Abstract/Summary

Stephen Ambrose (1936-2002) was one of the most prolific and most influential American historians of World War II, thanks to six best-selling books, the launch of a national World War II museum, and a television series and a major film, both award-winning. Drawing heavily on the oral testimonies of American infantrymen and (to a lesser extent) aircrew, Ambrose’s work came in the wake of a highly political renewal of American interest in World War II triggered by President Reagan’s 1984 Pointe du Hoc speech. This article offers a critical appraisal of Ambrose, arguing that his eloquent portrayal of individual servicemen’s heroism obscures other important aspects of the war, and particularly the experiences of civilians with whom Americans came into contact, whether directly (at or close to the battlefield) or indirectly (through bombing operations). Heroic representations of the war by Ambrose and others, it is argued, have contributed to disastrously misplaced uses of American military force in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.