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Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Bowden
Publisher: Signet
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  670 reviews
Sales Rank: 23308
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0451203933
Dewey Decimal Number: 967.73053
EAN: 9780451203939
ASIN: 0451203933
Publication Date: August 1, 2001
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Amazon.com
Journalist Mark Bowden delivers a strikingly detailed account of the 1993 nightmare operation in Mogadishu that left 18 American soldiers dead and many more wounded. This early foreign-policy disaster for the Clinton administration led to the resignation of Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and a total troop withdrawal from Somalia. Bowden does not spend much time considering the context; instead he provides a moment-by-moment chronicle of what happened in the air and on the ground. His gritty narrative tells of how Rangers and elite Delta Force troops embarked on a mission to capture a pair of high-ranking deputies to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid only to find themselves surrounded in a hostile African city. Their high-tech MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had been shot down and a number of other miscues left them trapped through the night. Bowden describes Mogadishu as a place of Mad Max-like anarchy--implying strongly that there was never any peace for the supposed peacekeepers to keep. He makes full use of the defense bureaucracy's extensive paper trail--which includes official reports, investigations, and even radio transcripts--to describe the combat with great accuracy, right down to the actual dialogue. He supplements this with hundreds of his own interviews, turning Black Hawk Down into a completely authentic nonfiction novel, a lively page-turner that will make readers feel like they're standing beside the embattled troops. This will quickly be realized as a modern military classic. --John J. Miller
Book Description
Ninety-nine elite American soldiers are trapped in the middle of a hostile city. As night falls, they are surrounded by thousands of enemy gunmen. Their wounded are bleeding to death. Their ammunition and supplies are dwindling. This is the story of how they got there -- and how they fought their way out. This is the story of war. Black Hawk Down drops you into a crowded marketplace in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia with the U.S. Special Forces and puts you in the middle of the most intense firelight American soldiers have fought since the Vietnam war. Late in the afternoon of Sunday, October 3, 1993, the soldiers of Task Form Ranger was send on a mission to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take them about an hour. Instead, they were pinned down through a long and terrible night, locked in a desperate struggle to kill or be killed. When the unit was finally rescued the following morning, eighteen American soldiers were dead and dozens more badly injured. The Somali toll was far worse; more than five hundred felled and over a thousand wounded. Award-winning literary journalist Mark Bowden's dramatic narrative captures this harrowing ordeal through the eyes of the young men who fought that day. He draws on his extensive interviews of participants from both sides -- as well as classified combat video and radio transcripts -- to bring their stories to life. Authoritative, gripping, and insightful, Black Hawk Down is a riveting look at the terror and exhilaration of combat destined to become a classic of war reporting.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 665 more reviews...
 Horrifically good book April 23, 2008
Great read, action packed. Some parts make you want to cringe, others make you want to cry. I will say that it can get a little gruesome at times and the violence does get to be numbing after a while.
 Amazing, Simply Amazing February 25, 2008
This is one of the best books I've read. The reader gets a street level view of what really happened in Mogadishu. The media made this incident look like an embarrassment to the United States Military when one can clearly see from this book that they did an exceptional job on an epic scale. The author is incredible in his writing, descriptions, and familiarizing the reader with the soldiers involved in the action.
The only negative I can see is that a reader with no military background may get muddled down with the military acronyms, terminology, and ranking structure.
Aside from that you cannot go wrong with this book and I can see this book being used in a syllabus for a College Course down the road, if it isn't already.
Not Too Late to Read This Important Work February 20, 2008
Like far too many other Americans, I failed to pay enough attention to the nation's involvement in Somalia. In fact, it wasn't until my wife and I stumbled into a cable broadcast of the film adaptation of "Black Hawk Down" that it really grabbed my attention. Having missed the beginning of the film, we both guessed wrong at where it even was taking place, and in fact initially mistook it for fiction.
Fittingly, Mark Bowden reveals that some of the Rangers engaged in the battle of Mogadishu had trouble accepting the reality of the horrendous situation they found themselves in, at times laughing at the absurdity of the carnage and the increasing liklihood that they would not survive a firefight in the Third World against starving people in sandals. Bowden did a masterful job of capturing those emotions, as well as chronicling all that took place in real time. In this regard, I respectfully disagree with reviewers who have criticized the pace of the book -- which I feel supported the fact that every aspect of the battle took much too long and heightened the peril.
Bowden deserves much credit for having the courage to visit Somalia for research, especially with the knowledge that four Western journalists had been murdered in Mogadishu a few years earlier. He also deserves our thanks for detailing the determination of Somalis who sacrificed themselves to achieve an objective that had become extremely important to them. I can't think of another book that does as good a job of respecting both sides and presenting an even balance of perspectives.
"Black Hawk Down" is also important because it explains how the beating the US took in Mogadishu affected foreign policy for years to come -- including decisions to avoid involvement in other nations such as Rwanda, where human rights were being trounced. I strongly encourage anyone, especially those who, like me, more or less blew off this episode of American History, to buy or borrow this book and devour it. My only caution is that the graphic descriptions of injuries are not for the faint of heart.
Well done January 3, 2008
Exciting, fast paced narrative. Reads well. A wee bit disorganized, but not to avoid.
So This Is Why He's "Mark Bowden" December 8, 2007
I had actually avoided reading this book because I thought I knew the story already. I saw the movie - I've heard the stories. I was wrong. For me, the book unfolded beautifully and horribly all at once. I was drawn into the lives of the people on both sides. I thought Bowden did a good job of telling some of the Somali side of the story without trying to stuff it down our throats. If you're like me and haven't read this book because you don't think it can hold your interest at this point, I say reconsider. I was stunned by how much "more" there was, beyond what I had gleaned from other sources. Great book that captures the stuff we should never let be forgotten.
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