Subtitled (incorrectly) "The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869", I knew I was taking a risk reading an Ambrose book, but the subject was compelling to me. I like trains, I like history, particularly 19th Century American History, so I figured I would give this a try.Not one o...
As a history lover, and as someone who loves not getting flamed on Goodreads, I am loathe to say what I am about to say. However, as someone who finds it impossible not to say what I feel like saying, I’ll just go ahead and say it: I don’t like Stephen Ambrose. No, no, no! Not like that. I didn’t...
On July 4th 1876, the United States of America was celebrating its centenary while at the heights of influence and power. In the first one hundred years since its independence, the United States had fended off two British invasions, survived a brutal Civil War, and joined both its oceanic shoreli...
I'm somewhat surprised that Stephen Ambrose was an actual historian, back before the plagiarism scandals and shoddy work that put the period on his career. This is the first of his WW2 oral histories, written fresh on the heels of 20 years of Eisenhower research and the 40th Anniversary of D-Day....
You know it was bad, but just how awful? It is tough to read some of these stories. I knew about trench foot, but our own army not supplying men with warm enough clothes? It was truly shameful. I enjoyed the first 250 pages, but the real, true suffering starts after that and I will never feel the...
The place you read Stephen Ambrose's new book, The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew The B-24s Over Germany, is on an airplane, a comfortable passenger jet, say, a Delta 737, built with care and precision by the Boeing folks in their picturesque facility in Seattle. the kind that has the littl...