Stephen Ambrose made up hundreds of hours of conversations with Ike

A friend of mine is a history prof and writes academic history books. I asked him once what the academic community thinks of McCUllough. He said they don't. He didn't say anything about his work not being credible, just that they sort of looked down on anyone who wrote it as sort of popular culture. He said some of it was certainly jealousy at the success he's had.

 

I have a friend who is history prof., and he reads mainstream histories as well as academic works.
I'm actually surprised by the amount of mainstream history he reads for entertainment. If I had to spend my time reading academic works, I think I'd need a break from history in my spare time.

 

Turns out D Day never happened. Ambrose made it all up.

 

SEE! I KNEW IT! THAT'S WHAT THEY WANTED YOU TO BELIEVE, MAN!

 

The best history books for the dollar are the Oxford Histories of the U.S. They cover significant periods of our country (Revolutionary War, Civil War, Post World War II, etc) and hit the main themes of the times, and the one's I've read have been written by top academics in the era being covered who also happen to be great writers. James McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" is a tremendous read on The Civil War. I'm not going to knock Ambrose too much, I'm sure he wasn't the only one to target a book or three to the 50th Anniversary of D-Day and World War II in general - that his books seemed to resonate more than others is a tribute to him as well as those whose efforts he chronicled.