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Summary: So tell me how you really feel
Review: Mr. Ambrose presents a fascinating life in To America. After years a research and telling the stories of history, and helping his readers to comprehend pivotal events in history, Mr. Ambrose lets us into his heart and mind. It has always amazed me how historians can write and research on subjects they dislike; Ambrose gives us perspective on Nixon and almost thankless characters from history. What is so extraordinary is the care with which Ambrose tells the story of the people and events he admires and respects. A historian makes a unique kind of patriot: a believer in the American way of life who loves it so much that he can talk of the very best and the very worst of our society. In this book, Ambrose steps into the whirlwind of public opinion rather than writing observations from the outside. It shows us his love of the land, and most of all, his love of the people, all of the people, who have shaped our great nation over the last 2 centuries.
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Summary: The Final Wonderful Piece of Ambrose's Great Legacy
Review: Readers know their authors primarily through their works. They can meet authors at book signings, hear them at lectures, or see them on C-SPAN 2 late at night talking to Brian Lamb. Unless we are very lucky, though, we do not often get to cross paths with the authors whose works we read and admire. We do not have the opportunity to know them outside of the printed page, to see what they do, or to know what they are thinking.One of the remarkable things about TO AMERICA, the final book by historian Stephen Ambrose, is that it opens a window on his career outside of his writings. Fans of Ambrose know, through his dust jackets if nothing else, that he was a longtime professor at the University of New Orleans. But few of those who read his great narratives on American history (THE WILD BLUE, CITIZEN SOLDIERS, UNDAUNTED COURAGE) had the chance to attend one of his lectures and hear him discuss the events about which he wrote so masterfully. TO AMERICA is as close as the reader will get to hearing Ambrose lecture about the topics he knows best. Ambrose's topics are well-chosen, timely and authoritative. The lectures primarily center on "admired Americans" --- leaders such as George Washington, Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower. But a few villains find their way into the book, notably Richard Nixon. The approach Ambrose uses in TO AMERICA is reflective and retrospective, looking at the overall legacy of his subjects. He often acknowledges that his conclusions about these men have changed over the course of time. For example, he tells us that he used to criticize Andrew Jackson roundly for his treatment of Native Americans, but has since come to the conclusion that Jackson's leadership in the Battle of New Orleans --- and the importance of that victory ---salvages his reputation as a great American. TO AMERICA is at least partially a critique of revisionist history, but Ambrose's primary mission is to tell good stories, particularly those that define and awaken the great American spirit. He accomplishes that last mission bravely. TO AMERICA is "a valediction forbidding mourning", a great final celebration of one of America's great narrative historians. It is a great tribute to America and the final piece of Ambrose's great legacy. Finally, fittingly, the last word of the last page of TO AMERICA is "future". --- Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds
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Summary: A Fond Farewell That Came Too Soon
Review: Sadly, this was to be Stephen Ambrose's final book before his death from cancer. But it's a fitting conclusion to a career spent celebrating the peoples of the United States and their most noble accomplishments. This book is part memoir, part personal essay on some of the personages and themes that loomed largest in his work. In his opening chaper, "The "Founding Fathers," Ambrose reflects on the achievements and shortcomings of the men who led our revolution. It's as good a defense against the trend of political correctness and the error of viewing their 17th century world through our 21st century prisim as you're likely to find. In subsequent chapters, Ambrose celebrates the military genius of Andrew Jackson, grapples with white America's treatment of Native Americans and offers his perspectives on such multi-faceted characters as U.S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. We learn how Ambrose was drawn to a career in history and how his love for writing about "men of action" developed. Stephen Ambrose's work unabashedly celebrated the best of America, without turning a blind eyes to its faults. "To America" is a fond farewell from one of the era's most popular historians.--William C. Hall
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Summary: A Great Historian's Last Gift to the American People
Review: Stephen Ambrose knew how to write history that was accessible, gripping, solid, and pretty much on target.
He had planned to write a work similiar to "Band of Brothers" and "The Victors" about the Pacific War, when he was told he had terminal cancer. Like U.S. Grant, a man whom Ambrose had written much of and clearly respected, Ambrose faced death not just with courage - but fighting to the end as he wrote this historical love song to America.
In "To America", Ambrose writes movingly about himself, his family, why he chose to be a Historian,the great American Historians who were his mentors - Hesseltine and T. Harry Williams, how his M.A. thesis - the published biography of the Civil War General Henry Halleck prompted Dwight Eisenhower to call upon Ambrose to edit his papers. Ambrose also writes how he never wanted to write about Richard Nixon, but having done so, found himself respecting, if not liking that complex former President.
