What is your favorite part of history to read/learn about? (1 Viewer)

[RazorOye]

revolutionary war, war of 1812, Spanish American war,American civil war, ww1, ww2. That was when people had morals, a foundation, structure, respect for others and property. So how did we fair in them conflicts, and how strong was our country. NOW, lets fast forward, Korean war, Vietnam, the cold war, the middle east, and look at our country today. Highly in dept, morality is gone, people voting in Commander in Chiefs that has never smelled military. They vote the popular vote and want something for nothing. Liberal way of thinking is making our country weak and all that fought and died in all the conflicts combined has done so in vain. I am a history major and retired Naval Aviator and it makes me sick.

History major? I would've guessed creative writing and fiction.

That was an impressive nostalgically Rockwellian tale you spun.

As for ambrose I lost all respect for him and his plagiarism. I still remember the packets of stickers we got to our library we had to put in his books to make it right. It was sadly comical

 

[SWJJ]

Studying early American Literature changed my understanding of politics and society during the revolutionary era. The transcendentalism movement was an interesting time in American History as well.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Now, back to the topic, what are everyone's thought regarding Stephen Ambrose as an historian? A friend of mine hates him because Tom views Ambrose' work as largely anecdotal and done primarily by assistants and not by Ambrose himself. I like Ambrose, and feel his anecdotal approach adds a personal side to history which can otherwise sometimes go missing.

I worked at the Eisenhower Center for a few years as a student worker while finishing my undergrad at UNO. I would say some of it is true based on my conversations with his GAs (pun intended lol). Not sure how I feel about the whole plagiarism thing. But I enjoyed his work specifically because he made things more personable than academic, which a non-historian could easily grasp.

The one I don't care too much for in any sense of the word was his successor, Douglas Brinkley.

 

[superchuck500]

History major? I would've guessed creative writing and fiction.

That was an impressive nostalgically Rockwellian tale you spun.

As for ambrose I lost all respect for him and his plagiarism. I still remember the packets of stickers we got to our library we had to put in his books to make it right. It was sadly comical

You can tell that he was a history major in the way that he talks fondly about the Civil War as being a time of predominate morality and the general quality treatment by man of fellow man . . . and commanders-in-chief with military experience. All of which, of course, is completely accurate.

 

[saintmdterps]

You can tell that he was a history major in the way that he talks fondly about the Civil War as being a time of predominate morality and the general quality treatment by man of fellow man . . . and commanders-in-chief with military experience. All of which, of course, is completely accurate.

lus-un2:

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I haven't done research on Ambrose himself but I have read a few of his books and find I can never put them done. If his assistants were the major force behind it then they should continue the legacy.

I think for me the book research would be such an unbelievable experience that I would feel like the book would never be good enough! The thought of getting paid to travel around the world to sit down with soldiers, politicians, civil rights people, the ones that were there and lived it, would be the greatest job in the world. I can't even imagine the emotion in these interviews. How can you put it on paper and do it justice?

I will say this. The volumes of oral histories Ambrose maintained at the Eisenhower Center were absolutely massive. These were your everyday soldiers. The ones who took the orders from the generals. I tried to develop a database to catalog them all but things were so massive I barely made a dent in what I was able to input before I left.

 

[Krodwhodat]

I will say this. The volumes of oral histories Ambrose maintained at the Eisenhower Center were absolutely massive. These were your everyday soldiers. The ones who took the orders from the generals. I tried to develop a database to catalog them all but things were so massive I barely made a dent in what I was able to input before I left.

Did you make copies??

 

[Goatman Saint]

My by far favorite part of history is the pacific theater of WWII. Most of my family served in that theater, one died in it, the rest horribly emotionally scarred from serving against the Japanese. To me it's fascinating. My only thing is there is little written about the "mop up" work on the islands after the Marines achieved the objectives. There was typically months of horrible hand to hand combat rooting out the last of the Japanese soldiers.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Did you make copies??

Ha!!!

 

[saintmdterps]

My by far favorite part of history is the pacific theater of WWII. Most of my family served in that theater, one died in it, the rest horribly emotionally scarred from serving against the Japanese. To me it's fascinating. My only thing is there is little written about the "mop up" work on the islands after the Marines achieved the objectives. There was typically months of horrible hand to hand combat rooting out the last of the Japanese soldiers.

Of the WWII veterans with whom I have worked the ones who served in the ETO tell a much different story than the ones who served in the PTO. Of course, if you were in Europe and had the bad luck to face an SS battalion, then thing got just as nasty. The Canadian division who was aligned against a battalion of Hitler youth had a very strict "No prisoners" policy due to atrocities committed by the SS.

Erwin Rommel called the SS "unprincipled thugs"

 

[HoustonSaint68]

Of the WWII veterans with whom I have worked the ones who served in the ETO tell a much different story than the ones who served in the PTO. Of course, if you were in Europe and had the bad luck to face an SS battalion, then thing got just as nasty. The Canadian division who was aligned against a battalion of Hitler youth had a very strict "No prisoners" policy due to atrocities committed by the SS.

Erwin Rommel called the SS "unprincipled thugs"

My old man didn't talk about the war much at all. But, even though he was wounded and lay in the cold of the Bulge for hours before being rescued, I do remember him saying how grateful he was to be in the ETO rather than the PTO.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I've heard some real horrid stores from vets of Midway. Some of the transcripts I've read were very graphic

 

[DCSaints_Fan]

revolutionary war, war of 1812, Spanish American war,American civil war, ww1, ww2. That was when people had morals, a foundation, structure, respect for others and property. So how did we fair in them conflicts, and how strong was our country. NOW, lets fast forward, Korean war, Vietnam, the cold war, the middle east, and look at our country today. Highly in dept, morality is gone, people voting in Commander in Chiefs that has never smelled military. They vote the popular vote and want something for nothing. Liberal way of thinking is making our country weak and all that fought and died in all the conflicts combined has done so in vain. I am a history major and retired Naval Aviator and it makes me sick.

Curiously you omitted the Mexican American War. You might want to do a little research on that topic. Specifically, what U.S. Grant himself thought of the war

 

[Krewe of Clyde's]

Military history with WWII and Vietnam being the top two sub-categories.

 

[Zack Lee]

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