Rating: 
Summary: Good oral history, poor analysis
Review: The accounts that Ambrose and his team of interviewers managed to extract from the GIs is what made reading this book so interesting for me. Ambrose ascribed to points that have been forgotten by many historians, like the unfortunately all too common shooting of unarmed prisoners and he deserves credit for that. Ambrose's extensive experience with WWII oral history is responsible for the quality of the interviews, he knows well what to ask the veterans. I would give 5 stars if it weren't two things: in first place, he doens't mention other Allies too often, and second I think he is too precipitate in his judgement about the German soldiers being robots, there was a greater level of emphasis in individual action in the Wehrmacht training than in the US Army. Ambrose could also have included the fighting in Italy in the book, seeing as the campaign was the most costly for the Western Allies. If you liked this book you should also read the Deadly Brotherhood, by John C McManus.Cesar, from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Rating: 
Summary: Look at the title
Review: This is a wonderful book that gives one a sense of what it must have been like for the men who gave their all for freedom in the Second World War. For those who have a problem with Mr. Ambrose's pro-American slant, I would suggest that you spend more time reading the title of the book and less time spewing venom. This book is a history of the US Army from Normandy onwards, not a history of the Allied war effort. The title should make that amply clear. Taken in context this is a very worthwhile read, especially if you are new to the time period and were drawn to it by "Band Of Brothers" or "Saving Private Ryan". It will add to your knowledge of the people, places, and events.
Rating:
Summary: Citizen Soldiers
Review: I have read this book and I think that it is one of the best works of WWII that has been written, ever. I completely suggest that if you like World War Two history and are especialy interested in interesting details that you don't often
hear then you should buy Citizen Soldiers>
Rating: 
Summary: Your choice: historical accuracy or an enjoyable read
Review: If you want a historical account that is absolutely factual your best best is something other than CITIZEN SOLDIERS. It's not that Mr Ambrose is a poor historian or that he doesn't do research; it's that the scope of this book is broad and so many battles are covered, that he gets some details wrong. Military historians, WWII vets, and even family members of servicemen (who have heard their parents stories many times over) can, and will find, specific events of historical bloopers. A couple that I and other reviewers have caught is the books claim that the German Panther tank was armed with an 88mm gun; not so. The 88mm as a flak gun was definitely there though during Operation Market Garden, and contrary to the book, so was the Luftwaffe. The C-47 "Vomit Comet" lived up to its nickname that day; at least that's a story I heard growing up. I am certainly more inclined to go with personal recollections from a family member, and be influenced by other reviewers, who unlike me, were there. Enough with the nitpicking though because a few errors do not spoil the whole book and CITIZEN SOLDIERS is very effective with what it wants to achieve - to pay tribute to the men and women who served, fought, and survived WWII. Indeed Mr Ambrose, in explaining his use of personal histories, diaries, and stories, that make his books so readable says it best himself: "Long ago my mentors...taught me to let my characters speak for themselves by quoting them liberally. They were there. I wasn't." Mr Ambrose divides the book into 4 sections: 'The Battle for France', 'At the German Border', 'Life in the ETO' and 'Overrunning Germany'. The chapters within do a good job of providing a detailed and illuminating look at all aspects of America's war in Europe from D-Day (June 6th, 1944) up until VE Day on May 7th, 1945. A tribute it is, but it remains balanced. This is no jingoistic, flag waving rag of a book. Mr Ambrose does not shy away from shining a light on some of the darker episodes of the war. Failures of judgement, even by his hero, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower are mentioned, as are wasteful and poorly planned operations - Market Garden - being a prime example. The sad irony of the US fighting a racist dictatorship - with a segregated army - is not lost on the author. Along these lines he looks at morale, treatment, and conditions of blacks, women, prisoners, and deserters. All told it is an illuminating book and a good example of why the use of personal stories and oral histories - which gives us all a first person experience of what it was like - have made books by Stephen Ambrose so readable. He's the master of his own genre - popular WWII history.
