Rating: 
Summary: One of the best accounts of true combat i have ever read!
Review: This is most probably the best action book that i have read in a long time. The fact that it is based on a true story is what makes it even better. This book had great descriptions of battle scenes and what war must really be like. The battles in the streets were so well described that it was hard to put the book down. Unlike some war accounts there is not that much leading up to the action. There is no complicated story line in which to get confused. It just describes a soldiers view of war overseas, and has non-stop action and horrific descriptions of the fights and casualties. This book is a must for anyone who really enjoys realistic action books!
Rating:
Summary: WOW!!!
Review: Black Hawk Down written by Mark Bowden is an account of modernwarfare and the events that played out in Mogadishu, Somalia onOctober 3, 1993. Bowden's book, written 3 years after the firefighthappened, vividly recreates the battle through the soldiers' eyesduring the combat. Black Hawk Down totals 392 pages and is well worththe price for the amount of information and enjoyment one receiveswhen reading the book. Mark Bowden was a journalist writing columnsabout the Battle of Mogadishu for a newspaper during the 1993incident. Bowden is a nationally credited journalist receiving manyawards for his writing. Having now military experience himself,Bowden gains primary sources for the book from personal interviewswith the soldiers, radio tapes of the combat, and video filmed duringthe combat. Given Bowden's journalistic accomplishments and awards,the type of research conducted, and the first-hand sources used giveshim the experience he needs to write the book. Mark Bowden's novelBlack Hawk Down does an excellent job in creating a story that is easyand fun to read while implicating accurate details from primarysources. The author makes sure the book is interpreted as popularhistory and not mistaken for scholarly history. The book focuses onan event that occurred instead of a historical document or artifact.Bowden creates a story that is so intriguing the reader does not wantto put the book down. He creates this story through the sources heused to gather his information. The dialogue was taken from personalinterviews he conducted with the soldiers who fought in the battle.There might have been some inconsistencies about fact and fiction inthe stories because the event took place three years ago and itdepends on whom he interviewed. Because of the popular support fromthe armed forces, as the "Afterword" states in his book, wecan say he does an exceptional job at finding the discrepancies andinterpreting the truth. The dialogue was also taken from radiocommunications that were recorded while the battle took place. Thephysical evidence of audio taped conversations left no room for Bowdento misquote the dialogue. In the back of Bowden's book, there isa complete bibliography from which he attained all his information.Mark Bowden does not present any new information about the Mogadishuincident, although he does tell the story from the soldiersperspective which is a different approach than other works have done.Throughout the novel, there are no citations from other works exceptfrom the material he gathered through interviews and recorded audio.The lack of footnotes and citations throughout the novel guaranteeseasy and enjoyable reading. Bowden bases most of his work oninterviews and government documents and then uses his journalistic andcreative writing style to tell a captivating story. He documents howhe was able to obtain the sources, who he interviewed, what books andarticles he referred to, and where he got the radio tapes. Because ofthese documented sources, it is hard to question the validity of theinformation he presents you. Bowden accomplishes his purpose inwriting the novel because he gives an accurate and in-depthdescription of the battle through the soldiers perspective whilemaintaining a story which is fun and worth the time reading. MarkBowden stays true to his thesis throughout Black Hawk Down, andpresents the audience with a book that you do not want to put down.The book is non-stop action that keeps you on the edge of your seat.The novel jumps around from different people's perspective throughoutthe story, yet his excellent writing skill does not allow you to beconfused or lost. He also provides background information about thesoldiers and characters when they are first introduced and when herefers to them later in the story. Bowden provided a lot ofinformation about the military and used acronyms for names throughoutthe story. He used the military style of communicating when he wrotethe book. However, Bowden does a superb job in providing the audiencewith the definition of the acronyms stood for. He defined them in theback of the book where there is an index and by putting the definitionin parenthesis next to the acronym. This method of writing almostmade it feel as if the reader was actually hearing the radiocommunications and conversations when it happened. Bowden alsoprovided a few maps in the book to visually show where the battle tookplace and what the routes of the forces were. The implication of mapsmade it easier to follow and understand the circumstances better.There are pictures in the back of the novel showing some of thesoldiers and equipment they used during the operation. MarkBowden wrote the novel Black Hawk Down with the purpose of making anenjoyable and easy to read novel from the soldiers perspective whileproviding an accurate first hand account of the events in Mogadishu,Somalia on October 3, 1993. Because Bowden used his journalisticwriting abilities, his first hand interviews, and actual recordings ofaudio transmissions, this allowed him to write such a detailed andsuccessful novel. Since the author is a journalist and not ahistorian, he wrote a popular history story about an event thathappened three years before the book was published. Black Hawk Down,which sells for about fourteen dollars, is an excellent book filledwith accurate information and is worth reading by anyone interested inmodern warfare or the military.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!!!
