Book Description
Studies the differences between stepfamilies and nuclear families, and the adjustments and stresses families face as a result of remarriage.
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
The acclaimed New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down is "a shocking account of modern warfare . . . gripping and horrifying" (San Francisco Chronicle)
Destined to become a classic of war reporting, Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden's brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3rd, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly injured.
Drawing on interviews from both sides, army records, audiotapes, and videos (some of the material is still classified), Bowden's minute-by-minute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever written--a riveting story that captures the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle.
"Black Hawk Down ranks among the best books ever written about infantry combat. . . . A descendent of books like The Killer Angels and We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young."-- Bob Shacochis, The New York Observer
"If Black Hawk Down were fiction we'd rank it up there with the best war novels: The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, or The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien."-- Tom Walker, The Denver Post
"Stands in a league with Shelby Foote's stirring Civil War Diary, Shiloh."-- Jim Haner, The Baltimore Sun
"One of the most gripping and authoritative accounts of combat ever written."-- Kirk Spitzer, USA Today
"Amazing . . . One of the most intense, visceral reading experiences imaginable."-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
A New York Times bestseller for 14 weeks
Bowden's Black Hawk Down series, which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer was awarded the Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award for best foreign reporting
Customer Reviews:
Excellent and revealing.......2007-08-29
The beginning of this book kinda made me want to be a soldier but as it got into the actual horrors of war it seriously scared a strong sense of reality into me. Anyone who is thinking of joining the military should read this book first. Not that I'm trying to discourage people but just that they should take it seriously and not just think of it as an easy way to pay off school loans or something.
Anyway, the book is fantastic. Get it and read it.
One of the greatest combat books I have ever read.......2007-08-16
This book is great. It tells about the Battle of the Black Sea extremly well with several different perspectives. From stories of some of the Delta opperators to the Habr Gidr clan members fighting them, this book tells it very, very well. Only Flags of Our Fathers rivals Black Hawk Down. If you like combat books, I highly recommend this book.
Great Story Highly Recommended .......2007-07-13
Let me incorporate, by reference the many well earned accolades of the other reviews. This is an exceptional book and deserves the praise. However, there are some limitations.
The first is that two men watching the same person do nothing more than walk down the street may have perceptions of the event that would make it appear that they observed two different events, the second is that some of the intimate observations of those who fought there may have been reserved during interviews and the third is that Bowden may have received some politically correct guidance from above. Finally there is something enlightening in the unedited words of some of the experienced participants.
MSG Howe, a legend in the Special Forces community wrote an excellent book , Leadership and Training For the Fight. Deliberately misses the well edited polish as he uses presents personal combat experience to illustrate the key subjects he is discussing. Much of the action is on the ground as a participant in what became knows as Blackhawk Down. Howe discusses the critical differences in between the Rangers and Special Forces as they fought together. The second additional reference are the two books by Durant, In The Company of Heroes and Night Stalkers.
One of the messages of the other books on the subject which directly conflicts with the conclusions of Blackhawk Down is the impact of the removal of the AC-130's from the area had on the operation. The theater commander was denied the AC-130 gunships and American armor. Bowden repeats the Washington spin that the gunships would have been ineffective in the urban environment. However, Durant notes the huge psych impact when the gunships were returned to the fight a fee days later, while he was still held prisoner. It is further reported that the Secy of Defense came down to the SF camp once they were home to apologize for the removal of the gunships and soften the blow that there would be no formal after action report.
The performance of the gunships in several firefights in Afghanistan clearly demonstrated that they could work very closely with troops on the ground who were vastly outnumbered and fighting for survival within stone throwing distance. There also no doubt that the Little Birds and gunships could have been used together.
Durant and Howe provide the framework to understand the tactics and mission of those on the ground and in the air on those fateful days.
All three books leave the reader stunned at the quality, dedication and effectiveness of those who serve our country.
First Rate Military History -- move over Cornelius Ryan.......2007-07-12
This rates as one of the best military histories I have ever read.
Mark Bowden is scrupulously careful, balanced, and thorough. He presents a very complex incident with color, passion, and detail, cataloging the sounds, smells, and visuals of this frightful engagement.
He allows the participants among American and Somali soldiers and noncombatants to tell their own stories in their own words. Occasionally he steps back and presents historical/political background to let the reader see this "Battle of the Black Sea" in context.
