwether Lewis. Ambrose goes into meticulous
detail in describing not only the journey which made the man
so famous, but also Lewis's life prior to the voyage,
and his tragic fall afterward. The reader will be entranced
by the in depth descriptions of Lewis' life as a Virginia planter
at the tender age of eighteen. Perhaps for the first time for
many, the qualifications which brought Lewis to the head of
this grand expedition are brought forth, from his military and
wilderness experience to his position as personal secretary
to Thomas Jefferson. Also brought to light are the tragic events
which lead up to his death by what Ambrose believes to be suicide,
though other historians disagree. This book is a real treat
for fans of American history or anyone with a scholarly frame
of mind.
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Related
Websites
Real
Audio interview from PBS from Online NewsHour
This
site lists all the books by Ambrose, including those for
which he wrote introductions, audio tapes which he reads.
Amazon.com
sells Comrades but also presents numerous
reviews of the book.
Stephen
Ambrose is the best-selling author who served as historical
consultant on Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan."
PBS
biography of Stephen Ambrose.
Brief
but interesting bio of Ambrose.
Essay on charge
of plagiarism of Ambrose by David Plotz.
Ole
Miss site includes news of Ambrose's plagiarism.
CBS's
article: Cancer-Stricken Historian's New Book Is A Race
Against Time
CNN's
obituary for historian Stephen Ambrose.
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Bibliography
Peter Carillon. "Outward Bound" People Weekly
Vol. 46, 1 Jul. 96. 101-103.
Stephen E. Ambrose. "On the Trail of Lewis and Clark" Newsweek
Vol. 128, 26 Aug. 96. 46-47.
Walker, Dale L. "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas
Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West." The
History Net n. pa. Online. World Wide Web. 24 Apr 98.
Avail. http://www.thehistorynet.com/reviews/bk.openwest.htm
Graham, Timothy P. "Historian Stephen Ambrose Returns to Madison"
The Badger Herald Online (3 Sep 96) n.pag. Online.
World Wide Web. 24 Apr 98. Avail. http://www.badgerherald.com/news/fall96/090396news10.html
Ringle, Ken. "Historian on the March" Washingtonpost.com
(20 Dec 97) n. pa. Online. World Wide Web. 24 Apr
98 Avail. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/20/0521-122097-idx.html
Jackson, Harvey H., III. "New Work Rekindles Great Awe for
Lewis and Clark's Journey." Mobile Register (5
May 96) n. pa. Online. World Wide Web. 24 Apr 98 Avail. http://www.mobileregister.com/books/b1960505.htm
Schnuer, Jenny, ed. "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas
Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West." n.pa. Online.
World Wide Web. 24 Apr 98. Avail. http://www.bookwire.com/PW/Nonfiction/read.review$622
No Author Available. "Author Profile: Stephen E. Ambrose" The
Denver Post (18 Jan 98) n. pa. Online. World Wide Web. 24
Apr 98. Avail. http://www.denverpost.com/books/author23.htm
No Author Available. "Historian Stephen E. Ambrose ..." Pioneer
Planet (16 Nov. 97) n. page. Online. World Wide Web. 24
Apr 98. Avail. http://www.pioneerplanet.com/justgo/bks_docs/028477.htm
Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis,
Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.
New York: Simon & Schuster 1996.
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