Review: Black Hawk Down written by Mark Bowden is an account of modern warfare and the events that played out in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 3, 1993. Bowden's book, written 3 years after the firefight happened, vividly recreates the battle through the soldiers' eyes during the combat. Black Hawk Down totals 392 pages and is well worth the price for the amount of information and enjoyment one receives when reading the book. Mark Bowden was a journalist writing columns about the Battle of Mogadishu for a newspaper during the 1993 incident. Bowden is a nationally credited journalist receiving many awards for his writing. Having now military experience himself, Bowden gains primary sources for the book from personal interviews with the soldiers, radio tapes of the combat, and video filmed during the combat. Given Bowden's journalistic accomplishments and awards, the type of research conducted, and the first-hand sources used gives him the experience he needs to write the book. Mark Bowden's novel Black Hawk Down does an excellent job in creating a story that is easy and fun to read while implicating accurate details from primary sources. The author makes sure the book is interpreted as popular history and not mistaken for scholarly history. The book focuses on an event that occurred instead of a historical document or artifact. Bowden creates a story that is so intriguing the reader does not want to put the book down. He creates this story through the sources he used to gather his information. The dialogue was taken from personal interviews he conducted with the soldiers who fought in the battle. There might have been some inconsistencies about fact and fiction in the stories because the event took place three years ago and it depends on whom he interviewed. Because of the popular support from the armed forces, as the "Afterword" states in his book, we can say he does an exceptional job at finding the discrepancies and interpreting the truth. The dialogue was also taken from radio communications that were recorded while the battle took place. The physical evidence of audio taped conversations left no room for Bowden to misquote the dialogue. In the back of Bowden's book, there is a complete bibliography from which he attained all his information. Mark Bowden does not present any new information about the Mogadishu incident, although he does tell the story from the soldiers perspective which is a different approach than other works have done. Throughout the novel, there are no citations from other works except from the material he gathered through interviews and recorded audio. The lack of footnotes and citations throughout the novel guarantees easy and enjoyable reading. Bowden bases most of his work on interviews and government documents and then uses his journalistic and creative writing style to tell a captivating story. He documents how he was able to obtain the sources, who he interviewed, what books and articles he referred to, and where he got the radio tapes. Because of these documented sources, it is hard to question the validity of the information he presents you. Bowden accomplishes his purpose in writing the novel because he gives an accurate and in-depth description of the battle through the soldiers perspective while maintaining a story which is fun and worth the time reading. Mark Bowden stays true to his thesis throughout Black Hawk Down, and presents the audience with a book that you do not want to put down. The book is non-stop action that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The novel jumps around from different people's perspective throughout the story, yet his excellent writing skill does not allow you to be confused or lost. He also provides background information about the soldiers and characters when they are first introduced and when he refers to them later in the story. Bowden provided a lot of information about the military and used acronyms for names throughout the story. He used the military style of communicating when he wrote the book. However, Bowden does a superb job in providing the audience with the definition of the acronyms stood for. He defined them in the back of the book where there is an index and by putting the definition in parenthesis next to the acronym. This method of writing almost made it feel as if the reader was actually hearing the radio communications and conversations when it happened. Bowden also provided a few maps in the book to visually show where the battle took place and what the routes of the forces were. The implication of maps made it easier to follow and understand the circumstances better. There are pictures in the back of the novel showing some of the soldiers and equipment they used during the operation. Mark Bowden wrote the novel Black Hawk Down with the purpose of making an enjoyable and easy to read novel from the soldiers perspective while providing an accurate first hand account of the events in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 3, 1993. Because Bowden used his journalistic writing abilities, his first hand interviews, and actual recordings of audio transmissions, this allowed him to write such a detailed and successful novel. Since the author is a journalist and not a historian, he wrote a popular history story about an event that happened three years before the book was published. Black Hawk Down, which sells for about fourteen dollars, is an excellent book filled with accurate information and is worth reading by anyone interested in modern warfare or the military.
