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A Place Called Home: A Memoir
by David AmbrozPORCHLIGHT BESTSELLER Zibby Owens 2022 Book of the Year A galvanizing, stirring memoir about growing up homeless and in foster care and rising to become a leading advocate for child welfare, recognized by President Obama as an American Champion of Change. &“You will fall in love with David Ambroz, his beautifully-told, gut-wrenching story, and his great big heart.&” (Jeanette Walls, author of The Glass Castle) &“It's impossible to read A Place Called Home and not want to redouble your efforts to fight the systems of poverty that have plagued America for far too long. In this book, David shares his deeply personal story and issues a rousing call to make this a more humane and compassionate nation.&”—HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON There are millions of homeless children in America today and in A Place Called Home, award-winning child welfare advocate David Ambroz writes about growing up homeless in New York for eleven years and his subsequent years in foster care, offering a window into what so many kids living in poverty experience every day. When David and his siblings should be in elementary school, they are instead walking the streets seeking shelter while their mother is battling mental illness. They rest in train stations, 24-hour diners, anywhere that&’s warm and dry; they bathe in public restrooms and steal food to quell their hunger. When David is placed in foster care, at first it feels like salvation but soon proves to be just as unsafe. He&’s moved from home to home and, in all but one placement, he&’s abused. His burgeoning homosexuality makes him an easy target for other&’s cruelty. David finds hope and opportunities in libraries, schools, and the occasional kind-hearted adult; he harnesses an inner grit to escape the all-too-familiar outcome for a kid like him. Through hard work and unwavering resolve, he is able to get a scholarship to Vassar College, his first significant step out of poverty. He later graduates from UCLA Law with a vision of using his degree to change the laws that affect children in poverty. Told with lyricism and sparkling with warmth, A Place Called Home depicts childhood poverty and homelessness as it is experienced by so many young people who have been systematically overlooked and unprotected. It&’s at once a gripping personal account of deprivation—how one boy survived it, and ultimately thrived—and a resounding call for readers to move from empathy to action.
Godfather of the Revolution: The Life of Philippe Égalité, Duc D'Orléans
by Tom AmbroseWhile there are a great many books on Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the rest of the French Royal Family, the crucial role of the Duc d'Orleans--the man who bankrolled the French Revolution--has been inexplicably overlooked, and this is the first biography to appear in English for many years. This is despite the fact that he was the only member of a royal house ever to join a revolution against its monarchy and to vote for the judicial murder of the king. As well as bringing vividly to life the famous heroes and villains of the French Revolution, Tom Ambrose introduces the reader to a host of colorful and truly unforgettable characters, including Philippe's friend the Chevalier de Saint-George ("the Black Mozart") with whom he cofounded the first French anti-slavery society, the Duc's mistress Madame de Genlis, femme fatale and leading intellectual of the age, and--most significantly--Philippe himself, a towering figure in one of the most significant periods of European history.
Mad, Bad and Dangerous: The Eccentricity of Tyrants
by Tom AmbroseA penetrating and incisive study of the fanaticism and foibles of some of history's most illustrious namesFrom Assad to Nero, Gaddafi to Ivan The Terrible, this work attempts a thorough illumination of the minds of some of the most powerful people in history. While leaving some room to describe the amusing incidents and eccentricities associated with a host of men and women of power, it also reaches into the terrifying depths and depravities of minds that shaped the destinies of peoples and nations. Using a unique combination of history, politics, and psychology, this book fully describes how power not only corrupts but deranges.
Prinny and His Pals: George IV and the Remarkable Gift of Royal Friendship
by Tom AmbroseFrom the first biography of George IV in 1831 to the last in 2001, Mad King George's son has commonly been held up to ridicule as a weak, selfish, and incompetent spendthrift, barely tolerated by his ministers, loathed by most of his family, and dependent on the emotional support of grasping mistresses. However, acclaimed historian Tom Ambrose--author of Godfather of the Revolution: The Life of Phillipe Egalité, Duc D'Orléans--has uncovered new details on "Prinny" that suggests that, for all his faults, George IV just may have been the most humane and amusing of all British monarchs, notwithstanding his love of the high life. Central to the story is the vast array of friends that populate a remarkable reign as Prince Regent and King. If Prinny, as they knew him, was so grotesquely foolish, how did he amass such a fascinating (and loyal) group of friends? Could any other British ruler count among his friends the country's most brilliant playwright (Richard Sheridan), or the wiliest statesman (Charles Fox), or the greatest political philosopher (Edmund Burke), not to mention perhaps the biggest loveable rogues' gallery London ever saw? The truth was that Prinny's occasional buffoonery and imposing girth made him the perfect target for political satirists and cartoonists--at their zenith during his reign--and his high qualities have been consistently overlooked. This warm, funny, and affectionate portrait displays George at his very best: delighting some of the finest minds of his generation, easily winning over his subjects and his family as well as treating his lovers with care and concern--and roistering with all his pals.
Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals
by Stephen E. AmbroseComrades is a celebration of male friendships. Acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose begins his examination with a glance inward -- he starts this book with his brothers, his first and forever friends, and the shared experiences that join them for a lifetime, overcoming distance and misunderstandings. He next writes of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a golden gift for friendship and who shared a perfect trust with his younger brother Milton in spite of their apparently unequal stations. With great emotion, Ambrose describes the relationships of the young soldiers of Easy Company who fought and died together from Normandy to Germany, and he recalls with admiration three unlikely friends who fought in different armies in that war. He recounts the friendships of Lewis and Clark and of Crazy Horse and He Dog, and he tells the story of the Custer brothers who died together at the Little Big Horn. Ambrose remembers and celebrates the friends he has made and kept throughout his life. Comrades concludes with the author's recollection of his own friendship with his father. "He was my first and always most important friend," Ambrose writes. "I didn't learn that until the end, when he taught me the most important thing, that the love of father-son-father-son is a continuum, just as love and friendship are expansive."
Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors
by Stephen E. AmbroseA New York Times bestseller from the author of Band of Brothers: The biography of two fighters forever linked by history and the battle at Little Bighorn. On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where three thousand Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies at very early ages. Both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie.
Eisenhower: Soldier and President (Eisenhower Center Studies On War And Peace)
by Stephen E. AmbroseStephen E. Ambrose draws upon extensive sources, an unprecedented degree of scholarship, and numerous interviews with Eisenhower himself to offer the fullest, richest, most objective rendering yet of the soldier who became president. He gives us a masterly account of the European war theater and Eisenhower's magnificent leadership as Allied Supreme Commander. Ambrose's recounting of Eisenhower's presidency, the first of the Cold War, brings to life a man and a country struggling with issues as diverse as civil rights, atomic weapons, communism, and a new global role. Along the way, Ambrose follows the 34th President's relations with the people closest to him, most of all Mamie, his son John, and Kay Summersby, as well as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Harry Truman, Nixon, Dulles, Khrushchev, Joe McCarthy, and indeed, all the American and world leaders of his time. This superb interpretation of Eisenhower's life confirms Stephen Ambrose's position as one of our finest historians.
Eisenhower Volume I: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890-1952
by Stephen E. AmbroseDwight Eisenhower was not exactly born into poverty, but the family's circumstances were at least austere. He was one of seven children; his father, a railway worker. But the family was strong and unified, the youngsters energetic and ambitious.<P> Ike made it to West Point, where he excelled in sports. He was a natural leader. But it was at Leavenworth years later, as a student at the war college, that his intellectual talent showed itself. He graduated first in his class.<P> The author draws in a wealth of previously unpublished information to give us this beautiful portrait. As a result Eisenhower emerges as complex, one who as the author states, ". . .was a good and great man."
Eisenhower Volume II: The President
by Stephen E. AmbroseEisenhower: The President, the second and concluding volume of Stephen Ambrose's brilliant biography, is the first assessment of a postwar President based on access to the entire record. It covers a wide range of subjects, including Eisenhower's rejection of the near-unanimous advice he received as President to use atomic weapons; his thinking on defense policy and the Cold War; his handling of a multitude of foreign-affairs crises; his attitudes and actions on civil rights; his views on Joseph McCarthy and on communism. Also illuminated are Eisenhower's relations with Nixon, Truman, Khrushchev, de Gaulle, and other world leaders. Ambrose provides us with an extraordinary portrait -- fairminded and enormously well-informed -- of the man, both decent and complex, who is increasingly regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest Presidents.
Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment
by Stephen E. AmbroseBased on privileged access to the president and his private papers, this classic Cold War-era history by bestselling historian Stephen E. Ambrose gives an inside look at the way President Dwight Eisenhower managed America's secret operations as general and as commander in chief. During his time in office, Eisenhower projected the image of a genial bureaucrat, but behind that public face, he ran the most efficient espionage establishment in the world, overseeing assassination plots, the growth of the CIA, and the overthrow of governments. This book gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of the most ambitious secret operations in American history, including the 1954 overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán's government of Guatemala; Operation AJAX, which toppled Iran's Mossadegh; and the U-2 flights over Russia. Some of Ike's most conspicuous intelligence missteps are also discussed, including the failure to predict the German attack during the Battle of the Bulge and the tragic encouragement of freedom fighters in Hungary, Indonesia, and Cuba. Ike's Spies is indispensable to anyone interested in the development of America's Cold War spy operations.
Nixon Volume I: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962
by Stephen E. AmbroseFrom acclaimed biographer Stephen E. Ambrose comes the life of one of the most elusive and intriguing American political figures, Richard M. Nixon. From his difficult boyhood and earnest youth to bis ruthless political campaigns for Congress and Senate to his defeats in '60 and '62, Nixon emerges life-size in all his complexity. Ambrose charts the peaks and valleys of Nixon's first fifty years -- his critical support as a freshman congressman of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan; his involvement in the House Committee on Un-American Activities; his aggressive pursuit of Alger Hiss; his ambivalent relationship with Eisenhower; and more. It is the consummate biography; it is a stunning political odyssey.
Nixon Volume II: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972
by Stephen E. AmbroseThe author begins this volume on election day in 1962 when Richard Nixon, defeated in his bid for the California governorship, retired from political life. But staging one of the greatest political comebacks in American history, on November 6, 1968, Richard Nixon achieved the ultimate triumph and was elected president of the US. With the help of Henry Kissinger, Nixon opened relations with China, established detente with the USSR and withdrew troops from the bloody stalemate in Vietnam - yet in preparing for the 1972 election, he had begun sowing the seeds of his own destruction in the maelstrom the country would soon refer to as "Watergate".
Nixon Volume III: Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990
by Stephen E. AmbroseWatergate is a story of high drama and low skulduggery, of lies and bribes, of greed and lust for power. With access to the central characters, the public papers, and the trials transcripts, Ambrose explains how Nixon destroyed himself through a combination of arrogance and indecision, allowing a "third-rate burglary" to escalate into a scandal that overwhelmed his presidency. Within a decade and a half however, Nixon had become one of America's elder statesmen, respected internationally and at home even by those who had earlier clamoured loudest for his head. This is the story of Nixon's final fall from grace and astonishing recovery.
The Supreme Commander: The War Years of Dwight D. Eisenhower
by Stephen E. AmbroseIn this classic portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower the soldier, bestselling historian Stephen E. Ambrose examines the Allied commander's leadership during World War II. Ambrose brings Eisenhower's experience of the Second World War to life, showing in vivid detail how the general's skill as a diplomat and a military strategist contributed to Allied successes in North Africa and in Europe, and established him as one of the greatest military leaders in the world. Ambrose, then the Associate Editor of the General's official papers, analyzes Eisenhower's difficult military decisions and his often complicated relationships with powerful personalities like Churchill, de Gaulle, Roosevelt, and Patton. This is the definitive account of Eisenhower's evolution as a military leader--from its dramatic beginnings through his time at the top post of Allied command.
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson and the Opening
by Stephen E. AmbroseIn this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author od D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis's lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way, Ambrose shows us the American West as Lewis saw it -- wild, awsome, and pristinely beautiful. Undaunted Courage is a stunningly told action tale that will delight readers for generations.
The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany 1944-45
by Stephen E. AmbroseThe very young men who flew the B24s over Germany in World War II against terrible odds were an exemplary band of brothers. In The Wild Blue, Stephen Ambrose recounts their extraordinary brand of heroism, skill, daring, and comradeship. Stephen Ambrose describes how the Army Air Forces recruited, trained, and chose those few who would undertake the most demanding and dangerous jobs in the war. These are the boys -- turned pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunners of the B24s -- who suffered over 50 percent casualties. Ambrose carries us along in the crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous B24s as their crews fought to the death through thick, black, deadly flak to reach their targets and destroy the German war machine or else went down in flames. Twenty-two-year-old George McGovern who was to become a United States senator and a presidential candidate, flew thirty-five combat missions (all the Army would allow) and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. We meet him and his mates, his co-pilot killed in action, and crews of other planes -- many of whom did not come back. As Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldiers portrayed the bravery and ultimate victory of the American soldier from Normandy on to Germany, The Wild Blue makes clear the contribution these young men of the Army Air Forces stationed in Italy made to the Allied victory.
