History Books

If you want to know what is really happening in Iraq, read Michael Yon's book. The title says it all - 'Moment of Truth in Iraq'.

Truth is what Yon writes in this book - aided by photographs which genuinely deserve to be called 'searing'. One such photo has since become world famous after Yon snapped it in May 2005. Up until that point, the only photos which the American media showed were negative photos (such as Abu Ghraib, etc.) which all painted American soldiers as depraved sadists. Yon's photo, however, was a staggering rebuttal to the press slant. Nicknamed 'Farah's photo', the picture showed a desperate American Major Mark Bieger frantically clutching the blood soaked body of tiny little Farah as he raced her to medics in a desperate attempt to save her life. Moments earlier, Iraqi insurgents had deliberately detonated a car bomb amongst a group of small children of which little Farah had been a member. The reason? The insurgents had been angered by the sight of the children gathering eagerly in front of a Stryker to receive candy from the American soldiers. The sadism of the Iraqi insurgents becomes even more horrible in contrast with the heartbreaking grief of Major Bieger. Overcome with emotion, the picture showed him stopping in mid-race to hug the dying little girl in a desperate attempt to comfort her.

This photo and so many others, as well Yon's incredible descriptions of the brave soldiers those photos are about, are in his book "Moment of Truth in Iraq." Truth is what Yon went there to find out. Long before then, two painful experiences had taught him that he couldn't expect it from the media. The first horrible lesson had involved the death of an old high school friend of Yon's, ex-Navy SEAL Scott Helvenston. Helvenston was a victim of Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah who'd not only murdered him but mutilated his body, afterwards 'dancing and chanting' in triumph over the grisly remains. The media, however, had blamed Helvenston for his own death by labeling him a 'mercenary'. This vicious treatment struck an especially painful nerve with Michael Yon. Years earlier, he himself had been the same victim of lies in the press when the media labeled Yon a murderer after a fistfight in a nightclub. Though the charges were completely false and eventually dropped, Yon had endured the agony of watching lies printed about him in the media. Seeing the same thing now happen to his old friend and then to other American soldiers finally compelled Yon to come to Iraq on his own and report the truth.

This book is the result. And it is an incredible read. I began reading this book as an act of solidarity with Michael Yon's cause - but I ended the book for a different reason. It is superbly written, it is gripping. It is real. And - as the title makes clear - it is the truth.

Please read Yon's book. In more ways than one, it will be one of the best books you've ever read.

I was blown away by the...reviews. I can't wait to read this book. It sounds just like the book I have been waiting for regarding the War in Iraq. Compelling. Inspiring. No nonsense. Unfortunately I have made a commitment, a rather large commitment, to the Kindle. So please somebody publish this book on Kindle. This book sounds terrific.

In a sea of cynical books and media coverage on the war in Iraq, which lead US service members to ask themselves "Are these guys even covering the same war that we're fighting daily!?" Michael Yon does indeed deliver a "Moment of Truth". He writes from the point of view of the infantryman and cavalry scout: the young men who enlisted specifically to put themselves into harms way and fight a cunning enemy. Unlike his contemporaries, Yon understands the meaning of honor and sacrifice, that casualties are a part of war, and that it is the American soldier's ability to overcome the horrors and fight on that wins wars. Unlike the mainstream news media who focuses on the loss of life while turning a blind eye to the success that loss of life paved the way for, Yon paints an intimate unbiased (left OR right) view of the commitment of this generation's warriors who have turned the tide in the sands and cities of Iraq. He does not candy coat the truth, or gloss over failures, he simply paints the entire picture. In the end I believe that this is hands down one of the best books written about the war in Iraq, and is a must raed for both those for and against the war as it is one of the few objective accounts of the battles being waged thousands of miles from home.

An objective view of the rebuilding of Iraq. Michael is an excellent witness of the events, both the victories and defeats.

This book makes me feel great pride in our soldiers, not only for their bravery, but for their restraint as well. They are fighting enemies who use children as shields and weapons, yet give detainees respect of human life. They are definately on the "moral high ground" as Mr. Yon says. Mr. Yon reports, does not lean left or right; points out mistakes and describes achievements. I have an even greater respect now for our soldiers than before. Next time you see a soldier at a restaurant, pick up his/her bill, and tell his/her kids what a hero he/she is.

I finished reading Chickenhawk last night just a few minutes after midnight, July 4, 2008. I feel like I oughta apologize to its author, Bob Mason, for taking 25 years to "discover" his excellent account of one man's horrific wartime experiences in Vietnam over 40 years ago. Sam Hynes, author of the equally excellent WWII pilot's memoir, Flights of Passage, once told me that one of the most important ingredients in a memoir is that the narrator be likeable. Chickenhawk has that most vital element, for Bob Mason is as likeable a guy as you'll find in the literature of war, and his prose is absolutely real and riveting as he tells of his whirling descent into the madness that was Vietnam. His final chapter summarizes the kind of confusing nightmare his life became upon his return home, as he struggled to understand and survive this thing now commonly known as PTSD. I like this guy. In fact I like him well enough that I will try to find a copy of his out-of-print sequel to Chickenhawk. It may take a while, but I'll be back to comment on that one too. In the meantime, I urge anyone who enjoys good writing of any kind to read this book. It's the real deal. - Tim Bazzett, author of SoldierBoy: At Play in the ASA (RatholeBooks.com)

Read it in six days. Kept my interest. Hope Mason's life is going better these days.

As the cover says, "The best book to come out of Vietnam". This is a hard hitting book which is very well described. Approx. 50 pages in, you are already riding in the chopper with 'Bob' Mason. A sorry tale but a very true one.

I have read many military books. This is the best one I have ever read. I suggest the sequel "back in the life" as well as "Weapon" and "Solo". Anything written by Mason is good.

Bob Mason wrote a very eloquent, very eye-opening account of his Vietnam tour as a helicopter pilot.

Having just lost my older brother, who was also a helicopter (slick) pilot in 67-68 with the D Troop 1/10 Cav (Shamrocks) and A Co., 4th Avn Bn (Black Jack), I found just how much he sugar-coated the "war stories" he told myself and our siblings when we were pre-teens/teens. After reading Chickenhawk, it's a miracle that Bob Mason (and my brother) ever made it home at all. It seems that if this war didn't get you physically, it sure got you mentally and emotionally - making you pay one way or another.

From a woman's point of view, I recommend this book to every woman who ever had a son, brother, uncle or husband in Vietnam. This is what our Vietnam heroes went through for US ... somehow, a mere "thank you" will never be enough.

Welcome home, Bob. Thanks for all you gave up for us.

I guess some of the most important things I feel I've learned from this book is: don't dwell, take pride in your work, and focus on the power of beauty. This man (as thousands and thousands of others) had to endure more mental abuse in his life so far, then a million men, but was able and lucky enough to swim to top of that putrid pond of a life he was given and see the good in it, as fleeting as that was. I was thinking of this book as a mirror and what message I saw in it, that would be "Have a Lion's Heart" .

This book enlightened me and really got to me, much more than I expected. I was delighted to read about the life of a 102-year old african american man from the south, as I am a 30-something white woman from MT. He has a lot to teach us, and a lot to remind us of and has a way of doing so that makes us thankful for what we have. George Dawson is a gem and I am pleased that someone took the time to put his story on paper. What a great book!

Even though this book was published six years ago, the message of "Life is so good" is timeless. It is a window into a world that we are all a part of, but some of us rarely see. Truly memorable! Dawson sees literacy as an incredible gift and he in turn gives the reader numerous ones in return.

Richard Glaubman's "Life Is So Good" is a real comeuppance for anyone whose outlook towards life runs along the lines of "I wish I had done X, but I'm too old to start now." Here's a man, George Dawson, who learned how to read at age 98. As a USA Today review aptly summarizes, "Dawson has become a literary hero, a testament to the power of perseverance." First-time author Glaubman expertly fleshes out Larry Bingham's award-winning 1998 Fort Worth Star-Telegram short story.