Rating:
Summary: Astounding book!
Review: This well-written book is easy to read and well worth reading from several aspects.
First, of course, is the detailed and highly anecdotal recounting of what it was like to be a front-line American soldier in Europe during WWII, while reminding the reader that the only way to truly know what it was like is to have actually been there.
He goes beyond this with cogent accounts of the soldiers' training, leadership, tactics and strategy -- how each battle and campaign fit into the big picture. He gives praise and criticism where he feels it is due -- sometimes both to the same person (Patton and Montgomery, for examples). Ambrose always explains his reasoning -- WHY something was right, or wrong.
The interested reader can draw lessons in management from the many accounts of effective and ineffective leadership.
Sadly, Ambrose recounts everything that was ineffective about the "Replacement Depot" system of putting poorly-trained soldiers into combat "cold" on an individual basis. Yet this is what the Army did in Vietnam also.
Through the individual, Ambrose also steps back and looks at societies as a whole. Americans came as liberators of Europe, but African American U.S. soldiers back home could not eat in public diners, while captured German POWS could.
As another reviewer notes, while the jacket blurb says "Ambrose shows that free men fight better than slaves," that is NOT the point of this book -- and is not something Ambrose argues.
Ambrose's conclusion: In the words of a GI, "We were miserable and cold and exhausted most of the time, we were all scared to death.... But we were young and strong then, possessed of the marvelous resilience of youth, and for all the misery and fear and the hating every moment of it the war was a great, if always terrifying, adventure. Not a man among us would want to go through it again, but we are all proud of having been so severely tested and found adequate...."
Rating:
Summary: Citizen Soldiers
Review: Before reading this book my understanding of Stephen Ambrose was that he could write about history in a way that anyone could enjoy and understand. I am a high school student, and one who does not particularly enjoy reading or history. However, I was able to pay full attention to most of this book. Ambrose did a good job of letting those who were on the front lines in Germany during the second world war tell the story as they saw it; afterall, as Ambrose stressed, he wasn't there and they were. The book starts with June 7, 1944, the day after D-day. Ambrose not only gives factual accounts of the events from D-day to VE Day, but he also captures the personal side of the war. Ambrose even compares and contrasts life of WW2 to life during the Civil War and the Great War.
Ambrose records the stories of hundreds of soldiers who tell of their accounts from paratrooping through the air, getting drunk off the champagne of Reims (champagne capital of the world), and living in foxholes. After reading this book there was a picture painted in my head of what life was really like living in a foxhole through bitter nights of subzero temperatures. I felt like I could relate to the men who were there. But most of all I developed a great sense of gratitude that I was born 42 years later than these guys because they went through hell and lived to tell about it. Overall Citizen Soldiers is a good read. It's not just for history buffs and it doesn't read like your normal history book. I would recomend this book to just about anyone who is just a little intrested in life of a WW2 soldier and i give it four out of five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Big Time 5 Stars
Review: Loved it!! It's amazing what our fellow Americans went through at such a young age. This book rates 10 stars not 5! Dr. Michael L. Johnson author of "What Do You Do When the Medications Don't Work?--A Non-Drug Treatment of Dizziness, Migraine Headaches, Fibromyalgia, and Other Chronic Conditions".
Rating:
Summary: Its a great book
Review: I have read some reviews on Mr. Ambrose's book Citizen Soldiers, claiming he is racist towards the British, and how it was just America that won the war and how the British were slow and stupid. Okay i'm only fifteen but i have read numerous books on the subject of WWII and i have read most of Ambrose's books concerning it and i have not found an ounce of racism or discrimination in his books. Chances are that the British were slow going through the thick of the fight maybe they were ill-equipped or outnumbered, but nonetheless if the US had not entered the war it would have gone on for years or Britain would have had to eventually surrender. I read one review explaining how the British werent mentioned on certain battles and so on and so forth, If this genius knew anything about Ambrose he specialized in the AMERICAN HISTORY OF THE WAR. This reviewer also cited that the Brits were against all these forces and how they were so great. If any one has read the Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan that the Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches (the Brit/Canadian) did not have as much resistance as Omaha beach (the US beach) and just because the Brits had these divisions against them does not mean they are battle-hardened or experienced you could have 1000 divisions of infants against you and still win. Now I'm not saying that the Brits sucked, they were a great ally, if they werent our ally the war would have gone on forever or half of the US would be speaking Japanese and the other German.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Pro-American Pop History.