In "To America" Ambrose writes about our major events in a narrative that reads as if he were talking to the American people in their living rooms. He writes how:
- U.S. Grant meant to enforce Reconstruction and preserve the rights of Black Americans, but was unable to do so because the weary North no longer had the desire nor the will to confront a bitter South over Reconstruction policies 10 years after Appomattox.
- That there was no deliberate policy by the U.S. Government to wipe out the Indian tribes; but that a combination of factors, disease, inter-tribal conflict, even buffalo killing by Native Americans, as well as White lies, Manifest Destiny, and the Plains Wars marked the demise of the Indian grip on the territories of the West.
- He writes how he originally felt revulsion over the Atom Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, until he discovered how fully prepared Japan was to commit collective hari-kari over an American invasion of the home islands. He cites how one American officer, future NATO commander Andrew Goodpaster, in projecting American casualties, figured that 800,000 Americans would either be killed or wounded in an assault on Japan, and that Truman's decision to drop the bombs was not only a just one - but a necessary one that saved the lives of both Americans and Japanese.
- He writes of how he was educated to dislike Theodore Roosevelt as a blowhard and braggart - and then grew to admire him for both his domestic and foreign policies.
- And how he met and wrote about those "Bands of Brothers", whether they be the men from U.S. 101st Airborne who fought from the Normandy Drop Zones to Hitler's "Eagles Nest", Major John Howard, of the British 6th Airborne who secured "Pegasus Bridge" and of the German Panzer General Von Luck, who opposed Howard and the Red Berets at Pegasus Bridge yet became a firm friend of that gallant man of the Airborne after the war.
- He writes of how he grew to dislike and vocally oppose our Vietnam involvement yet how he also fully respected the American soldiers, sailors, and airmen who fought there.
Ambrose also wrote of how America, after 9/11 still remained the last best hope of mankind, and how this nation is a force for good, not evil. He wrote all this in a slim, readable volume that should be passed on from generation to generation. For it was not just Stephen Ambrose's lasting legacy - but a lasting legacy from a beloved historian to all Americans.
At 6.99 this book deserves an honored place in the libraries of all thoughtful Americans.
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Summary: A fitting goodbye
Review: Stephen Ambrose was one of America's premier historical authors. Any topic he chose to write on was thoroughly researched and the story crafted in a way other authors of the genre were hard pressed to match. I didn't always agree with what I read, but I new the work came from a consumate teacher and researcher.
To America: Personal Reflections on an Historian is a wonderful book to read if for no other reason than the varied topics he covers. Everything from Custer, Crazy Horse and the Little Big Horn to the Transcontinental Railroad; from Eisenhower to Nixon. But this book also displays the same endearing qualities as Ambrose's other works. His attention to detail and his ability to tell the story that is interesting are present. If you haven't read any of his other books you will after reading To America. If you're an old fan, you may want to dig out your old copies and have a go at them again.
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Summary: America's Historian
Review: Stephen Ambrose was truly America's Historian for the second half of the 20th Century. This is a beautiful goodbye from a good friend who will be missed greatly. Treat yourself.
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Summary: America's Historian
Review: Stephen Ambrose was truly America's Historian for the second half of the 20th Century. This is a beautiful goodbye from a good friend who will be missed greatly. Treat yourself.
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Summary: Ambrose tells his own history
Review: Stephen Ambrose's final book is not a history of leaders, events, or battles, as his previous works have been, but a history of himself and his love affair with America. Others have criticized Ambrose's treatment of Jefferson as not having the courage to follow his convictions on the matter of slavery. While I do object to "presentism," or the application of current standards to history, Ambrose makes it clear that Jefferson knew that slavery was wrong but did not do anything about it. Regardless of present or past morals, a man who speaks as nobly as Jefferson but does not act on his own words is certainly deserving of criticism. It is interesting to note that Jefferson, as a man who clearly knew better (and said as much in his writings), receives harsher criticism from Ambrose than the Founding Fathers who held slaves and did not believe (or at least did not leave historical record that they believed) that the practice was wrong. Dr. Ambrose also takes some pokes at the "conventional wisdom" of history. For example, most Americans who paid attention in history probably learned that the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812 was unnecessary, as the Treaty of Ghent that ended the war had already been signed. Ambrose points out that if the British had taken the gateway to the Mississippi, the treaty would have promptly been abrogated and hostilities renewed. It is very clear to readers that Ambrose loved America--the true love of one not afraid to point out flaws, but never wavering in intensity. Stephen Ambrose will be missed, as both an historian and a citizen. I thank him for loving his country, and writing about that love.
