List Price: $30.00

Save: $7.72 (26%)

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon or get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

Arrives: Thursday, Jan 28 Details

Fastest delivery: Wednesday, Jan 27
Order within 1 hr and 23 mins Details

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Ships from	Amazon
Sold by	Derin Deniz

Details

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Derin Deniz

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon or get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Jenson Books Inc

Fulfilled by Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

$22.27
+ Free Shipping

Sold by: Book Surplus

$22.30
& FREE Shipping on eligible orders. Details

Sold by: MiamiBookSellers

$23.47
& FREE Shipping on eligible orders. Details

Sold by: Amazon.com

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan Hardcover – Illustrated, May 5, 2009

by Doug Stanton (Author)

598 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$22.28

$8.95

$2.93

Paperback, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$10.39

$5.75

$1.60

Audio CD

"Please retry"

$10.07

—

$6.09

The inspiration for the major motion picture 12 Strong from Jerry Bruckheimer, starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon.

From the New York Times bestselling author of In Harm’s Way comes a true-life story of American soldiers overcoming great odds to achieve a stunning military victory.

Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential to defeat their opponent throughout the country.

The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city, and the streets thronged with Afghans overjoyed that the Taliban regime had been overthrown.

Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed by the would-be POWs. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for their lives in the city’s immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the entire effort to outmaneuver the Taliban was likely doomed.

Deeply researched and beautifully written, Stanton’s account of the Americans’ quest to liberate an oppressed people touches the mythic. The soldiers on horses combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople proved a valuable lesson for America’s ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.

Frequently bought together

Total price: $76.96

Buy the selected items together

This item:Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton Hardcover $22.28
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Derin Deniz and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00. Details
The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan by Eric Blehm Hardcover $20.34
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Derin Deniz and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00. Details
Lions of Kandahar: The Story of a Fight Against All Odds by Rusty Bradley Hardcover $34.34
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Bookworm_CT and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
FREE Shipping. Details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Chris Hemsworth
9,284
DVD
$5.99
Doug Stanton
835
Paperback
$15.39
Eric Blehm
650
Hardcover
$20.34
Doug Stanton
1,047
Paperback
$11.89
Mitchell Zuckoff
4,575
Paperback
$13.30
Rusty Bradley
1,324
Paperback
$18.00

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this absolutely riveting account, full of horror and raw courage, journalist Stanton (In Harm's Way) recreates the miseries and triumphs of specially trained mounted U.S. soldiers, deployed in the war-ravaged Afghanistan mountains to fight alongside the Northern Alliance-thousands of rag-tag Afghans who fought themselves to exhaustion or death-against the Taliban. The U.S. contingent, almost to a man, had never ridden horses-especially not these "shaggy and thin-legged, and short... descendents of the beasts Genghis Khan had ridden out of Uzbekistan"-but that was not the only obstacle: rattling helicopters, outdated maps, questionable air support and insufficient food also played their parts. Stanton brings each soldier and situation to vivid life: "Bennett suddenly belted out: 'It just keeps getting better and better!' Here they were, living on fried sheep and filtered ditchwater...calling in ops-guided bombs on bunkers built of mud and wood scrap, surrounded by Taliban fighters." In less than three months, this handful of troops secured a city in which a fort had been taken over by Taliban prisoners, a tangle of firefights and mayhem that became a seminal battle and, in Stanton's prose, a considerable epic: "Dead and dying men and wounded horses had littered the courtyard, a twitching choir that brayed and moaned in the rough, knee-high grass."

