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Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment,
101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest |
DVD |
Paperback |
Hardcover |
Hardcover, LARGE PRINT |
Audio Cassette, Abridged |
Audio CD, Abridged |
Audio CD, Unabridged |
Download: Adobe Reader |
Download: MS Reader |
As grippingly as any novelist, preeminent World War II historian Stephen Ambrose tells
the horrifying, hallucinatory saga of Easy Company, whose 147 members he calls
the nonpareil combat paratroopers on earth circa 1941-45. Ambrose takes us along on
Easy Company's trip from grueling basic training to Utah Beach on D-day, where a dozen of
them turned German cannons into dynamited ruins resembling "half-peeled bananas," on to
the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of part of the Dachau concentration camp, and a
large party at Hitler's "Eagle's Nest," where they drank the madman's (surprisingly inferior)
champagne. Of Ambrose's main sources, three soldiers became rich civilians; at least eight
became teachers; one became Albert Speer's jailer; one prosecuted Bobby Kennedy's assassin;
another became a mountain recluse; the despised, sadistic C.O. who first trained Easy
Company (and to whose strictness many soldiers attributed their survival of the war)
wound up a suicidal loner whose own sons skipped his funeral.
The Easy Company survivors describe the hell and confusion of any war: the senseless death
of the nicest kid in the company when a souvenir Luger goes off in his pocket; the execution
of a G.I. by his C.O. for disobeying an order not to get drunk. Despite the gratuitous horrors
it relates, Band of Brothers illustrates what one of Ambrose's sources calls "the secret
attractions of war ... the delight in comradeship, the delight in destruction ... war as
spectacle." -- Tim Appelo
Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army From the Normandy Beaches to the
Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945 |
Paperback |
Hardcover |
Audio Cassette, Abridged |
Stephen E. Ambrose combines history and journalism to describe how American GIs battled
their way to the Rhineland. He focuses on the combat experiences of ordinary soldiers, as
opposed to the generals who led them, and offers a series of compelling vignettes that read
like an enterprising reporter's dispatches from the front lines. The book presents just
enough contextual material to help readers understand the big picture, and includes memorable
accounts of the Battle of the Bulge and other events as seen through the weary eyes of the
men who fought in the foxholes. Highly recommended for fans of Ambrose, as well as all
readers interested in understanding the life of a 1940s army grunt. A sort of sequel to
Ambrose's bestselling 1994 book D-Day, Citizen Soldiers is more than capable of standing
on its own.
Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals |
Paperback |
Hardcover |
Hardcover, LARGE PRINT |
Audio Cassette, Abridged |
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Download: MS Reader |
This tender book about male friendship will probably surprise those readers who know
Stephen Ambrose best for his histories of World War II and biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Born in 1936, Ambrose acknowledges in the introduction to his memoir that men of his generation
do not speak or write easily about their feelings. Yet male bonding is a strong theme in all
of his work, as selections from previous writings on Lewis and Clark, Richard Nixon, Crazy Horse,
and General Custer that are included in Comrades prove. What is more interesting, however,
is the more personal material on Ambrose's two brothers (their youthful competitiveness mellowed
into mature devotion), fellow historian Gordon Mueller ("my dearest and closest friend"),
and several college buddies. After losing touch with each other during the harried years of
career building and child rearing, these men rediscovered intimacy in middle age. Most
moving of all is the closing chapter on Ambrose's father, an old-fashioned authority figure
and disciplinarian quick to criticize his sons, but always available to sustain and guide them.
The warming of that rather stern relationship is clearly one of the great joys of his
son's adult life. It makes a fitting finale to a dignified but strikingly sweet memoir.
-- Wendy Smith
Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors |
Paperback |
On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode
toward the banks of the Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where 3,000 Indians stood
waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout
history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer.
Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies
at very early ages; both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back
the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great
Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave
the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations
fighting for possession of the open prairie. -- From the Publisher
D-Day: June 6, 1944: the Climactic Battle of World War II |
Paperback |
Hardcover |
Hardcover, LARGE PRINT |
Audio Cassette, Abridged |
Published to mark the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, Stephen E.
Ambrose's D-Day: June 6, 1944 relies on over 1,400 interviews with veterans, as well as
prodigious research in military archives on both sides of the Atlantic. He provides a
comprehensive history of the invasion which also eloquently testifies as to how common
soldiers performed extraordinary feats. A major theme of the book, upon which Ambrose
would later expand in Citizen Soldiers, is how the soldiers from the democratic
Allied nations rose to the occasion and outperformed German troops thought to be invincible.
