Ambrose/Ike Controversy

In this week’s New Yorker, writer Richard Rayner reports that the late historian Stephen Ambrose fabricated interviews with former President Eisenhower for the books that brought Ambrose to fame. The information is based on discoveries by Tim Rives, the deputy director of the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Back in 2002, Ambrose was accused of plagiarism, first in his book The Wild Blue and then in several others. Ambrose refuted the claims by saying he simply neglected to put quote marks around several passages.

Ambrose’s book Band of Brothers was the basis of the highly-acclaimed and popular TV series; his son, Hugh Ambrose, wrote the tie-in book to the follow-up series on HBO, The Pacific.

Comments are closed.