The movie version (Ridley Scott directing) was exceptionally well done, fast-paced, fierce, gritty, and like the battle itself, ultimately very sad and leaving a sense of futility, given that the U.S. scampered out of Somalia shortly after the battle. Yet the movie was light and almost careless of many details compared with this book.
Move over, Cornelius Ryan.
Unbelievable.......2007-04-30
I'm so upset that I watched the movie first. In my opinion the book is 100x's better and I'm surprised to see how many story lines that they have changed. The details just make you shake your head in shock. In the movie they didn't really mention (I can't recall) Air Force Combat Controller's. Honestly if it wasn't for them there would have more casualties. It's an amazing modern war story that won't put you to sleep. I enjoyed the pictures at the end of the book. I like to put names and faces together.
A great read from beginning to end.
Book Description
New in the acclaimed series—based on the bestselling book by Mark Bowden, the new movie from acclaimed director Ridley Scott (Gladiator), and renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor) starring Josh Hartnett, coming from Revolution Studios and distributed by Columbia Pictures in January 2002. Based on actual events, Black Hawk Down is the heroic account of a group of elite US soldiers sent into Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 as part of a UN peacekeeping operation to quell the civil war and famine ravaging the country. Young Rangers and veteran Delta Force soldiers fight side by side against overwhelming odds. For eighteen harrowing hours, outnumbered and surrounded, tensions flare, friends are lost, alliances are formed and soldiers learn the true nature of war and heroism. The cast also includes: Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, William Fichiner, and Sam Shepard. 20 b/w photos. credits.
Customer Reviews:
Great movie, but what sort of example is this for a budding screenwriter?.......2006-12-13
If you look at the first except page, T.S. Eliot's last name is misspelled. Hollywood supposedly demands that every spec script be free of misspelled words and bad grammar, yet I've seen shooting scripts with "He could care less" instead of "He couldn't care less" (not dialogue, mind you) and frequent misspellings. Much like the literary agent industry, professionalism is demanded (agent name, book proposal, nice paper, SASE), but often not reciprocated (e.g., they'll send you a photocopied form letter [Dear Author . . .]).
What we need to see are published versions of original speculation scripts. Shane Black's first release of "Lethal Weapon" would be more beneficial a read than these shooting scripts.
Sorry, got off on a rant. It's not that these shooting scripts aren't worth reading for new screenwriters, but there's a market out there for actual spec script versions. If your spec has as many SUPERs in it as this shooting script, Hollywood might throw your stuff in the bin . . . unless you're established, of course.
Excellent! Like you're watching the movie all over again........2002-04-17
It's a great book. Everything is in exact detail as the movie. As I read, I picture the scene in the movie and I feel like I'm watching the movie all over again. It was written word for word, scene by scene. It even includes still photos and a full cast description of each character. It was everything I thought it would be. It was definitely worth the wait since ordering this book before it was even published.
Book Description
• Maps and strategies for the massive multiplayer battles
• Multiplayer tactics from the people that made the game
• Expert combat tips for the single-player campaign
• Complete breakdown of your entire arsenal
• Full-color maps of Mogadishu combat hotspots
• Covers both the Xbox and PlayStation2 editions!
Customer Reviews:
taut action thriller..........2007-02-22
from the first page until the very last paragraph you'll find a taut action thriller..you'll almost feel the bullets whizzing by in this Somalia saga..and it's all true...what started out as a humanitarian rescue effort eventually escalated into a botched attempt to capture a warlord with Al Qaeda footprints all over the resistance effort before most Americans had ever heard of Al Qaeda..what could aptly be described as the first big battle of the war against terror..
Great.......2006-04-25
this was the singal greatest story of war i have evr read. He describes the situation in Somalia and how the soldiers deal with it. This is a great buy and you will not be able to put it down once you start.
