SOURCE: “D-Day: New Book Pays Tribute to the Heroism of Individual Soldiers,” in Chronicle of Higher Education, May 18, 1994, pp. A8-9, A14.

In the following essay, Jaschik discusses Ambrose's scholarly interests, his use of oral history to compose D-Day, June 6, 1944, and critical reaction to his portrayal of the Normandy invasion in this work.

Stephen E. Ambrose has revered the veterans of World War II since he was 10 years old. The war had just ended, and former GI's who lived in his neighborhood in Whitewater, Wis., played basketball on his family's driveway.

“I just thought they were giants, both physically and because I knew enough of what they had done during the war,” says Mr. Ambrose. “There would be guys out there with terrible scars, terrible stories. I thought they were giants then and I still do.”

Mr. Ambrose, professor of history at the University of New Orleans, pays...