Dawson's tales of life in the Jim Crow-era South, his unquenchable work ethic, and his travels throughout North America make for compelling reading. Here is a man who was never given a shot to read when he was younger - economic circumstances forced him into full-time manual labor at a very early age. Despite significant hardship, his optimism and sense of self-worth never waver. The title really sums it up well here. Glaubman's final words from Dawson are "Life is so good and it gets better every day."

As other reviewers have noted, Chapter 1 of this book could stand alone as among the best short stories you'll ever read.

I like the memoir because George Dawson never gave up his dream to read and write. George was born in the late 1800's. His parents were not slaves, but his grandparents were once slaves. George was raised in Texas. His family was poor, and he never attended school. Georges started working at a very young age, drawing water from the well each morning for the house. George worked alongside his father in the fields. The work was hard, so was their life. They had to watch what they said and went in fear of the K.K.K. Twelve year old George went to work, and stayed with a white family to help out at home. His cousins came to live with his family because their parents died, so George was needed at home. George left home at twenty-one and worked in Tennessee building levees. It was two years before he returned back home.

Life is So Good is a story about George Dawson's dreams of receiving mail, learning to read and write at the age of ninety-eight, and his work ethic. I can relate to George's hard work and his work ethic. I beleive in hard work and doing it right the first time.

This book is sad and tells of struggles he had to go through. It is not easy reading at first because the chapters jumped around. But overall, it is a good book to read.

Playing With The Enemy is a beautifully written account of a man's dream, never fully realized, and the benefits which were achieved as a result. It captures the "sports" interest, essential history of World War II, the choices that shaped one individual and his whole family. It is dialogue at its best, a statement of a son's gratitude to his father and a tremendously interesting story that might never have been revealed had not Gene Moore's final hours been a time of sharing with his son, Gary. The writing in this book is superb, and, being from a small town in Illinois myself, makes me proud that the story has been told. No one should miss this account because it is entertaining and it teaches. I encourage its reading with willingness to see one's self and to recognize that our dreams, though worthy, can be redirected to even greater attainment than we might have imagined. Thank you, Gary Moore, for a true story excellently presented for us all!

Dr. David Lawson
Retired Church of God National Executive
Church of God, Anderson, Indiana

I loved this book!! It's a true story of Gene Moore who was a super baseball player and a super person. It shows how he cared about other people. Hard to put this one down. Can't wait to see the movie. A must read for anyone who enjoys a good book, this is it!!

Gary Moore's book is a gripping story that takes hold of any history or baseball fan. Even if you're not a fan of either one, it's still a great read. The way he tells the story makes you forget that it's a true story, and the way he blends the facts together into a brilliantly crafted story that will be loved for generations to come. Mr. Moore's wonderfully crafted novel made me want to learn more about the U-boats, and some day I'll make the trip to Chicago to see the real thing.

To my friend: Wonderful job! Can't wait to read your next masterpiece!

This book is such a wonderful reflection of Sesser and the southern Illinois area. The hopelessness of the situation during those depression years but the constant strength and hope of the people who kept life from being hopeless is so evident and well described. As a native of the area, the joy and celebration when anyone makes it big or even almost makes it big is a truth that resonates with this writing. What a great task Gary Moore has completed in forcing his father to talk. What a wonderful job of writing this great book of memories, pain, joy and victory.

