Perspective

At the time D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II is published in 1994, (the fiftieth anniversary of the landing), Stephen E. Ambrose serves as the Boyd Professor of History at the University of New Orleans, the director of the Eisenhower Center and the president of the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. He comes to this book having already dealt with the great conflict in a number of earlier books. In approach, D-Day is a prequel to Band of Brothers, which follows E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from the beaches of Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Pegasus Bridge examines another prime Allied target on June 6, 1944, which is surveyed in this volume. Ambrose also wrote multi-volume biographies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon. At several points, Ambrose makes clear he has a personal relationship with the general (whom he never calls "Ike").

After comparing...