Review

"Doug Stanton's Horse Soldiers is as gripping as the most intricately plotted thriller. It is a masterwork of stunning military action, brilliant in-depth journalism, and powerful storytelling. Finally Americans can know how just a few dozen courageous U.S. soldiers beat the Taliban under the most extreme and dangerous conditions imaginable. I could not put this book down." -- Vince Flynn

"Horse Soldiers is a great read -- a riveting story of the brave and resourceful American warriors who rode into Afghanistan after 9/11 and waged war against Al Qaeda. We're hearing many of these stories for the first time -- and from those who waged a war worthy of Rudyard Kipling, James Bond, and Davy Crockett." -- Tom Brokaw

"Doug Stanton's Horse Soldiers is the story of the first large American unconventional warfare operation since World War II. My Green Berets were launched deep into enemy territory to befriend, recruit, equip, advise, and lead their Afghan counterparts to attack the Taliban. The Horse Soldiers succeeded brilliantly with a highly decentralized campaign, reinforced with modern airpower's precision weapons, forcing the Taliban government's collapse in a few months. Doug Stanton captures the gritty realities of the campaign as no other can." -- Geoffrey C. Lambert, major general (retired), U.S. Army, and commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne), 2001-2003

"Not just an epic war story, Horse Soldiers is a beautifully written, intimate portrait of the men and women who lived the battle on the fields of fire -- and at home, too. Their secret mission against the Taliban was intelligent, brave, and undertaken with great care for the good people of Afghanistan. Doug Stanton's superb account is an invaluable insight for policy makers and the public for years to come." -- Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea

"In the spirit of Black Hawk Down and Flags of Our Fathers, Doug Stanton plunges into the heart of a single mission and returns with a stark understanding not only of what happened but what was truly at stake. Through precise reportage and hauntingly rendered battle scenes, Stanton shows that we may ignore this 'forgotten' theater only at our own peril." -- Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder

"Spellbinding...action packed prose. [Stanton's] gritty narrative is thoroughly researched and the details of military operations jarringly precise...The book reads more like a novel than a military history...the Horse Soldier's secret mission remains the U.S. military's finest moment in what has since arguably been a muddled war." -- USA Today

"Stanton packs a huge amount of research into a thrilling action-ride of a book... deserves a hallowed place in American military history...." -- Bruce Barcott, cover of The New York Times Book Review

"Horse Soldiers reads like a cross between an old-fashioned Western and a modern spy thriller." -- Parade Magazine

"Stanton has captured the inner workings of... Special Forces operations. A thorough recounting of the events told from the soldiers' point of view." -- Veritas, Journal of Special Operations History

About the Author

Doug Stanton is the author of the New York Times bestsellers In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors and Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan, which is the basis for a Jerry Bruckheimer–produced movie by the same name, starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon, to be released by Warner Bros. in 2018. He attended Hampshire College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, Men’s Journal, The Daily Beast, Newsweek, Esquire, and Outside, where he has been a contributing editor. Stanton is a founder of the National Writers Series, a year-round book festival, and lives in his hometown of Traverse City, Michigan, with his wife, Anne Stanton, and their three children, John, Katherine, and Will.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Chris Bray "Horse Soldiers" tells the important story of the Special Forces soldiers who first put American boots on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. Fighting alongside the Northern Alliance, the troops, often riding on horseback, achieved several important victories against the Taliban. But their accomplishments lose significance in this account by Doug Stanton, a men's magazine writer and author of the bestseller "In Harm's Way," who reduces all the players to stock types. Hollywood will not have to work hard to produce the adaptation: A "hard-as-nails" colonel, with "hands as large as oven mitts," leads troops who do "enough sit-ups and push-ups to make an Olympian god throw up." Jaws flare, muscles ripple, eyes burn like hot coals -- all that stuff. Unlike Sean Naylor's 2005 book, "Not a Good Day to Die," an eyewitness report of early U.S. combat in Afghanistan that put the operations within their institutional context, "Horse Soldiers" is a superficial account that only appears to be that of a bystander. As Stanton explains in the author's note, the book is based on interviews, journals, "previously published media accounts, contemporaneous photography, and voluminous official U.S. military logs and histories." Stanton also visited many of the sites he writes about in the book -- but not during the time the events he describes were unfolding. Nonetheless, his book is written as if he were there. So, for instance, an Afghan warlord lights a cigarette and exhales "slowly at the sky," closing his eyes to listen for helicopters under a moon that "hung overhead, a bleached horn driven into the flank of the night." A soldier at a base in Uzbekistan, "bored out of his mind," walks outside at night and drives a golf ball off the berm at the edge of the camp: "The ball soared, a white orb sinking in the dirty pond of the night sky." A medic treats a wound from a land mine, "the jellied flesh dark as a ruby." White orbs, dirty ponds of the night, jellied flesh rubies -- I kept picturing Snoopy at his typewriter: "It was a dark and stormy night." Prose style aside, readers should approach these kinds of details with skepticism. Those doubts should gather strength as Stanton describes the details of military operations. Special Forces soldiers walk around with "fingers curled around triggers" without having identified anything to shoot. Six troops ride for hours through Taliban country, trailed only by a small and indifferent group of Northern Alliance soldiers for security; then, as they prepare to enter a village, the team commander tells them for the first time to "lock and load." And so on. In short, Stanton has written a book that may interest a general audience but has little to offer policymaker and military professionals.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Publisher : Scribner; Illustrated edition (May 5, 2009)
Language : English
Hardcover : 416 pages
ISBN-10 : 1416580514
ISBN-13 : 978-1416580515
Item Weight : 1.29 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #376,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #156 in Iraq History (Books)
- #236 in Afghan War Military History
- #387 in Iraq War History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
598 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		84%
4 star		11%
3 star		3%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Richard Weter