Rating:
Summary: The best reporting of a military action I've ever enountered
Review: This book captures the horror and bravery of combat with a thorougness, and eloquence, that is worthy of the highest praise. I have never been in combat, I've never even been in the military, but after reading "Black Hawk Down" I feel I have gained some small appreciation of the astonishing bravery our troops call upon every day. This is not an easy book to read. Almost from the start, the reader encounters American soldiers fighting for their lives in an immensely hostile city. Through a host of first hand accounts and thorough research, Bowden throws the reader into this maelstrom of lead and blood. Furthermore, Bowden did not give short shrift to tactics and military reality in the pursuit of personal drama. In a step by step manner he walks the reader through the battle from start to finish. He pays great attention to the tactical decisions, both good and bad, that impacted the battle. At the same time, he considers the strategic environment these decisions were being made in, and evaluates the decision making from President Clinton on down. "Black Hawk Down" is a superb tale of courage under fire, but more than that, it is an outstanding tactical history of a military engagement that will undoubtably loom large in any decision to commit US troops to foreign soil in the future. It is a must have for an student of military history and foreign policy.
Rating: 
Summary: More than just a battlefield view
Review: One wonders how many of the 360 reviews now posted on Amazon for Mark Bowden's book are really from those who have just seen the movie. Hopefully the action film will encourage people to also pick up the book. Black Hawk Down has rightly been praised for its compelling story of the vicious street battle in Mogadishu. Bowden brings the reader as close to the experience of combat as well as any writer could. But there is much more to this book than simply a tale of battle well told. It is a powerful critique of the US style of peacekeeping. and has important things to say about how governments should and shouldn't use military force internationally. The book exposes major flaws in the US military approach to peacekeeping. Why was it that US forces in Mogadishu had not worked up procedures for combined operations with the other peacekeeping nations. A US Lieutenant Colonel asks 'do the Malaysians speak English?' as frantic attempts are made to put a rescue convoy together. So much for the multilateral nature of the mission! Bowden is too kind in his judgements about the competence of both senior US military and political handling of Somalia. The failure to provide the force with adequate armoured vehicle mobility, for example, was a major blunder. Military leadership in Mogadishu seems at best to have been amazingly unconcerned about the dangers posed by Somali militias. Locating the Ranger forces in a hangar easily visible to, and within mortar shelling distance of Mogadishu city is one of many puzzling command decisions mentioned in the book. At the strategic level the biggest puzzle is what the US (and by extension the other peacekeeping participants) thought they were going to achieve in Somalia. While the reasons for intervention may be understandable the exact aims and purpose of the mission remained dangerously clouded. Inattentive management of the mission at senior levels in Washington compounded this. As Bowden describes it, the mission to capture some of Mohamed Aidid's lieutenants which led to the shooting down the two Blackhawk helicopters was not authorised by the US political leadership. Yet the result was complete failure of the peacekeeping mission, the ignominious withdrawal of the US forces, the deaths of 18 US servicemen and (conservatively) 500 Somalis. If ever there was a lesson in how not to run a peacekeeping operation this was it! Military and civilian strategic policy makers everywhere should read Bowden's dispassionate account of this disastrous mission.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books!
Review: Blackhawk Down is one of my all-time favorite books. I haverecommended this book to many people, from friends who are intomilitary history to people who have never had an interest in readingmilitary history books (like my sister who reads "... bookclub" books). Everyone I have recommended this book to ravedabout it. Even if you are not a military history buff, you can't helpbut be moved by what these guys go through. Bowden does a fantasticjob in conveying the tension, frustration, sadness, anger, and tragedyon both the US and the Somali side (more so on the US side). I haveread a few military books including Charles Beckwith's Delta Force,Andy McNab's Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action, Marcinko's RogueWarrior, and others (no, I don't limit my reading to military historybooks). There is no comparison. This is one of the most engagingbooks I have read, and I finished this book in almost one sitting...Ihad to sleep at 7:30am after staying up all night reading (I'm a slowreader). Buy this book, especially since it is out in paperback now.I bought the hardcopy and I'm glad I did because I have let manyfriends borrow this book and this is one book I will re-read manytimes. Just make sure you start reading this book when you dont haveto wake up early the next morning because you won't want to put thisbook down once you start reading it.
Rating:
Summary: "Taste the Blood, smell the Burning Flesh...."