Review: As with all Ambrose's books, Citizen Soldiers is accessible, informative, and fast. Steven Ambrose is obviously a cheerleader for the American fighting man, and what's wrong with that? He makes no secret of his pro-G.I. slant. So he's a pop historian--that doesn't make his books any less readable. Take a trudge--a long, drawn-out trudge--through The Guns of August or The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for grindingly thorough detail. Ambrose's books are simply different from these in-depth tomes--his are fast summaries of WWII events laced liberally with human interest details...it's the men he writes about more than the machinations, and he reveres the American G.I.--his personal childhood hero, as he's said openly--without stint. Good for him. So ignore the Australian pinhead who wrote the Feb.15th one-star review immediately preceding this one; he obviously needs to extract his head from his *ss.
Rating: 
Summary: More of the same from Ambrose
Review: After moaning my way through the equally large 'D-Day' by Mr. Ambrose, I thought I would give him one last shot, and to that end I secured myself a copy of 'Citizen Soldiers'. Firstly, allow me to say that Stephen Ambrose is not an historian in the proper sense. There is a significant difference between relating easily-located historical facts, and unearthing them for oneself. Ambrose is one who condenses unwieldy masses of fact into a single digestible volume, which is what college students do with every essay, and which television news producers do nightly at six. The difference between Ambrose and a college student or news producer is his entertaining writing style. His is truly "mass history", history for the masses, writing which passes easily through the eyes and into the brain, where it roams around for a while before being discarded. It's good enough stuff for a long flight or a soak in the bath, but nothing you'd sit down for any length of time and puzzle over, or elaborately annotate, or extract notes from. His books have always struck me as 'Military History For Dummies', which is an important enough thing, as it's good to make such important information easily accessible to the uneducated public. What irritates me about Ambrose, though, is his irrational and unmitigated biais towards all things American. Drawing only on the books of Ambrose one would imagine that America was not only the only allied force to fight in World War II, but is in fact the only nation on earth. He regularly goes out of his way to dismiss or degrade the efforts of other allied forces, specifically those of Britain and its Commonwealth. And I really do mean it when I say "goes out of his way", for rarely are these frankly insulting remarks attached to any logical argument that has been laid down beforehand - they're just randomly dropped in there. He is well known as a Brit basher, and 'Citizen Soldiers' and 'D-Day' serve only to reinforce and then enhance this reputation. Further to all that, I have a hard time in attaching any relevance to his frequent comments regarding the American Civil War, Little Big Horn, the Alamo, and any number of nationally-contained American conflicts. He just waffles on and on about those things, and the only reason for it seems to be to encourage readers to buy his other books on those subjects. In all, it's hard to recommend Ambrose to anybody but an historical imbecile, or a virgin WW2 reader. His national prejudice is uncontrolled and it is equally shocking that no editor ever dared to rein him in regarding such matters. It's all very well and good and noble to be proud of your country, but not at the expense of others. In fact, it isn't out of line to apply a single unhappy word to Mr. Ambrose: racist. He is, pure and simple, an American supremacist. He is, to be perfectly plain, a racist and bigoted selective collator of information. The next time you are confronted with a wall of Ambrose novels (I have difficulty in considering them as anything other) at the bookstore, you would do well to take a peek on either side, and see what grabs you. As it stands, I shall be packing my Ambrose down to the book exchange later today, to swap them for something more refreshing and intelligent and less annoying. And as for yourself, take a dig around in Amazon's extensive WW2 history sections - there are countless numbers of smaller works of greater historical merit than all of Ambrose combined.
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