Stephen E. Ambrose

Ambrose's books included The Supreme Commander and a two-volume biography of Eisenhower, a three-volume biography of Nixon, Band of Brothers (1992), D-Day (1994), Undaunted Courage (1996), Citizen Soldiers (1997), Nothing Like It in the World (2000), and The Wild Blue (2001). D-Day became his first bestseller, while Citizen Soldiers and Undaunted Courage also appeared on The New York Times best-seller lists. He received the National Humanities Medal and the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize in 1998, among other awards. Ambrose's work was also the subject of controversies over plagiarism and historical accuracy. Several of his books were found to contain plagiarized passages, with a Forbes investigation tracing the pattern back to his doctoral dissertation. After his death, presidential library records contradicted his claims of having conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with Eisenhower, showing that the two had met only three times for fewer than five hours in total; this led several historians to conclude that Ambrose had fabricated interviews and exaggerated his access.

Ambrose studied at University of Wisconsin–Madison, Louisiana State University and Whitewater High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is history of the United States, history and military history. Residence is recorded at Decatur and Helena. Employment is recorded with Johns Hopkins University, LSU New Orleans and Kansas State University. Distinctions recorded are National Humanities Medal and St.

• Birth Name — Stephen Edward Ambrose • Born — 10 January 1936 • Birthplace — Lovington, Illinois, U.S. • Died — 13 October 2002 • Place of death — Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, U.S. • Occupation — * Historian • author • Children — 5, including Hugh Ambrose • Education — University of Wisconsin–Madison (BA, PhD) Louisiana State University (MA)

Ambrose was born on January 10, 1936, in Lovington, Illinois, to Rosepha Trippe Ambrose and Stephen Hedges Ambrose. His father was a physician who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Ambrose was raised in Whitewater, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Whitewater High School. His family also owned a farm in Lovington, Illinois, and vacation property in Marinette County, Wisconsin. He attended college at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was a member of Chi Psi fraternity and played on the University of Wisconsin football team for three years. Ambrose planned to major in pre-medicine, but changed his major to history after hearing the first lecture in a U.S. history class entitled Representative Americans in his sophomore year. The course was taught by William B. Hesseltine, whom Ambrose credits with fundamentally shaping his writing and igniting his interest in history. While at Wisconsin, Ambrose was a member of the Navy and Army ROTC. He graduated with a B.A. in 1957. Ambrose received a master's degree in history from Louisiana State University in 1958, studying under T. Harry Williams. Ambrose then went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1963, under William B. Hesseltine.

Ambrose was a history professor from 1960 until his retirement in 1995. From 1971 onward, he was a member of the University of New Orleans faculty, where he was named the Boyd Professor of History in 1989, an honor given only to faculty who attain "national or international distinction for outstanding teaching, research, or other creative achievement". During the 1969–1970 academic year, he was the Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History at the Naval War College. While teaching at Kansas State University as the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of War and Peace during the 1970–1971 academic year, Ambrose participated in the heckling of Richard Nixon during a speech the president gave on the KSU campus. Given pressure from the KSU administration and having job offers elsewhere, upon finishing out the year Ambrose offered to leave and the offer was accepted. His opposition to the Vietnam War stood in contrast to his research on "presidents and the military at a time when such topics were increasingly regarded by his colleagues as old fashioned and conservative." Ambrose also taught at Louisiana State University (assistant professor of history; 1960–1964) and Johns Hopkins University (associate professor of history; 1964–1969). He held visiting posts at Rutgers University, the University of California, Berkeley, and a number of European schools, including University College Dublin, where he taught as the Mary Ball Washington Professor of American History. He founded the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans in 1989, stating, "The mission of the Eisenhower Center is the study of the causes, conduct, and consequences of American national security policy and the use of force as an instrument of policy in the twentieth century." He served as its director until 1994. The center's first efforts, which Ambrose initiated, involved the collection of oral histories from World War II veterans about their experiences, particularly any participation in D-Day. By the time of publication of Ambrose's D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, in 1994, the center had collected more than 1,200 oral histories. Ambrose donated $150,000 to the Center in 1998 to foster additional efforts to collect oral histories from World War II veterans.