I read Playing With the Enemy after meeting the author at a bookstore. I was intrigued by the subject matter of the story as my father, like the author's, had been scouted and signed by the Dodgers and was ultimately 'unsigned' due to an injury, at about the same time in history that Gene Moore was. While the surface similarities of our fathers' stories introduced me to the book, I found much more between the lines. The story of Gene Moore's experiences is indeed heartwarming and poignant. The mood of the story stayed with me and I found myself pondering two sub-themes. The first is the relative ease with which two seriously opposing teams could "level the playing field" (pardon the pun) and find, through compromise and acceptance a commonality agreeable to all. This wasn't just an Army/Navy rivalry, but Navy/Nazi. In spite of opposition from the powers that be, one young man's dream and drive accomplished on a small scale that which would heal the world if the idea caught on! Imagine looking at the enemy and instead of seeing only ideologies and hatred, seeing another human being with basic human characteristics, fears, families etc. and building on those similarities. What a concept! The other theme that I felt as a subcurrent running through the story is the sadness of the silence of the father. What Gene Moore perceived in his own history as reason for shame, pain, and self doubt, his son Gary saw as inspiration for telling a story too big for him to keep inside. What if Gary had never heard it? Their story has inspired me to be more open with my own children about who I am and the events that helped to form me. Turns out...they really want to know. Playing With the Enemy is a little gem of a book. If you read it solely for the baseball and WWII stories you'll love it. But I would also suggest that you read it for the bigger lessons within. There can be extraordinary power in the commission of ordinary acts.

I am a clinical psychologist, and I found Sara's Children well worth reading for the personalized insight it provides about the Holocaust. Although this book is poignant and heartrending, it remains well written without going over the top. The five Garfinkel siblings endured far beyond what human beings seem capable of bearing. Out of the war's destruction and nearly complete genocide, this family emerged without bitterness, without anger. That they managed not only to survive but also to rebuild their lives is a triumph of the human spirit.

A touching sad story of brave persecuted peoples caught in the political times and war. It is a story of faith and strength that has a happy ending of freedom with their escape and survival. It is a story that would be a great movie. The message is what happens to all families and groups caught in war and political up heavals still going on today. Ms. Hagstrom has caught and told us of the mood, the times, and emotional moment of the times. History is to be remembered in this book, to avoid being repeated. John Elwell

"Sara's Children" is a compelling story about five siblings who survived the Holocaust. Yet, their immediate family was not untouched: both parents and two other siblings were murdered by the regime.

I read this book after having re-read Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." I followed it by reading "Night" by Elie Weisel. "Sara's Children" tells a story as shocking to the conscience as any narrative.

I can think of any book that portrays in such historical understanding and journalistic flair of what life has been like for these five holocaust survivors siblings.
Sara's Children is not only a compelling biography, it is a revealing personal story about a family caught up in the events for which no one could have prepared them.

I can think of any book that portrays in such historical understanding and journalistic flair of what life has been like for these five holocaust survivors siblings.
Sara's Children is not only a compelling biography, it is a revealing personal story about a family caught up in the events for which no one could have prepared them.

I really enjoyed the book, because it was historic and romance. I read the book in one day because i really wanted to know the ending. The begining is a little slow, but it starts getting intresting. It's tempting to know what will happen with her and stanley, her and the girls and her and america.

this book is very boring. I was assigned to read it for English class and found it to be terribly dreadful. The only reason for continuing to read page after page was knowing that i had to. Although i do find the story of Anetka and Leon wonderful. I would not suggest this for a pleasure read

I fell in love with the Dear America series last year and since then I've read most of the series. So far this book is my favorite. For anyone who enjoys historical fiction, this book has great descriptions and information about coal mining in the late 1800's. The story is about Anetka Kaminska, a fiery 13 year old who moves to America with her younger brother to be with their father who is working in the mines. Accompanying them is a Russian soldier named Leon who Anetka cannot stand because he is in the Russian army and teases her. But he is detained when they arrive. Anetka has an arranged marriage with man who turns out to be twice her age-- and a widower with 3 daughters who does not love her. Anetka struggles with the work of living as an immigrant in a country and being a mother to the 3 girls. Her troubles become even more when the Black Maria arrives with to tell her that her husband has been killed in the mines. I loved the second half of the book because of how we see Anetka's character develope, and also the beautiful and very sweet love story. This book wasn't boring for one second and the story was just wonderful. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good -but very dark at times- read.

