Posted on 10/13/2002 6:11:24 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:41:09 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Stephen E. Ambrose, whose best-selling books made America's aging World War II veterans hometown heros again, died early Sunday at a Bay St. Louis, Miss., hospital.
Ambrose, a longtime smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer in April.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Enjoyed his TV shows too, especially on Discovery Channel and the WW2 shows.
Interesting web site:
To contact Stephen Ambrose:
c/o The National D-Day Museum 945 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70130 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Ambrose is the Honorary Chair of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. For more information on the council, click here.
Producer and director Steven Spielberg, center, is joined by the creative crew from "Band of Brothers" and World War II veteran Maj. Dick Winters, second from right, front, as he accepts the award for outstanding miniseries during the 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday, Sept. 22, 2002, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Hugh Ambrose was there there to accept the award on his father’s behalf. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Defense of Stephen Ambrose By Richard Jensen
On the Ambrose case, five distinct issues need to be disentangled. More... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends, Like millions of other Americans, I have been diagnosed with cancer. Since I just learned about my illness last Friday, I am still getting used to the idea. In the coming days and weeks, I will be seeking further diagnosis and discussing treatment options with physicians and my family. During this time, I would appreciate the news media and public respecting our privacy.
I have spent a good part of my career studying men and women who faced uncertainty about the future. Now I find myself facing a great challenge, and I am focusing on a course of action based on a balance of good sense and cautious optimism. I have a lot left to say and to write about our nation's history, the American spirit and personal leadership. I will take heart from the lessons I've learned over the years from these experiences as I deal with my own future.
For additional details please consult the New Orleans Times Picayune Article by clicking here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Statement on my writing methods:
Plagiarism is the worst sin an academic can commit. Now, after 50 years in the academy, reporters and some of my fellow teachers are accusing me of that.
For the past four months, diligent reporters have found some phrases, a few sentences and at least six times two entire sentences copied by me and footnoted to the source, but without putting quotation marks around the material.
The copied words they discovered amounted to about 10 pages out of a total work of some 15,000 pages in print. The investigative reporters found them by using my footnotes.
I admitted that I copied, and pointed out that all such material was footnoted, but without quotation marks. I will put the marks in for all future editions and have already done so in The Wild Blue.
The reporters then charged that this was a case of plagiarism and a pattern of my work, Some of the teachers said they would never allow a student to use such methods and would no longer be requiring their students to read my books.
The accusations were so widely printed that I must reply. I do my writing at a computer, surrounded by my research; interview transcripts, documents of all kinds, books. I mix them to describe an incident. Usually I have five or more transcripts, plus copies of documents and books on the table. I take material from them all.
When I'm using the words of an interview -- which is what I rely on, mostly -- I always use quotation marks around the phrases or sentences. When I'm using information or description from books by scholars, I always cite the source.
But if I have already named a praised and quoted the author in my book, I don't name him or her again, and sometimes I have failed to put quotation marks around their words. I'm not trying to hide anything. Indeed, I want people to read their books.
But still, I'm charged with plagiarism. As an academic, I begin my defense with a definition. Professor William Decoo of Brigham Young University, Author of the just-published book Crisis on Campus: Confronting Academic Misconduct, (MIT Press), writes, "People use the word 'plagiarism' much too quickly, while a careful assessment should take into account: quality.
"Some vivid plagiarism cases involved only a few unattributed sentences, or one or two short paragraphs. The amount is insufficient to warrant a conclusion of plagiarism in relation to the total work. To what point and to what extent should sentences from a correctly cited source count as plagiarized? Also, if accusations are made against a background of media revelations, if the rest of the voluminous work of the accused respects the conventions of scholarly use, the ground seems too fragile to support an argument of plagiarism."
I always thought plagiarism meant using another peoples words and ideas, pretending they were your own and profiting from it. I do not do that, never have done that and never will.
I stand on the originality of my work. It is entirely my own, not taken from anyone else's work. I use the discoveries from my research into primary and secondary sources combined with my general knowledge of American history and produce a new story line, an approach to the subject that is my own.
When I'm writing at my best, I want to share my own discoveries with the reader. I want to take people to a new understanding of an event, an individual or a story. I want them to be as amazed as I am.
A friend once told me that I have an ability to give my readers a new set of eyeglasses to look at a story in a different and original way. When that happens, I succeed as a writer and a historian. Those glasses are gratefully built from many sources, but the prism is my own creation.
The people will judge. The reading public will decide whether my books are fraudulent and react accordingly. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May he rest in Peace.
I have a DVD copy of a half-hour interview with him done in 1974 by Thames Television for "The World At War" miniseries. I'll be watching it again today. Perhaps the most instructive half-hour on history you could ever hope to see.
In the past year his reputation was shattered by revelations that parts of his works had been plagiarized, a charge also hurled against fellow historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
In that he died from lung cancer, I wonder if he had been a heavy smoker.
Dr. Ambrose had the ability to write complicated history in a way that the average reader could understand and relate to the overall picture. He had much success as a professor and author and will be widely missed. May he rest in peace.
He will be missed.
redrock
Your high praise makes me eager to see it. Could you please tell me the title by which I can find it?
I wouldn't necessarily say his reputation was "destroyed", though he did have to deal with some truly adverse publicity over the attribution of a small part of his work as mentioned elsewhere on this thread.
I agree fully with your assessment of his work, however. His work with the national D-Day museum and on behalf of the written historical record regarding the American soldier in World War II are priceless gifts to history.
It's on the DVD set for the "World at War" series as an extra add-in. I found a copy at my local Barnes and Noble.
The series itself is a 24-part documentary narrated by Laurence Olivier that won awards for documentary achievement. It's not cluttered with the revisionism that is so common today. Ambrose looks a lot different in this interview -- he's got shoulder-length hair and one of those big sweaters that the college types wore in those days.
I must have seen the series 50 times on videocasette -- no, I'm not kidding -- and I learn something new every time I see it. There's an hour devoted to the decision to drop the bomb that ranks as among the best documentary features I've ever seen, mainly because it was done when some of the decision makers were still alive to tell first-hand of their processes. Highest recommendation.
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