Review: The title of my review is no less graphic than what the reader is about to experience upon reading Bowden's book. But than again, a truly epic account of battle is never meant to be pretty. "Black Hawk Down" is just such a book. After reading WWII Epics by Steven Ambrose, I anticipated this book to follow the same guidlines in describing battle in its truest form...that of destruction, death, helplessness and the thresholds of human spirit... Bowden was able to strip battle of all the "glory" it is all too often associated with and instead describe the utter chaos, stench and futility behind what warefare often ends up becoming. We see a bunch of gung-ho, G.I. Joe watching teenagers (no more than in their young 20's) revel about being able to kick some "Somali" A$$ and "jump at the chance to do battle" to sadly realize only a few hours later in the thick of battle with their own comrades being dismembered, disembowled and killed all around them...that instead of wanting to "Wax" as many rebels as possible, they want their mothers... Still, what I found most rivetting about Bowden's book was the reocurring theme of "lost youth"...countless young soldiers who loose their lives becuse of some misguided, pretentious, glory-seeking beurocrats who are out to prove they have a viable reason to send our own to face death for the sake of vindicating their own convictions....History is our benchmark....Troy, the Crusades, the 100 Years War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam and now Somalia. While reiterating the courage of the American soldiers who faced overwhelming odds, he continues to point out that this calamity could have been avoided through various means...negotiations with the Somali Clans before the fighting began, more armor for the troops, better attack plans etc. etc....the list goes on...we can argue "what could have been", or "what should have been"...but in the end, we lost 18 of our soldiers to a cause that has barely been recognized by the U.S. government. Did these soldiers die in vain? Another aspect I found interesting was Bowden's testimonials from the Somalis who lost far more people in the battle (500 plus dead and thousands injured) than we Americans did. Whilst reading, we understand the mind-set of the Somali people...to them, the Americans were a bitter sweet entity. First arriving out of humanitarian reasons to feed them and end their starvation, then gradually attacking their city and shooting at their civilians..killing children, women, anyone in their way (Bowden does not hide the American soldiers contempt of Somali lives at certain points...but than again, in the heat of battle, military codes of conduct are often overlooked). In the end, we realize the battle in Mogadishu was a "lose-lose" situation for both the Somalis and the Americans. The Somalis are still starving and locked in a bitter, bloody feud with warring clans. The Americans on the flip-side fought a battle that is barely recognized by the world more less the American people. I highly recomend this book to anyone interested in the plain and simple horror of warfare and the death and carnage in brings with it. Bowden has done an excellent job in putting the reader in the city with the trapped American soldiers and having us face the same trial and tribulations they encountered in those few short hours...enough hours to last us a lifetime.
Rating:
Summary: Unrelentingly intense
Review: First and foremost, I must get something off my chest: This is easily the best non-fiction volume of warfare I have ever read. The Vietnam war may have produced a massive collection of searing literature, but this seemingly-innocuous account tops them all. No one comes as close as Bowden does in depicting the utter madness of combat. Not only does he capture the ground-level experience vividly, with recognisable characters, spatial coherence is also maintained in the face of a vast and confusing battlefield. Useful and detailed maps are interspersed at crucial points to help explain the overall proceedings. This is in contrast to one too many similarly-themed works whose maps are often gratuitous and serve to confuse the reader even more. Testimony to his skill lies in the fact that the reader always is always given a clear bird's eye view of unfolding events, while at the same time being stuck on the streets below with the individual soldiers. For once I was able to feel the frustration of the beleaguered troops as they battled against overwhelming odds. Some of the most effective scenes involve the medic's attempts at saving the lives of grievously wounded troops - I could not get the horrific vision out of my mind for a dreadfully long time. The eventual victory is painfully hollow, for every man lost is a tragedy. If any book can be anti-war, this is it. That Bowden is an outsider who has never experienced combat at first hand makes his achievement all the greater. His masterpiece is raw, visceral and terrifying, fully deserving of all the acclaim it has received, and more.
Rating: 
Summary: Honest, interesting and somewhat confusing
Review: This is the interesting description of what occurred in Mogadishu when the Army's command fatally misjudged a situation and as a result caused the death of numerous Somali citizens, many of whom had nothing to do with the conflict, and a number of its own soldiers, and lost lots of expensive equipment. It also effectively thus terminated its own mission in Somalia. The book provides an honest and apparently very accurate view of what really happened there, and often in sufficiently gruesome detail to prevent anyone from romanticizing the incident. The problem is that so many people were involved in the event, and that the different players pop up again and again in different sections of the book, that it becomes almost a Dostoyevskian problem to keep track of them. Of course, that is something that would have been difficult to avoid in any accurate and detailed narrative with so many players.
Rating:
Summary: This is a book you should consider buying.
Review: This is a great book. I was in the battle recalled in this book, in the infamous "Delta Force". I know the brutality first hand. But what I especially like about this book is that Mark Bowden interviews people on both sides, so you could hear the Somali's side. Reading this book brought back bad memories of that horible conflict that was not known to most people. You should defenitly buy this book.
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