I do not read Dear America books anymore, because I consider them under my reading level. There is one exception, however, and that is this book. I absolutely love this book. It tells the story of a Polish girl named Anetka Kaminska, who travels to America with her little brother to reunite with her Tata (father), who has been living and working there for some time now. Traveling with Anetka and her brother is the handsome Leon Nasevich, a soldier of the Russian army. He goes with them after he gets into some trouble with the law in Poland and cannot stay there. Once in America, Anetka is to marry a coal miner twice her age who has three little daughters from his first marriage (she finds this out AFTER she meets him), and who she does not even know, much less love. There is also another problem: Anetka finds herself falling for Leon.

This is a great historical fiction novel filled with lots of details and romance. You should definitely buy this book, it is worth your money.

A great story about a Polish girl who immigranted to America as a mail ordered bride. It takes a lot of courage to marry someone you have never met. To become an instant wife and mother. The mother part Anetka didn't find out about until she met Stanley. Anetka is full of amazing courage and strength. To go through with the marriage, raising three little girls and becoming the sole responsiblity upon her husband's death. She truly is a wonderful charactor and you can't help but root for.

Are there times when you have difficulty going to the Lord in prayer? Begin reading this collection, pick any page and begin. These prayers will inspire your own prayer life and help you articulate your humility and your desire to honor, glorify and please God. There are prayers for repentance, conviction, awareness of the Holy Spirit and many others as well as morning and evening prayers. You'll be awestruck by the language of the authors as they go to the Lord in prayer.

Wonderful service and product. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a supplement to their daily devotion.

I bought this book for myself but I have found that it is great for family prayer times. The prayers remind me of so many facets of my faith, my walk, and my God that I come away every time I read with a more firmly established belief in the power of God.

This is a wonderful book if you have never read it. I was very pleased with the copy I received, and it was a great price. Thanks for always being a main competitor in the "book world"

This is a fantastic book for encouragement that will spur you on in amping up your prayer life. This little collection is a powerful incentive to reexamine the content and character of your prayer life. We are, as frail humans, inclined to offer up self-absorbed prayers that reflect very little concern, or awareness, of God's glory and purposes as we treat Him like a genie in a bottle pressing Him to grant our wishes.

The prayers contained in this powerful little book are organized by theme. They are Christ-centered (which is to say God centered), humble and sometimes poetic "little offerings" to a Giant God, who does all things well. While modern culture seems content to paint cartoon-like portrayals of the Puritans, these prayers grant us insight into the deeply spiritual and personable people who suffered from the same trials and temptations as we.

The candor and child like transparency with which they approach the one true God is touching, revealing, and encouraging---and entirely biblical. If you want to bless your soul, gain insight into a mature and maturing prayer life and perhaps find good examples of how to pray, then buy this book. Obviously, our prayers must be from the heart (as these are). You may wish to begin your prayer time by reading one of these prayers and using them to jump start your prayer time. Of course these prayers are not Scripture but they are a reminder that a deeper, richer, and more God-honoring prayer life is ours for the taking, if we but try. Buy this book.

The Bible , The Art of Warfare, The Prince and the respective the Law is a must read for all people educated and pragmatic.

Best Regards
André Rafnsson.

The author is able to eloquently define Law as well as the role of law and law-makers in any society. Although written for another country and another time, the content is just as applicable to this country today. This is a testiment to the fundamental truths expoused.

This is a formative, classic work. If you are into politics, do yourself a favor and read it ASAP. This is really a light-weight primer to libertarianism, and yet it is very powerful and heavy-duty at the same time. If more people would read (and adopt) these ideas, I think our political environment would slowly move in the right direction!

I think that other reviews have done a fine job of praising the importance and genius of Bastiat's work. And I thoroughly enjoyed his reasoning and clarity as well. But I was pretty disappointed by the quality of this edition. The book has misplaced punctuation and typos in it -- the kind that would be caught by a simple spell checker. Maybe I'm picky, but I find such errors to be rather distracting when reading. When I buy a book, I expect that someone has carefully proofread it, but somehow that seems to have been overlooked here.

So, 5+ stars for Bastiat, and a generous 2 stars for the publisher.

