Re: [RIP] Steven Ambrose

On Sun, 13 Oct 2002 12:14:20 -0400, "Laserlight"
<laserlight@quixnet.net>
wrote:

>This morning, age 66, lung cancer.  If you haven't read Band of
>Brothers, you should.

Geez, hadn't heard about this!

Recently Ambrose got into some controversy with regard to plagiarism,
particularly in his latest book _The Wild Blue_. It appears that either
he, or
his researchers, got sloppy with regard to footnotes. He also had
passages
from other research which was in essentially the same wording as the
original.
It doesn't take away from the actual history he put into his books, and
the
problems seem to be mostly found in his latest few books.

Along with _Band of Brothers_ I can recommend _D-Day_. Still on my
shelves and
waiting for me to read are _Citizen Soldiers_, _The Wild Blue_, and _The
Victors_. I will probably get _Pegasus Bridge_, and I'm seriously
considering
his first book, a study of General Henry Halleck.

In spite of the controversy, he did a lot to educate and popularize the
Second
World War in the US. It was in good part to his work that _Saving
Private
Ryan_ rose above the average "bang, drop dead" war movie to show how
truly
brutal combat can be.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart