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Stephen Ambrose made up hundreds of hours of conversations with Ike

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Small Town Guy, Apr 19, 2010.

  1. Small Town Guy

    Small Town Guy Well-Known Member

    As a fan of his books, this is kind of jolting, especially in wake of the plagiarism charges that came up toward the end of his life. The New Yorker's got a story on famed historian Stephen Ambrose - Band of Brothers, etc. He wrote about 15 books on Eisenhower, including biographies. He often said in interviews that he had "hundreds and hundreds" of hours of interviews with Ike. And he said that Eisenhower called him to ask him if he'd be interested in writing his biography.

    New papers reveal that all of that's probably false. The deputy director of the Eisenhower library discovered some papers that show Ambrose is the one that initiated talks with Eisenhower. But here's the worse part:

    Instead of hundreds of hours of interviews, it was probably less than five. Definitely puts a lot of the work into question.

    The director remains a fan of Ambrose, but he is troubled by the discrepancies.

    http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/04/26/100426ta_talk_rayner
     
  2. Killick

    Killick Well-Known Member

    Amazed — AMAZED — this didn't come up sooner, if true. Can't find bio information on Brig. Gen. Schulz, but he lived until at least the mid-70s. If he was around, he surely would've called bullshit.
     
  3. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Band . . . of Bullshit?

    Oh, the horror.
     
  4. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    I thought this thread was going to be about Ike Davis. [/spnited]
     
  5. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    I'm surprised Ambrose would even be interested in the kid. He's Canadian, and he's not even Kyle's real brother. He was adopted.
     
  6. ArnoldBabar

    ArnoldBabar Active Member

    Wow, that's really disappointing, if true. It's unfortunate that Ambrose isn't around to answer the charges or offer an explanation.

    Strangely, I spent most of the day buried in "Undaunted Courage" preparing for a project. Now, if Ambrose had claimed to interview Meriwether Lewis, I'd be suspicious.
     
  7. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    This isn't exactly on topic in regards to Ambrose, but if you like WWII history, the Eisenhower library and museum is worth a trip.
     
  8. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    I started as a fan of Ambrose, but the more I watched, the more annoying and preachy he became to me.
    Arnold, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he claimed hours of interviews with Lewis and Clark...
     
  9. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    Outstanding.
     
  10. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Beat me to it.
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Eh, he's good. Probably got the Ike quotes off press releases and teleconferences.
     
  12. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Ambrose wrote for the masses - not the academics. I've read Undaunted Courage, and Nothing Like It In The World and he seemed to rely primarily on secondary sources and used a lot of assistants to do his legwork.
    Not surprised.
     
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