A Great Rural Sisterhood
by Linda M. AmbroseAs the founding president of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW), Madge Robertson Watt (1868-1948) turned imperialism on its head. During the First World War, Watt imported the "made-in-Canada" concept of Women's Institutes - voluntary associations of rural women - to the British countryside. In the interwar years, she capitalized on the success of the Institutes to help create the ACWW, a global organization of rural women. A feminist imperialist and a liberal internationalist, Watt was central to the establishment of two organizations which remain active around the world today.In A Great Rural Sisterhood, Linda M. Ambrose uses a wealth of archival materials from both sides of the Atlantic to tell the story of Watt's remarkable life, from her early years as a Toronto journalist to her retirement and memorialization after the Second World War.
The Pacific
by Hugh AmbroseIn this companion to the HBO miniseries, Hugh Ambrose reveals the intertwined odysseys of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier pilot during World War II. Between America's retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur's airplane touched down on the Japanese mainland in August of 1945, five men connected by happenstance fought the key battles of the war against Japan. From the debacle in Bataan, to the miracle at Midway and the relentless vortex of Guadalcanal, their solemn oaths to their country later led one to the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot and the others to the coral strongholds of Peleliu, the black terraces of Iwo Jima and the killing fields of Okinawa, until at last the survivors enjoyed a triumphant, yet uneasy, return home. In The Pacific, Hugh Ambrose focuses on the real-life stories of the five men who put their lives on the line for our country. To deepen the story revealed in the miniseries and go beyond it, the book dares to chart a great ocean of enmity known as The Pacific and the brave men who fought. Some considered war a profession, others enlisted as citizen soldiers. Each man served in a different part of the war, but their respective duties required every ounce of their courage and their strength to defeat an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender. The medals for valor which were pinned on three of them came at a shocking price---a price paid in full by all.
Frozen Dinners: A Memoir of a Fractured Family
by Elaine AmbroseAn award-winning memoir about how one girl grew up while her father chased the American Dream across the country during the mid-twentieth century. After World War II, the United States evolved economically through an explosive combination of opportunities, entrepreneurs, and growing industries. By 1954, families began to enjoy the new pastime of evening television and increased the demand for a new product known as frozen TV dinners. A poor father and farmer from Wendell, Idaho, had the audacity and vision to start his own trucking company to haul and deliver frozen food across the country—and subsequently built an impressive fortune that included several successful businesses. Elaine Ambrose, a bestselling author, departs from her award-winning humor to show life as this man&’s daughter. She chronicles the struggles her family experienced under the strain of an absent father and describes the high tensions and familial rivalries that arose after his untimely death. Using actual courtroom transcripts, she tells of the brutal legal battle that propelled her mother into dementia. She hopes to offer hope and inspiration to others who endured a contaminated family story to prove that anyone may grow beyond painful memories and find success, happiness, and warmth for themselves.Winner of 2019 Distinguished Favorite for Memoir from the Independent Press AwardsPraise for Frozen Dinners &“This tell-all memoir . . . will resonate with anyone who has endured family dysfunction and will defrost the hearts of readers everywhere.&” —Joely Fisher, actress, singer, and author of Growing Up Fisher &“Clear-eyed, evenhanded, concise, and loaded with fascinating details about the struggles and joys of growing up female in the fifties and sixties.&” —Booklist
Midlife Happy Hour: Our Reward for Surviving Careers, Kids, and Chaos
by Elaine AmbroseFrom the author of Midlife Cabernet and Frozen Dinners, a guide to life after fifty full of personal anecdotes and laugh-out-loud humor. More than forty million middle-aged women are tumbling over the hill, laughing all the way because the kids are grown, their menstrual periods stopped, and they survived at least four decades of arbitrary rules dictated by a crabby universe. They went to work with varying degrees of success and brought home the bacon but threw it in the freezer and ordered pizza. Now they&’re ready to celebrate the freedom of pending retirement because they know it&’s more fun to laugh hysterically than to stab someone with a fork and deal with the messy court case and inconvenient jail time. With her irreverent kiss-my-attitude, Elaine Ambrose shares her life experiences through a series of amusing anecdotes created to show women over age fifty that life is worth living out loud. Readers will learn how to remain relevant when the world ignores them, why their children are cute but should grow up and move out, how to cope when their aging parents forget their names, and why it&’s never too late to get serious about a passionate love life. She even throws in a few hints for fabulous fashion and decorating ideas for lazy people. This creative collection of humorous, gluten-free, and non-fattening stories will encourage midlife friends to grab an adult beverage and order two laughs for the price of one as the appropriate reward for surviving careers, kids, and chaos. It&’s time for Midlife Happy Hour!
