Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point

by Stephen E. Ambrose

Overview

A New York Times bestselling author writes about West Point.

This new paperback edition of Stephen E. Ambrose's highly regarded history of the United States Military Academy features the original foreword by Dwight D. Eisenhower and a new afterword by former West Point superintendent Andrew J. Goodpaster.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801862939
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	01/27/2000
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	363,935
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephen E. Ambrose is the author of many books on American history, including Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West and Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944 to May 7, 1945. He is also the founder of the National D-Day Museum, in New Orleans.

Date of Birth:

January 10, 1936

Date of Death:

October 13, 2002

Place of Birth:

Whitewater, Wisconsin

Place of Death:

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Education:

B.A., University of Wisconsin; M.A., Louisiana State University, 1958; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1963

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Beginning
Chapter 2. The Foundling
Chapter 3. Alden Partridge
Chapter 4. Sylvanus Thayer
Chapter 5. Thayer's Curriculum and Faculty
Chapter 6. The Jacksonians and the Academy
Chapter 7. The Golden Age, 1840–1860
Chapter 8. Cadet Life
Chapter 9. Civil War
Chapter 10. Stagnation
Chapter 11. Hazing and the Negro Cadets
Chapter 12. From Cuba To France
Chapter 13. Douglas MacArthur
Chapter 14. Implementing The MacArthur Reforms
Chapter 15. Football
Chapter 16. The Modern Academy
Afterword
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations

Editorial Reviews

A welcome addition to the growing literature on military education. Ambrose covers the whole history of West Point, from the first feeble beginnings under President Jefferson down to the present. He has carefully examined both the published and unpublished sources and has rounded out the basic data with numerous interviews.
--Journal of Higher Education

The conception of West Point, as Ambrose makes clear in his short history of the Military Academy, was immaculately Jeffersonian. It was a school to train engineers--that most liberal, nonaristocratic, and socially useful branch of the military service--not in order to create a corps d'élite but to provide the reservoir of military expertise which was needed if the militia ideal were to become a practical reality . . . Ambrose has told this story clearly and well; he is at his best in tying it to the larger context of American politics, social attitudes, and higher education.
--Journal of American History

The title of this first-rate account of the United States Military Academy is drawn from the Academy's motto . . . [Ambrose] follows the long gray line through history, skillfully re-creating the administrations of West Point's outstanding superintendents (Sylvanus Thayer and Douglas MacArthur), telling some amusing anecdotes about cadets 'who simply refused to conform to the West Point mold' (James McNeill Whistler and Edgar Allan Poe).
--New York Times Book Review

There have been many other histories of West Point, but this is the best . . . From this excellent book every American will find interest and take pride in this truly national institution that has played so great a part in the building of the country.
--Historical Time

Throughout history every great nation has kept in its treasure-chest an academy for advanced learning and military training. Steven Ambrose's history leaves the reader with a greater understanding of the relationship between our treasure, West Point, and the society it supports.
--Parameters

From the Publisher

Throughout history every great nation has kept in its treasure-chest an academy for advanced learning and military training. Steven Ambrose's history leaves the reader with a greater understanding of the relationship between our treasure, West Point, and the society it supports.

Parameters

The conception of West Point, as Ambrose makes clear in his short history of the Military Academy, was immaculately Jeffersonian. It was a school to train engineers—that most liberal, nonaristocratic, and socially useful branch of the military service—not in order to create a corps d'élite but to provide the reservoir of military expertise which was needed if the militia ideal were to become a practical reality . . . Ambrose has told this story clearly and well; he is at his best in tying it to the larger context of American politics, social attitudes, and higher education.

Journal of American History

A welcome addition to the growing literature on military education. Ambrose covers the whole history of West Point, from the first feeble beginnings under President Jefferson down to the present. He has carefully examined both the published and unpublished sources and has rounded out the basic data with numerous interviews.

Journal of Higher Education

There have been many other histories of West Point, but this is the best . . . From this excellent book every American will find interest and take pride in this truly national institution that has played so great a part in the building of the country.

Historical Time

The title of this first-rate account of the United States Military Academy is drawn from the Academy's motto . . . [Ambrose] follows the long gray line through history, skillfully re-creating the administrations of West Point's outstanding superintendents (Sylvanus Thayer and Douglas MacArthur), telling some amusing anecdotes about cadets 'who simply refused to conform to the West Point mold' (James McNeill Whistler and Edgar Allan Poe).

New York Times Book Review

After West Point's somewhat chaotic first ten years, Sylvanus Thayer took control in 1877, beginning its illustrious history as both a military academy and a scientific institution that even civilian schools have sought to imitate. This reprint of the 1966 publication includes its original foreword by Dwight D. Eisenhower and a new afterword by former West Point superintendent, Andrew J. Goodpasture. Ambrose is a widely published historian and founder of the D-Day Museum in New Orleans. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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