Boots on the Ground: Stories of American Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan [Paperback]

Clint Willis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2004

The recent wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan have generated gripping coverage from some of our most accomplished writers and correspondents, and Boots on the Ground collects the best new writing about our troops in the field. They include Mike Sager, who profiles marines training in the California desert for war in Afghanistan; John Laurence, who follows the elite 101st Airborne into a firefight at Baghdad airport; Evan Wright, who files a dispatch from Afghanistan with Canadian and American reconnaissance teams; Peter Boyer and David Levine, who explore the resignation of U.S. Marine Reserve Corps Major Scott Ritter from the United Nations arms inspection team sent to Iraq. These writers' stories offer new and deeper perspectives on the challenges and setbacks our soldiers face in modern combat, and together create a gripping portrait of the front lines in the ongoing war against terrorism.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although not written by soldiers themselves, the 23 pieces in this soldier-centric collection offer a troop’s eye view of the War on Terrorism, documenting the experiences of American military personnel on and off the battlefield. Willis’s last anthology, The I Hate George W. Bush Reader, made his political inclinations obvious, but there’s nothing overtly partisan in this volume: the editor’s selections concentrate on human drama rather than presidential performance. Gathered from a selection of print and online sources-including Esquire, Newsweek, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times and Salon.com-the articles tell the stories of soldiers in the Middle East as well as of their friends and families back home. In "The Marine," for example, Mike Sager profiles Lieutenant Colonel Robert O. Sinclair-a 40-year-old career soldier "known for his attention to detail and his almost wonkish expertise in battlefield tactics and techniques"-as Sinclair and his unit prepare for Afghanistan by training in the California desert. Elsewhere, Nancy Gibbs describes with sincerity and compassion the relationship between First Sergeant Christopher Coffin, of the Maine Army reserve, and his wife, Betsy. Part of a civil-affairs team, "the ones who hand out medicine and rebuild schools and are supposed to stay a safe distance from actual combat," Coffin was killed in Iraq, a turn of events Betsy could not readily comprehend. Stories such as these personalize current military conflict, giving readers a valuable firsthand look at life-and death-on the front lines.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (June 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560255870
• ISBN-13: 978-1560255871
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #853,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very liberal anti-war slant, July 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Boots on the Ground: Stories of American Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan (Paperback)

Not at all balanced. While there were a few articles that appeared neutral in their coverage, most went out of their way to denounce Bush and paint soldiers in a less than complimentary light. Namely, articles from NY Times, The Guardian, The LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle were simply biased and appeared to espouse a specific agenda. Don't waste time with this book.