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Summary: Three Hundred And Sixty Degrees
Review: That measurement accurately describes all that the late Stephen E. Ambrose attempts to cover in this book. "To America", is a book to anyone of any nation who enjoyed history and a historian that was not only talented, and prolific, but also made the reading of history popular. The last 6 of his 7 books, not including this one, (so far), all made it to the top of the NYT Bestsellers Lists. An accomplishment any author would be happy to achieve once, he did it half a dozen times, and were his life to have been longer surely would have done so again. To describe him as a writer of American History would be incomplete and unfair to all those that he chronicled, he wrote extensively on events in Europe and Asia even when the primary topic were the Americans he was chronicling. He also wrote a book inspired by a chance meeting with a British Soldier, and helped produce the memoirs of a German Officer as well. Unless someone decides to chronicle this man's life, his readers will have to be content with the portions of this book that are purely memoir in form. I think this aspect of the book gains the highest marks even though I was surprised and at times baffled by this man's feelings. And make note, this is not History; Mr. Ambrose makes that very clear. This book is filed with editorial from beginning to end, and as he explains, this is the first type of writing that has no place in History. There are positions he took as indisputable that I cannot begin to agree with. President Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter both failed to win either a first term, in the case of Ford, or a second, in the case of Carter. To state that their failure to do so was because they failed to successfully unwind Vietnam is incomplete at best. Ford was not even elected, he was chosen, and he then pardoned Nixon, an act I doubt any President could have survived. Carter spent 4 years telling us how we should lower our expectations as a nation, and I believe The Iran Hostage Crisis played larger role in his losing than Vietnam did, and his opponent was one of the most charismatic leaders of the 20th Century. Mr. Ambrose compares two major historical figures as he mulls "which of these guys I would rather be". If you stop prior to his reaching a decision between Crazy Horse and Custer, I will take bets on who you think he will choose. I not only disagree with his final thought on the pair, I found his decision indefensible and offensive. Mr. Ambrose also seemed to feel a need to level the view of much history, especially in The United States. He takes apart Jefferson as a man who is one of the country's worst hypocrites, poor Presidents, a non-entity as a military man, brands him a man who does not tell the truth, an author of the most obnoxious racist diatribes, and then tries to rehabilitate him. He does this with many familiar names and they all fall in to the, "other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?" There is a point when editorial can become romanticized recollection of what certain men did and how they should be viewed today. I greatly admire Mr. Ambrose's willingness to admit his mistakes, and to describe in detail how his feelings changed over the years, and to freely admit, when he believed, upon reflection that he had been wrong, disrespectful, and insensitive. Why he did not hold others to the same standards he held himself to left me at a loss. The acknowledgement at the end is poignant as he mentions those medical people who convinced him the best way to fight the cancer that was taking his life as he wrote this book, was to continue to live as though the cancer was not there, to write, ride his bike, enjoy what he did. It must have been a trial to write when he was so ill, and to not live to see this final book published. I wish he had written it when he had all the time he needed, when nothing was chasing and stealing his days from him. This book annoyed me so much it took me nearly a month to read its fairly brief 252 pages. I also could easily dismiss this work as the most unpleasant and weakest book of Mr. Ambrose's that I ever read. His Eisenhower Biography was one of the first and finest Biographies by an outstanding Historian that I ever read, and this book is not the way I want to remember Mr. Ambrose. Just as he often would change his mind when he came to the end of a project, perhaps I have no right to judge this man's final work, written when he was ill, and probably at times as angry as he had ever been. His life was not short, but neither was it long by today's standards. He judged his topics after examining them for years, and that's how he should be remembered as well. He popularized History in this country in a way not seen in decades, and his contribution was immense. His place in the Pantheon of great US Historians is assured, and I thank him for all he shared with me through his books. All of his readers must feel the same sense of loss, and extend their sympathies to the family and friends of this man who so loved History and documenting it.
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Summary: Ramblings of a Patriotic Historian
Review: The subtitle of this final book by Stephen Ambrose tells it all - "Personal Reflections Of An Historian". This book is NOT a story or a historical perspective. It is the story of Stephen Ambrose and his perspective along with the major characters he wrote and about and feels a certain connection. Ambrose became famous by hitting the emotional and sentimental bulls eye of Americas retrospective look at World War II. He accomplished this by seeing the war from the perspective of the common soldier. However, Ambrose started as a historian writing about great historical leaders like Henry Halleck, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. This final book takes another look at Ambrose's life and the characters he met in his travels or his research. It does not shed new light on characters or tell a new story. It does tell the authors story. This is a great book if you enjoy talking to our more mature citizens. Ambrose was near the end of his life when he wrote this book and he knew it. This was his chance to, like Grant, record his actions and thoughts for posterity while providing for his family. In the end you see that Ambrose enjoyed a wonderful life by sharing his love of the past with his family and those great people that made history.
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