In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat in Iraq
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Long Gray Line journeys into the heart of the conflict in Iraq to provide an eyewitness account of life on the frontlines and a vivid portrait of the remarkable soldiers and leaders of the 101st Airborne Division. Read by Rick Atkinson. Simultaneous.
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Review:
The advent of embedded reporters in the opening days of the 2003 US war on Iraq meant a more direct and personal point of view than battlefield coverage has historically offered. Rick Atkinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for An Army at Dawn, an account of combat in North Africa during World War II, traveled with the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army from its deployment out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky through its entry into Baghdad. The result, In the Company of Soldiers, is a thoroughly engrossing look at the strategies, personalities, and struggles of waging modern warfare. Much of Atkinson's focus falls on the division's leader, the hugely competitive and charismatic Major General David Petraeus, who seems to guide his troops through Iraq by sheer force of will. Atkinson devotes most of his time to the senior commanders, but the loss of the G.I. perspective, while disappointing, is outweighed by Atkinson's access to the minds of the brass who must navigate an Iraq whose citizens were not nearly as happy as military planners had hoped and who offered resistance in ways other than what the Americans had prepared for. While plenty has been written about the American military effort in Iraq, Atkinson's perspective, combined with a direct, economical writing style, allows him to present sides to the war not often seen or considered: long periods of waiting punctuated with mad scrambles to apply gas masks, fretting over how to pack all necessary supplies into tiny kits, dealing with dust storms that can ground state of the art attack helicopters, and reading the irreverent yet shrewdly observant graffiti left by American soldiers. In the Company of Soldiers lionizes the American military officers but it neither condemns nor offers unqualified praise to the US effort in Iraq. Indeed, the disturbing omens of chaos hinted at soon after the invasion began in the spring of 2003 would come into sharper relief when the book was published a year later. --John Moe
About the Author:
Rick Atkinson is a former staff writer and assistant managing editor at The Washington Post, and the bestselling author of The Long Gray Line and Crusade. His many awards include the Pulitzer Prize for An Army At Dawn.
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- PublisherSimon & Schuster Audioworks
- Publication date2004
- ISBN 10 0743537351
- ISBN 13 9780743537353
- BindingAudio Cassette
- Rating
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