Ambrose, Stephen Edward

▪ 2003

      American biographer and historian (b. Jan. 10, 1936, Decatur, Ill.—d. Oct. 13, 2002, Bay St. Louis, Miss.), wrote some three dozen books on U.S. history. His later works were populist in tone, celebrating the achievements of ordinary people. In 2002 he was accused of plagiarism, but in his defense he argued that he had cited sources for his material. Ambrose earned a B.S. degree in history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (1957), an M.A. from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge (1958), and a Ph.D. from Wisconsin (1963). He taught at several schools and from 1971 to 1995 was professor of history at the University of New Orleans. His book Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff (1962) caught the attention of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who asked Ambrose to edit his papers. The two volumes of Ambrose's biography of Eisenhower appeared in 1983 and 1984, and his three-volume biography of Richard M. Nixon was published between 1987 and 1991. It was the 1994 work D-Day, June 6, 1944, incorporating veterans' recollections, that brought Ambrose popular success. Among his other best-sellers were Undaunted Courage (1996), on the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark; Citizen Soldiers (1997), an account of combat from D-Day to the German surrender; and Nothing like It in the World (2000), on the building of the transcontinental railroad. To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian was published in 2002 as a valedictory. Ambrose served as a commentator for the Ken Burns 1997 television documentary on Lewis and Clark, and he was a consultant on the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. His 1992 book Band of Brothers, which followed a company of U.S. paratroopers in 1944–45, was adapted as a television miniseries in 2001. Ambrose conducted historical tours and founded the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and the National D-Day Museum, both in New Orleans.

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