Here Lies: An Autobiography
by Eric AmblerWinner of the Edgar Award, Eric Ambler's autobiography Here Lies is an intriguing look inside the mind of one of our greatest thriller writers. Here the famously recalcitrant Ambler peels back the layers of experience that affected his life with the same skill he uses to unfold the plots of his novels. His South London childhood; his brief engineering career, which he gave up to work in theater; his time as an advertising copywriter; the publication of his revolutionary spy novels in the 1930s and '40s, including such early classics as A Coffin for Dimitrios and Journey into Fear; his service in the film division of the British War Office during World War II, which allowed him to write his first screenplays; and his postwar renown as the leading writer in the genre on both sides of the Atlantic. In these pages this masterful spy novelist has composed a compelling and insightful examination of his life.
Here Lies: An Autobiography
by Eric AmblerIn his Edgar Award–winning autobiography, the “father of the modern crime thriller” reveals the eventful life that inspired his classic works (CrimeReads).Eric Ambler’s Here Lies invites readers inside the mind of one of the twentieth century’s greatest thriller writers. In this work the famously recalcitrant author peels back the layers of experience that affected his life with the same skill he uses to unfold the plots of his novels.Ambler candidly describes his South London childhood; his brief engineering career, which he gave up to work in theater; and his time as an advertising copywriter. He details the publication of his revolutionary spy novels in the 1930s and ’40s, including such early classics as A Coffin for Dimitrios and Journey into Fear. He also tells of his service in the film division of the British War Office during World War II, which allowed him to write his first screenplays; and his postwar renown as the leading writer in the genre on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Soul of the Journey: The Mendelssohns in Scotland and Italy
by Diana AmbacheBrother and sister Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn enjoyed a rare bond: they were intimate companions and theirs was one of the most significant musical relationships of the 19th century. They shared and commented on each other’s compositions, each highly appreciative of the other but also offering frank, critical advice. Their travels produced some great music – Felix’s best loved works, the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish Symphony, were inspired by his 1829 visit to Scotland, whilst Fanny’s innovative piano cycle Das Jahr was a musical response to the tour of Italy she made in 1839–40. Combining letters and sketches with an accompanying narrative describing their journeys, this is a wonderful celebration of the two Mendelssohns and a portrait of Scotland and Italy of the time as seen through the eyes of two of the Romantic movement’s most acclaimed composers.
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Lost Innocence, Modern Day Slavery & Transformation
by Barbara AmayaIn 1972, Barbara Amaya was 16 years old, leading a life far from a typical teenager and why she was Nobody's Girl. She had been sent to three detention centers, lived on the streets of, first, Washington DC and then New York City. Amaya was forced to work as a prostitute and was hooked on heroin. The ten years she spent as a victim in the world of human trafficking is just the beginning of her story.
Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality and Living from a Forensic Pathologist
by Janis Amatuzio[From the Book Jacket] As a physician, forensic pathologist, and coroner for several Minnesota counties, I have had the extraordinary privilege of caring for families and their loved ones when death comes suddenly, unexpectedly, or traumatically. My job is to speak for the dead, to solve the mystery of "What happened?" However, I have occasionally been faced with mysteries I cannot solve or explain. These experiences always baffle me, partly because as a scientist I seek to reach a reasonable degree of medical certainty, a rational explanation. But I have come to realize that for some experiences there is no explanation, just a deep knowing that I have encountered the Divine. - JANIS AMATUZIO, MD