Book Description
Let Nothing Stand in Your Way
·Crucial strategy and maps to take out targets and complete mission objectives
·Added stats for all new and old weapons
·Tactics for the all new single-player campaigns in Colombia and Iran
·All multiplayer maps and strategies for every mode
·Multiplayer tips from the testers
Customer Reviews:
Americal Policy Shot Down.......2006-09-12
In 1993, George Bush hailed the collapse of Russian Communism as a "New World Order." The United States stood alone as the lone superpower on the road toward a Pax Americana where world democracy would finally prevail. We were only a few steps down this road when we tripped and bloodied ourselves over a small stone in our path -- the country of Somalia. When the the government of Somalia collapsed in 1993 and its people faced mass starvation, the United Nations tried to bring order to a society in a country ruled by feuding clans and tribal warlords. After 26 Packestani soldiers were ambushed, murdered, and their bodies brutally mutilated, the United States decided to eliminate one notorious warlord -- Mohammad Fara Adid -- by using the crack Delta force in a series of raids, supported by Blackhawk helicopters. The effort went bad when two helicopters went down, and we were unable to extract nearly 100 men, who were pinned down overnight in the wrecked slum of Modidishu. The result was 18 dead US Rangers, and the nation awaking to he sight of American bodies being abused and dragged through the streets of Mododishu on international TV. Many Americans would rather avoid hearing more about this painful episode, but in Bowden's hands, this is a riveting story of courage and fortitude. The relentless focus on combat details lets you relive those long hours as Americans were injured and died under withering fire under the growing crowds of Somalis, who often used their wives and children as human shields in their efforts to kill Americans. Who deserves the blame for Somalia? By the end of this book, you will realize that like the players in a Greek tragedy, the actors were all doomed from the beginning. It is our part to learn from their mistakes, and be wiser in the future.
-- Auralgo
Book Description
Lock and Load Soldier!
·Tips for carrying out every objective
·How to handle heavy weapons mounted in Black Hawk helicopters and on Humvees
·Strategies for fighting through urban close-quarter battles and long-range sniper fire
·Become a pro at large-scale multiplayer action
·Crucial walkthroughs for single- and multiplayer missions
Customer Reviews:
Nice, but not crucial.......2003-07-27
There is nothing wrong with this strategy guide, except that the game itself doesn't require a lot of strategy, and therefore, you will not need this book all too often.
It did however get me out of a few frustrating situations, where it simply wasn't all too clear what to do. (The book simply made up for the lack of good game design and instructions in those cases...)
Average customer rating:
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Black Hawk Down
Mark Bowden
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: B000P6THG2 |
Product Description
Four tape narration of Mark bowden's "black Hawk Down."
Average customer rating:
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Black Hawk Down
Mark BOWDEN
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OPFORA |
Customer Reviews:
Complicates The National In The Origins Of Capitalism, Needs To Confront The Individual.......2006-03-14
Was capitalism a cultural project? Were the structural changes that created modern nations (rooted in capital) accompanied by significant and corollary changes in values, faith, religion, kinship, individualism, art, and other cultural phenomena? From the vantage point of twenty-first century cultural studies, the answer is an obvious "yes." It is not clear that Eric Wolf shares this vantage point in his field and in his period. For the most part, this work centers physical geographic connection, inclusion, and exclusion - - local and macrocosmic - - as the greatest influence on human behavior. For example: the peasant, newly excluded from the enclosed commons, turns to wage labor due to a lack of survival alternatives. Perhaps the peasant's motive for this change is not the most important question of history, but rather the change that history inscribes upon the peasant's cultural constitution. In other words, is the peasant merely a rational economic actor to be inserted in an equation of geopolitical determinism, or are they compelled at this broad historical juncture to do something newly irrational, counter-instinctual, and alien to the preparation of their human constitution? The problem is that Wolf's cool and rational engagement with the spaces, places, motions, and control of objects still subscribes to a fairly static reification of the individual. This individual must be unmoving in spiritual and cultural practice, trauma, affection, embrace and rejection, or at least conceived of as stable and reasonable outside of this variability, in order for Wolf's historical narrative to be a complete explanation. Of course, no author claims a complete explanation so the question becomes whether or not this is a viable one.
Without a doubt, Wolf's study of objects as moving and formative in the rise of prevailing world power was a radical departure from "situated" anthropology and the isolated empirical engagement of cultural objects. His work takes an important stand against ascribing the exceptionalism of modern nation states backwards through time as an acceptable constraint on historical inquiry. He thus separates himself from the study of "Dutch capitalism" or "Italian mercantilism" and instead presents a vision of connected communities and urban centers. In important ways, he upsets the claim that contemporary geopolitical and cultural divisions make on nature, a fallacy that prevailed across disciplines and credible discourses for centuries. Wolf rocks this boat. Surely, after reading this work, one is less comfortable with terms like "English feudalism."
