To America; Personal Reflections of an Historian
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xvi, 265, [9] pages. Index. One of the most popular historians of our time looks back on his life--and on America's history--in a valediction that powerfully weaves together personal experience and historical insights. After touching on the founding fathers, the Battle of New Orleans, the early encounters with the Plains Indians, and topics up to the present day, Ambrose's last chapter is entitled "America's Secrets of Success. " Stephen E. Ambrose reflects on his career as an historian and postulates just what an historian's job is all about. Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian, most noted for his biographies of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a longtime professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of many bestselling volumes of American popular history. In a review of To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian for The New York Times, high school teacher William Everdell credited the historian with reaching "an important lay audience without endorsing its every prejudice. He founded the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans in 1989 serving as its director until 1994. The center's first efforts 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. More