In 1850 a French guy wrote this little essay on the Law. It could have been written today in the US, in Europe, because we are certainly not progressing in terms of common-sense, politically. Here are some ideas:

-Justice is the absence of injustice. Nothing more than that.

-What God does is well done. Do not claim to know more than Him. The fact that this rule is almost universally broken says much about our level of hubris.

For Bastiat Law is a minus, it takes away. His subject is so relevant today that we can see the results of the States' false philanthropy, just as Orwell warned us in his Animal Farm. Western governments certainly know how to belittle us... we couldn't do without them. In Spain we have this government commercial encouraging drivers to drive well: "We can't drive for you!" They wished. The only idea that they think about it tells how far they've got under our skin.

This book is dynamite. Makes one see the world today in a clear and detached way. Who are the philanthropists that we "owe so much devotion to"? Take Gore's greedy schemes with his mineral mines behind his climactic facade. Take another homeless, Soros, the preacher of the Left, whose God is money.

To be a Pharisee is indeed to love the Law while hating man, to use the Law to make Injustice legal, to pervert Justice, to become a new god to modern State worshippers, wellfare addicts. Yes, Bastiat would sure be ashamed to see what the West has become: the legalized plunder by the State.

This was a very well written book, it was easy to follow and it's maps were of great help in following the battles events. I'm a new reader to the revolutionary war and since I was able to follow this book, I would definately recommend this work to others who are new to this subject. From start to finish this book kept my interest every word of the way!

Well written with research that debunks many of the legends that surround the 1st battle at Trenton. Also a good interweaving of the individual stories with the larger political and military situation.

This was an absolute joy to read. The book is not only about the crossing, but gives a good background of the events, politics and emotions that surrounded the American Revolution. Then it gives eyewitness accounts, from diaries, about the actual events that happened. It also gives details on aspects of the army, culture, political background and important figures that fill in the gaps and make the whole story read like a motion picture or documentary. The book tells how all the parts fit together. Truly a great book.

I believe it was easier to cross the Delaware in winter than to get through this book. I just read 1776 by David McCullough, loved it, and was interested in reading more. Fischer is one of the dullest writers I've read. It is painfully obvious that being a successful academic and a successful writer are not necessarily connected.

This is a truly great piece of historical writing. Over the past several years, there have been three outstanding books about Washington and 1776: McCullough's "1776", Ellis' biography of Washington, and this book by Fischer. Fischer's is by far the best and deserved the Pulitizer Prize.

Modern Americans have always been able to identify more with Lincoln than with Washington, the latter being more aristocratic and less modern in outlook (not to mention being a slaveowner) and seemingly austere and rigid. What Fischer is able to do is to capture the enormous problem Washington faced in trying to manage a completely unmanageable army and politics, plagued by geographical and cultural differences as well as by the lack of central political authority. Once one fully appreciates the daunting challenge faced by Washington -- as daunting as that which faced Lincoln in 1861 -- one can fully appreciate Washington's success in managing it.

Fischer spares no punches in showing Washington's tactical failure in New York and his frustration with being unable to make a rag-tag army of mostly New Englanders function like a "real" European army. But he gives credit where credit is due in showing how Washington was able to create a different kind of army -- an American army functioning in a uniquely American kind of polity. Washington is not the rigid aristocrat we imagine. He is able to appreciate the democratic nature and impulses of his army, and he leads by consensus. He takes pains to build consensus among his subordinates and to involve and respect ordinary citizens in building better intelligence gathering.

Added to this is Washington's larger-than-life charisma. He is physically imposing, a brilliant horseman, and a man of great physical courage. This earns him the respect necessary to lead the army -- and the ability to build consensus without looking weak.

The completely desperate circumstances of the New Jersey campaign in 1776 are vividly portrayed and add to the drama of the story -- as well as add to Washington's luster in handling it so well. Tactically, Washington is brilliant in how he managed the campaign, and Fischer destroys the myth that all Washington did was to surprise a bunch of drunk Hessians sleeping off a Christmas binge.