The many small stories that Ambrose collected from paratroopers, sailors, infantrymen,
and civilians make the excitement, confusion, and sheer terror of D-day come
alive on the page. -- Robert McNamara
Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point |
Paperback |
Download: Adobe Reader |
Duty, Honor, Country: the motto of the United States Military Academy has resounded for
more than 200 years. Stephen Ambrose charts the history of West Point from its origins in the
Revolutionary War--when students attached to engineering and artillery regiments studied the
rudiments of strategy, but mostly came and went as they pleased--to the academy's time of crisis
during the Vietnam War. Ambrose's narrative centers on West Point's superintendents, the
Army officers who emphasized both tradition and innovation over the years--men such as Sylvanus
Thayer, who commanded from 1817 to 1833 and who introduced customs that are still observed today;
and Douglas MacArthur, who joined personal flamboyance with a deep-seated commitment to martial,
academic, and athletic excellence. (Among MacArthur's other contributions was his codification of
the "honor system," a set of self-policing regulations that distinguishes West Point from any
other nation's military colleges.) Ambrose does not gloss over the academy's less exalted
moments, especially the frictions brought on by the Civil War, when many Northerners
accused West Point as a whole of being proslavery. Writing in an afterword that brings the
history of the academy to the present, former superintendent Andrew Goodpaster confronts
such matters as the honor code scandal of 1976 and the cultural changes brought on by the
admission of women to the academy in the same year. Yet this book is a fitting celebration of
an institution that has been of central importance to the American military. Originally
published in 1966, at the start of his career, Duty, Honor, Country shows Stephen Ambrose's
skills as researcher and popularizer, skills that he would go on to develop in such later
books as Undaunted Courage and Citizen Soldiers. -- Gregory McNamee
Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945 |
Paperback |
The most authoritative, succinct statement of the argument that
Eisenhower was correct in his decision. -- Choice
Eisenhower: The President |
Audio Cassette (Part 1 of 2) |
Audio Cassette (Part 2 of 2) |
In his second installment of the life of Eisenhower, Ambrose paints a man, both
decent and complex, whose presidency is increasingly regarded as one of this century's
most successful. Wide-ranging and inclusive, the book covers Eisenhower's rejection of
advice to use nuclear weapons, his thinking on defense policy and the Cold War, his
actions on civil rights and his views on Communism. We also see Eisenhower in action
with Nixon, Truman, Churchill, Khrushchev, de Gaulle and other world leaders.
-- From the Publisher
Eisenhower: Soldier and President |
Paperback |
Stephen E. Ambrose draws upon extensive sources, an unprecedented degree of scholarship,
and numerous interviews with Eisenhower himself to offer the fullest, richest, most objective
rendering yet of the soldier who became president. He gives us a masterly account of the
European war theater and Eisenhower's magnificent leadership as Allied Supreme Commander.
Ambrose's recounting of Eisenhower's presidency, the first of the Cold War, brings to life
a man and a country struggling with issues as diverse as civil rights, atomic weapons, communism,
and a new global role.
Along the way, Ambrose follows the 34th President's relations with the people closest to him,
most of all Mamie, his son John, and Kay Summersby, as well as Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Harry Truman, Nixon, Dulles, Khrushchev, Joe McCarthy,
and indeed, all the American and world leaders of his time. This superb interpretation of
Eisenhower's life confirms Stephen Ambrose's position as one of our finest historians.
Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect 1890-1952 |
Hardcover |
Audio Cassette |
Dwight Eisenhower was not exactly born into poverty, but the family's circumstances were at
least austere. He was one of seven children; his father, a railway worker. But the family was
strong and unified, the youngsters energetic and ambitious.
Ike made it to West Point, where he excelled in sports. He was a natural leader. But it was at
Leavenworth years later, as a student at the war college, that his intellectual talent showed
itself. He graduated first in his class.
The author draws in a wealth of previously unpublished information to give us this beautiful
portrait. As a result Eisenhower emerges as complex, one who as the author states, ". . .was
a good and great man." -- From the Publisher
Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment |
Paperback |
The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower |
Paperback |
Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962 (out of print, only used available) |
Hardcover |
Paperback |
From acclaimed biographer Stephen E. Ambrose comes the life of one of the most elusive and
intriguing American political figures, Richard M. Nixon. From his difficult boyhood and earnest
youth to his ruthless political campaigns for Congress and Senate to his defeats in '60 and '62,
Nixon emerges life-size in all his complexity. Ambrose charts the peaks and valleys of Nixon's
first fifty years -- his critical support as a freshman congressman of the Truman Doctrine and
the Marshall Plan; his involvement in the House Committee on Un-American Activities; his aggressive
pursuit of Alger Hiss; his ambivalent relationship with Eisenhower; and more. It is the consummate
biography; it is a stunning political odyssey.
Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental
Railroad, 1863-1869 (2000) |
Paperback |
Hardcover |
Hardcover, LARGE PRINT |
Audio Cassette, Abridged |
Audio Cassette, Unabridged |
Audio CD, Abridged |
Download: Adobe Reader |
Abraham Lincoln, who had worked as a riverboat pilot before turning to politics, knew a thing
or two about the problems of transporting goods and people from place to place. He was also
convinced that the United States would flourish only if its far-flung regions were linked,
replacing sectional loyalties with an overarching sense of national destiny.
Building a transcontinental railroad, writes the prolific historian Stephen Ambrose, was
second only to the abolition of slavery on Lincoln's presidential agenda. Through an ambitious
program of land grants and low-interest government loans, he encouraged entrepreneurs such as
California's "Big Four"--Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Leland Stanford--to
take on the task of stringing steel rails from ocean to ocean. The real work of doing so, of
course, was on the shoulders of immigrant men and women, mostly Chinese and Irish. These
often-overlooked actors and what a contemporary called their "dreadful vitality" figure
prominently in Ambrose's narrative, alongside the great financiers and surveyors who
populate the standard textbooks.
In the end, Ambrose writes, Lincoln's dream transformed the nation, marking "the first
great triumph over time and space" and inaugurating what has come to be known as the
American Century. David Haward Bain's Empire Express, which covers the same ground, is
more substantial, but Ambrose provides an eminently readable study of a complex episode
in American history. -- Gregory McNamee
Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944 |
Paperback |
Audio Cassette |
In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, a small detachment of British airborne troops
stormed the German defense forces and paved the way for the Allied invasion of Europe.
Pegasus Bridge was the first engagement of D-Day, the turning point of World War II. This
gripping account of it by acclaimed author Stephen Ambrose brings to life a daring mission
so crucial that, had it been unsuccessful, the entire Normandy invasion might have failed.
Ambrose traces each step of the preparations over many months to the minute-by-minute
excitement of the hand-to-hand confrontations on the bridge. This is a story of heroism
and cowardice, kindness and brutality -- the stuff of all great adventures. -- From the Publisher
Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy 1938-1992 |
Paperback |
The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany |
Paperback |
Hardcover |
Hardcover, LARGE PRINT |
Audio Cassette, Abridged |
Audio Cassette, Unabridged |
Audio CD, Abridged |
Audio CD, Unabridged |
Download: MS Reader |
Download: Adobe Reader |
Long before he entered politics, when he was just in his early 20s, South Dakotan
George McGovern flew 35 bomber missions over Nazi-occupied Europe, earning a Distinguished
Flying Cross for bravery under fire. Stephen Ambrose, the industrious historian, focuses on
McGovern and the young crew of his B-24 bomber, volunteers all, in this vivid study of the
air war in Europe.
Manufactured by a consortium of companies that included Ford Motor and Douglas Aircraft,
the B-24 bomber, dubbed the Liberator, was designed to drop high explosives on enemy
positions well behind the front lines--and especially on the German capital, Berlin.
Unheated, drafty, and only lightly armored, the planes were dangerous places to be,
and indeed, only 50 percent of their crews survived to the war's end. Dangerous or not,
they did their job, delivering thousand- pound bombs to targets deep within Germany and Austria.
In his fast-paced narrative, Ambrose follows many other flyers (including the Tuskegee Airmen,
the African American pilots who gave the B-24s essential fighter support on some of their most
dangerous missions) as they brave the long odds against them, facing moments of glory and
terror alike. "It would be an exaggeration to say that the B-24 won the war for the Allies,"
Ambrose writes. "But don't ask how they could have won the war without it." -- Gregory McNamee
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson,
and the Opening of the American West |
Paperback |
Hardcover |
Library Binding |
Audio Cassette, Abridged |
Audio Cassette, Unabridged |
Audio CD, Unabridged |
Audio CD, Abridged |
A biography of Meriwether Lewis that relies heavily on the journals of both Lewis and Clark,
this book is also backed up by the author's personal travels along Lewis and Clark's route to
the Pacific. Ambrose is not content to simply chronicle the events of the "Corps of Discovery"
as the explorers called their ventures. He often pauses to assess the military leadership of
Lewis and Clark, how they negotiated with various native peoples and what they reported to
Jefferson. Though the expedition failed to find Jefferson's hoped for water route to the
Pacific, it fired interest among fur traders and other Americans, changing the face of the
West forever.