In 2002, several instances of plagiarism were discovered in his books. In 2010, after his death, Ambrose was found to have fabricated interviews and events in his biographies of Eisenhower. Several of Ambrose's books—The Wild Blue, Undaunted Courage, Citizen Soldiers, and others—contained plagiarized passages, a pattern that a Forbes investigation traced back to his doctoral dissertation.

Ambrose's work for the Eisenhower Center, specifically his work with D-Day veterans, inspired him to co-found the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans with another historian and UNO professor Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller. Ambrose initiated fundraising by donating $500,000. "He dreamt of a museum that reflected his deep regard for our nation's citizen soldiers, the workers on the Home Front and the sacrifices and hardships they endured to achieve victory." He secured large contributions from the federal government, state of Louisiana, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and many smaller donations from former students, who answered a plea made by Ambrose in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. In 2003, Congress designated the museum as "America's National World War II Museum," acknowledging an expanded scope and mission for the museum. "The Stephen E. Ambrose Memorial Fund continues to support the development of the museum's Center for Study of the American Spirit, its educational programs and oral history and publication initiatives."

He married his first wife, Judith Dorlester, in 1957, and they had two children, Stephenie and Barry. Judith died in 1965, when Ambrose was 29. Ambrose married his second wife, Moira Buckley (1939–2009), in 1967 and adopted her three children, Andrew, Grace, and Hugh. Moira was an active assistant in his writing and academic projects. After retiring, he maintained homes in Helena, Montana, and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. A longtime smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2002. His health deteriorated rapidly, and seven months after the diagnosis, he died at the age of 66.

• Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press (1962) • Upton and the Army, Louisiana State University Press (1964) • Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press (1966) * • The Supreme Commander: the War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, New York: Doubleday (1970) • Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors, New York: Doubleday (1975) • Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment, New York: Doubleday (1981) • Eisenhower Volume 1: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, New York: Simon & Schuster (1983) • Eisenhower Volume 2: The President, 1952–1969, New York: Simon & Schuster (1984) • Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944, New York: Simon & Schuster (1985) • Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962, New York: Simon & Schuster (1987) • Eisenhower: Soldier and President, New York: Simon & Schuster (1990) (a one-volume condensation of the 1983–84 two-volume Eisenhower biography) • Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972, New York: Simon & Schuster (1990) • Nixon: Ruin and Recovery, 1973-1990, New York: Simon & Schuster (1991) • Band of Brothers, E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest (1992) • D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, New York, Simon & Schuster (1994) • Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, New York: Simon & Schuster (1996) • Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944 – May 7, 1945, New York: Simon & Schuster (1997) • Americans at War, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi (1997) • The Victors: Eisenhower and his Boys – The Men of World War II, New York: Simon & Schuster (1998) • Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals, New York: Simon & Schuster (1999) • Nothing Like It in the World: The Men who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869, New York: Simon & Schuster (2000) • The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys who Flew the B-24s over Germany, New York: Simon & Schuster (2001) • The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won, Atheneum Books for Young Readers (2001) • To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian, New York: Simon & Schuster (2002) • This Vast Land, New York: Simon & Schuster, (2003)

• with Richard H. Immerman, Milton S. Eisenhower, Educational Statesman, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press (1983) • with Douglas Brinkley, Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1938, New York: Penguin Books (1997) • with Sam Abell, Lewis and Clark: Voyage of Discovery, Washington DC: National Geographic Society, (1998, 2002) • with Douglas Brinkley, Witness to America (1999); 2010: • with Douglas Brinkley, The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today (2002),

• Institutions in Modern America: Innovation in Structure and Process, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press (1967) • with James A. Barber, The Military and American Society: Essays and Readings, New York, NY: The Free Press (1972) • with Gunter Bischoff, Eisenhower and the German POWs: Facts Against Falsehood, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press (1992) • with Gunter Bischoff, Eisenhower: A Centenary Assessment, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press (1995) • American Heritage New History of World War II (original text by C.L. Sulzberger), New York, NY: Viking Press (1997)

Ambrose worked in history of the United States, history, military history, history of war and biography. He was employed by Johns Hopkins University, LSU New Orleans, Kansas State University and Naval War College. He worked at Decatur and Helena.