Stephen ambrose author biography example

As one of America’s leading biographers and historians, Stephen E. Ambrose shapes our national memory of great leaders and the important events of our time.

At the core of Ambrose’s phenomenal success in awakening the historical curiosity of the reading public fryst vatten his simple but straightforward belief that history is more interesting than almost anything because “history is biography. History is about people, what they have done and why, with what effect. The reason biography is the most popular form of nonfiction writing is that nothing fryst vatten more fascinating to people than people,” Ambrose says.

Now retired, Ambrose taught history for thirty years at the University of New Orleans after graduating from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Ambrose thinks much is lost when academic historians concentrate on social history, movement history, organizational history, or class or race history. Ambrose, sixty-two, argues students and adults still want to know “Who were our leaders? What

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Stephen E. Ambrose

American historian and writer (1936–2002)

Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian, academic, and author, most noted for his books on World War II and 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 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.

Early life and education

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Ambrose was born January 10, 1936,^[2] in Lovington, Illinois,^[3] 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,^[4] where he graduated from Whitewater High School. His fam

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Lessons from Stephen Ambrose

Illustrations: Barry Roal Carlsen

After I read a feature article about celebrated author and UW visiting professor Stephen Ambrose ’57, PhD’63 in On Wisconsin in August 1996, I decided that he was someone I had to meet.

I offered to buy Ambrose lunch in exchange for advice about writing biography, and he invited me to meet him in Madison later that fall. When I arrived, I noted that his quarters in the Humanities Building were strewn with books and papers. A telephone was perched on a chair, innocently out of place in the middle of the room. A framed photograph of the author embracing his grandson at a campsite in the West and reviews of his best-selling Undaunted Courage were the only personal effects I recognized.

As Ambrose motioned me to take a chair, I eavesdropped on a telephone conversation he had begun. He seemed frustrated. “No, February 24 is not available! Oh, wait a minute, you mean February 24, 1998!” When he hung up the receiver, he e