Fischer's concluding chapter summarizes his work and does so in a moving way that points Americans, in the present dark times, toward recapturing the better angels of our nature -- the American insistence on placing a high value on life, treating even enemies with humanity, and building national strength through consensus. This is historical writing at its best -- as a form of literature.

James Webb is a straight shooter. It verbalizes the action, nonsense, self-serving behaviour of some officers and the bravery of others and the people who have to carry the orders out. I was in during the latter end of Korea so I did not see combat. This book goes hand in hand with Oliver Stone's movie "Platoon".

The book is visceral and true to all that I have learned about the Vietnam conflict. What a horible waste of life of young and old alike.

It seems that a country fighting for its life can not be subjugated forever whether we like its politics or not.

I have great respect for Jim Webb as an author and as a new Virginia Senator. I enjoyed his book very much.

"Fields of Fire" is the best novel of the Vietnam War, bar none. A few have run a very close second ("Body Count" by William Turner Huggett, for instance), but this one sets the standard for what a Vietnam novel should be. I'd place it in the Top 10 American novels of the second half of the 20th century.

The men who make up the unit in "FoF" are realistically depicted, and I'm sure they are based on men that the author led during his time there. The reader actually feels like a member of the unit, and he or she starts to empathize with, and even like, most of them. The combat scenes will have you on the edge of your seat, and you feel it when certain characters give their lives for their country and friends.

This has yet to be made into a movie. I believe any movie based on "FoF" would be superior to "Platoon," and other Vietnam flix, and would make a great bookend with "We Were Soldiers."

I don't really know how to put the feel of this book into words. Its raw. Its real. There is no BS. On the back there is a review that says "This book is an anti-war book but..." but I did not get that feeling. Its just a book about war, with no bias in either direction. The book isnt based on actual people per se, but I'm sure everything in this book happened to thousands of young men in Nam. The ending of this book will make you hold back tears, I guarantee it.

This book is one of the best, if not the best book about Vietnam I have read.

This is an excellent book. Its very well written with a good story and interesting characters. I'm not a war afficienado but this was a really good read!

Of the many admirers that state this book is the sine qua non for understanding the Vietnam War, few are combat veterans. What troubles me is that several reviewers have expressed thoughts akin to worship, a phenomenon relished by authors and publishers ever since the making of Red Badge of Courage. In the 1970s, I met James Webb while working at the Naval Academy. Later, when I saw that he had published a novel about Vietnam, I got it and began to read. But I couldn't get far into the story. I tried several times but found its style and tone too poetic and storybook. The book tried desperately to expose me to a narrow set of fictional names, places, and events that were impossible to accept. I couldn't give up my own experiences in combat (1968-69), those inexplicable moments of survival with men that sacrificed their lives to save mine. The book didn't come to my defense but weakened my experiences with another story that wanted to decide the outcome of the war for me in words conforming to a style relished by publishers and book lovers only. I suspect this is the same for most veterans (soldiers and marines) that saw heavy combat in Vietnam. I'm troubled by the thought that war stories such as this one exploit with hyperbole and polemics mainly to make a profit. Suffice to say that Webb knew exactly what type of writing publishers were craving, and he wrote this story primarily to be published, making sure not to burn any bridges along the way. It is indeed fiction rather than history or autobiography. In this way, it was indeed a political statement, and those that think it is an anti-war novel are mistaken. There are no anti-war books or movies. They don't exist. A well known film historian recently said of the movie Paths of Glory, "Should the whole world watch this movie, there would be no more wars." This is a specious as saying that if we made everyone a cop, there would be no more crime. Books and movies about war, especially those with "searing truths" about combat, do not add to our understanding of war, nor do they prevent anyone from picking up a gun and going to war. In fact, the more searing the story, the more likely the readers or viewers will want to experience so-called truths for themselves, to watch others die, to kill others and be made heroes for it. Is there any wonder why we went to war in Iraq? For a nonconforming, nonprofit-oriented book about the Vietnam War, see "Traces of a Lost War" by Richard Barone. Independently published, it goes for broke in its denial of the "war story," fully admitting that its own words cannot touch or come close to the war they attempt to describe.