Ambrose's vivid & compelling essays take you to the heart of America's wars, from Grant's stunning Fourth of July victory at Vicksburg, to Nixon's surprise Christmas bombing of Hanoi. Annotation. Collected here for the first time are fifteen essays that span over 100 years of American history--and the remarkable thirty-year career of America's foremost historian. Ambrose's vivid and compelling essays take you to the heart of America's wars, from Grant's stunning Fourth of July victory at Vicksburg, to Nixon's surprise Christmas bombing of Hanoi. Ambrose brings to life the ambition and charisma that led to Custer's great success in the Civil War and fateful disaster at Little Big Horn. With vivid imagery and precise commentary, he puts you on the beaches of Normandy with the common footsoldier and in the headquarters of America's great commanders, Eisenhower, Patton and MacArthur. He takes you to the trenches of the homefront, ground zero of the Atomic Bomb, and into the arsenals of the twenty-first century. Collected here for the first time are 15 essays that span over 100 years of American history--and the remarkable 30-year career of America's foremost historian. From Grant's stunning Fourth of July victory at Vicksburg to Nixon's surprise Christmas bombing of Hanoi, Ambrose takes readers into the trenches of the homefront, ground zero of the Atomic Bomb, and into the arsenals of the 21st century.

Collection of essays ranging from the civil war to war in the twenty-first century. Originally published: Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 1997. Originally published: Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, Ã1997.

Struggle for Vicksburg : the battles and siege that decided the Civil War -- Custer's Civil War -- "Just dumb luck" : American entry into World War II -- SIGINT : deception and the liberation of western Europe -- D-Day revisited -- Victory in Europe : May 1945 -- The atomic bomb and its consequences -- General MacArthur : a profile -- A fateful friendship : Eisenhower and Patton -- The war on the homefront -- My Lai : atrocities in historical perspective -- The Christmas bombing -- Eisenhower and NATO -- The cold war in perspective -- War in the twenty-first century.