Publisher's Weekly Review
Before his recent, untimely death from cancer, Ambrose seemed to feel he had reached that age when a historian should write a memoir, which means writing yet another history book but replacing footnotes and analysis with anecdotes and opinions. Ambrose castigates the slave-holding founders of American liberty, celebrates the heroes of the slighted Battle of New Orleans and argues that white settlers treated Native Americans no worse than the tribes treated one another. On he goes, damning and praising, through the Vietnam War (which he firmly opposed), appending personal observations on racism, immigration, women's rights and America's nation-building mission. Halfway through, he pauses to recount his development as a historian and writer, from his master's thesis and his biographies of Eisenhower and Nixon to his more recent, bestselling books Undaunted Courage, Nothing Like It in the World and numerous titles on WWII. This personal narrative, dropped into the middle of the book, with revelations about his family life and encounters with famous war veterans, is what Ambrose fans really want to read. It is a pity that Ambrose (or his editors) decided to structure his ruminations and reflections according to historical chronology, because readers looking for his life story will have to take notes and write it themselves. In the process, Ambrose apparently hopes, they will learn what he claims the study of other men's lives has taught him: a broad-minded sympathy that acknowledges an individual's flaws yet focuses on positive achievements. (Nov. 11) Forecast: This was probably destined for the bestseller list all along, and cynical though it may seem to say, the popular historian's death will probably help fuel sales. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Slaveholders, Indian oppressors, imperialists--such epithets are now used to condemn American presidents who were once admired. Ambrose describes his encounters with this tendency among his students, and earlier among university professors when he was a graduate student in the 1950s. Such memories of his career have prompted Ambrose to offer here essays on Jefferson, Washington, Jackson, Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt, which serve as a prelude to a retrospective of his own life. He structures it around his two dozen works of history, remarking that one of them changed his life. Dwight Eisenhower asked Ambrose to edit his papers after reading one of his essays and then cooperated with Ambrose on his biography of Ike. That punched Ambrose's ticket to prominence, which only escalated after his string of 1990s best-sellers. Fans of superstars in any field thirst after personal details about them, and Ambrose's revelations--he describes an episode of heckling President Richard Nixon--may surprise his following, who might presume he is a superpatriotic conservative. With exceptions, such as silence about a recent accusation of plagiarism, Ambrose reveals his beliefs and attitudes in this reflective ramble. --Gilbert Taylor
Library Journal Review
This collection of essays by the late Ambrose covers such diverse topics as the administration of U.S. Grant, Thomas Jefferson and slavery, the War in the Pacific, and Vietnam. He writes articulately and with an understated fervor yet in a way that appeals to the world outside of academia. In the introduction that Ambrose reads, one can hear something of the illness that claimed his life. Jeffrey DeMunn narrates with somewhat more expression than one might expect for such a collection; his delivery is clear and easy to follow. Recommended where the author's works are in demand.-Michael T. Fein, Central Virginia Community Coll., Lynchburg (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.