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A review by crowreader
Americans at War by Stephen E. Ambrose
2.0
Reading Ambrose in middle and high school set me on the path of becoming a historian—no doubt about it. His skill as a storyteller, as a crafter of narrative grabbed hold of me then and still, I'm sure, influences my writing today. Rereading this volume now, however, I'm struck by several things: 1) good lord have my historical interests changed in the decade-plus since I first picked up one of his books, as military history is nowhere near my wheelhouse now; 2) it is uncomfortably clear how much effort Ambrose expended to write historical actors whom he admired as heroes (often a "Great Man" of some sort); 3) generalizations flatten out his arguments in spots.
As for my specific impressions of Americans at War, it's a wide-ranging collection that suffers from some essay-to-essay unevenness in terms of depth, and some sections get carried away into the rhapsodic. He also gets extremely close to being a full-blown apologist for My Lai, which I didn't recall from my first reading. Unforeseen consequences of revisiting one's inspirations, no?
As for my specific impressions of Americans at War, it's a wide-ranging collection that suffers from some essay-to-essay unevenness in terms of depth, and some sections get carried away into the rhapsodic. He also gets extremely close to being a full-blown apologist for My Lai, which I didn't recall from my first reading. Unforeseen consequences of revisiting one's inspirations, no?