Citizen Soldier by Stephen Ambrose
by Stephen Ambrose
Mentioned once across 1 show · first heard May 2026 on IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.
The general take
Steven Spielberg credits Citizen Soldier as instrumental in inspiring him to tell authentic WWII stories, saying Ambrose's book and introductions to actual veterans made him realize they needed to show what really happened without Hollywood clichés. He specifically mentions it alongside D-Day as formative works that shaped his approach to depicting the war.
About
From Stephen E. Ambrose, bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day , the inspiring story of the ordinary men of the U.S. army in northwest Europe from the day after D-Day until the end of the bitterest days of World War II. In this riveting account, historian Stephen E. Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Citizen Soldiers opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends at 0245 hours, May 7, 1945, with the allied victory. It is biography of the US Army in the European Theater of Operations, and Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war. From the high command down to the ordinary soldier, Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews to re-create the war experience with startling clarity and immediacy.
Who said what
Steven Spielberg👍 Recommends
…spielberg crediting stephen ambrose's book for introducing him to authentic ww2 veterans
“And when Stephen Ambrose wrote his book D-Day and the other book Citizen Soldier and introduced me to some of the veterans that landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, before I suddenly realized that, oh my God, we need to tell the story of what really happened with no tropes.”
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson — Reach for Greatness with Steven Spielbergat 40:54
Listener reviews
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