However, this work does not trouble the claim that capitalism makes on nature because that claim is rooted in a very specific and historically modern reification of the liberal individual. Capitalism constructs the individual qua reason, a mind without a body and a rational actor whose flow is enabled, diverted, reversed, or stopped by resource and object politics. I remain unconvinced that history is quite so simple as changing the levers of human functionalism so articulated. While it is impressive (if not decentering) to document the history and rise of Europe as contingent on global object politics involving diverse peoples - - and the author openly admits that there is great and varied cultural context in each of the areas he connects - - somehow I also saw the "people without history" as the majority of human beings entangled in the wide net of capitalism's reductionism of the individual. I am not convinced that "the migrant's position is determined not so much by the migrant or his culture as by the structure of the situation in which he finds himself" (362). While this is true of physical location and perhaps even economic endeavor, this reduction of positionality is a modern phenomenon of capital. Is there a better interpretive?
A Chapter at a Time.......2002-10-31
This is a looong read but it is well worth it in the end. I found that taking this book chapter by chapter was the best way to read, because sometimes you find yourself reading the chapter's twice. Wolf offers an insighful and opinionated view of European and Imperial history. I would advise anyone who is interested in history and modern political relations, its a great overview of well....everything that happened in European history involving trade, imperialism, and colonial relations.
An interconnected history.......2001-12-18
Wolf breaks the paradigm that the world ever was full of isolated pockets of civilized people void of contact with others. By tracing routes of fur trade, slave trade, early movements of people, materials and ideas, Wolf examines the world before Europe "civilized" the world. He is able to show how contact with European traders change the lifestyles of groups of people who already had fully developed cultural, linguistic and political traditions. How trade, bureaucracy, military force and violence influenced the people with whom the traders contacted illustrates the fact that "globalization" is hardly a recent phenomenon.
This provides the background for understanding the current changes in the transition of ideas in the world. Without Wolf's excellent work, it becomes possible to get lulled into the trap that the "Internet" changed the world. In fact, it did not provide contact for people where none previously existed. Electronic media does provide a new medium by which the transfer of ideas can take place. It changes the nature of that transmission, but it does not create a transmission where none previously existed.
History and Power.......2001-06-27
Europe and the People Without History describes the very process by which capitalism has spread and permeated throughout the world. Wolf's narrative starts from AD 1400 and ends in the 20th century. He traces the historical events associated with the expansion of European commerce, paying extra attention to the people ignored by traditional history, those who either resisted to the death or toiled under the drudgery of capitalism.
Instead of viewing nations or "tribes" (a problematic term in anthropology) as isolated and coherent entities, Wolf is concerned with the international and intercultural processes that is continually creating new nations, new cultures, new identities. In turn Wolf warns against the reification of complex processes or elements into one seemingly unified term. I find this perspective especially valuable. Generalizations and broad categories must be used with caution, since words and concepts merely reflect aspects of reality, but they themselves are not to be equated with reality.
Another merit of Wolf is his world systems approach. He analyzes world history as a system in which disparate and distant social groups can have important influence on each other. This analytic method rejects the notion that countries are independent and self-contained systems, but instead they are interrelatetd in the larger global processes of change.
Finally, readers should pay extra attention to the concluding chapter. It discusses the nature of ideology, about how it is formed and how it is perpetuated. Wolf reminds the readers that common terms and categories are not innocent words - they are the offspring of constant construction, deconstruction, and redefinition of power relations.
In short, Europe and the People without History will impact the minds of those who have not been exposed to the history of capitalist and colonial expansion. It will force people living in developed nations to reconsider the historical source of their affluency and wealth. Despite the dispassionate and objective tone used in Wolf's analysis of global history, I cannot help but read the book as a somber epitaph to the silent victims of colonization and globalization.
- Malcolm Godwin
I think that this is my favorite book.......2001-05-13
The rather odd name of this book refers to the tendency of many social scientists to evaluate non-western peoples without considering that they have a unique history that needs to be taken into account if we are to gain any understanding of them. Not surprisingly the author attempts remedy this shortcoming in a sweeping analysis of the last 600 years of human history. If you are a person who like myself would like to come to understand why human affairs are what they are today I recommend this book as the single best starting point. This is not to say that I think Wolf is right about everything that he writes, no work of this scope will achieve that, but he covers the field and knows the sources. The bibliography is a great resource, though a little dated. Ralph J. Pledger, Ph.D.
Customer Reviews:
A good parrot guide for the ametuer.......2003-08-05
I found this book to be a good guide for beginners and ametuers. Although it does not have all of the parrot species. It only has around 70. For people who have further interest in parrots should pick up Parrots of the World by Joseph M. Forshaw.
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Stepfamilies: Myths and Realities
How To Win As A Step-family
Old Loyalties, New Ties: THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES WITH STEPFAMILIES
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