What you didn't know happened after 911.

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

See the movie, read the book then watch the movie again. Preferably in that order. The movie is a bit on a compilation of events to add even more drama to a very dramatic event but he book breaks it down and introduces you to character you don't meet in the movie or meet as a compost. This is the first act of retribution against the Taliban and the Al Qaeda after 911 where a hand full of American Special Forces spearheaded a force of Afghanistan to liberate their country and revenge the attack on the World Trade Center while mounted on, of all things, horses. You did not see this on the evening news.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Naval Spook

Great Read, powerful true story

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

Horse soldiers delivers on so many fronts that it's hard to review in short form. But, if you like a true story of the early war years in Afghanistan/Pakistan, then you're in for a real treat. This is a real page turner that you can't put down, because it happened. With that, the demise of the Taliban war lord control of the region, the story line is the recount of the 12-man special ops team that went in and wreaked havoc on the Taliban war lords with called in air strikes and geurrilla warfare tactics, this is a must read for military history afictionados,...highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

R E Hogwild

Amazing story told in great detail, No comparison to the movie 12 strong Book is way better

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

While not the conventional writing style Doug Stanton get you from the first chapter. Then the author goes through in detail the story of each key member of the story and how they got the word. From the beginning and the details like the CIA and the duffle bags of cash, to the politics of war lords, this boook is a great read! This is a complete story, that there was not enough time or money to get it on the big screen. It would have had to to be a mini series. Well wot=Ruth the read to understand Afghanistan in the early days of Us activity.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lynn

This can be intense in parts.

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

WOW...what a book! If you want to have insight into a group of guys fighting the Tailiban and surviving living in the mountains of Afghanistan this is it. I am a retired psych nurse that worked in mental health at the VA so I had some insight into this. These guys are real heroes.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

John Berry

Fascinating story about the early days of the Afghan war.

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2013

Verified Purchase

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan
This book was recommended by a friend an I did enjoy the read. What was good for me is that I had not heard or read anything about this subject other that I do recall the evening news telling us about Mike Spann's death and the American Taliban or Al Qaeda captive, John Walker Lindh back in 2001. However, this author has put it all together for me in a well written book. Fascinating is all I could think of when the author described how our Special Forces team had to buy their supplies through retail stores and then how they were literally dropped into and area and basically told good luck. These guys were and are extremely brave and I am so thankful there are citizens that are willing to sacrifice their life for our country with no questions ask. Also, being a person that loves and rides horses, the fact that most of these highly trained men were put on horses as their sole means of transportation without having ever ridden a horse. I can't imagine riding the long hours they endured without the knowledge of knowing out to adjust one's weight or adjusting the stirrups to make the trip a little more comfortable. With that being said there were parts of the book that seemed to lag on a bit, but clearly not the ending. Again I found it fascinating that Afghan soldiers would arrive at a battle field in a taxi, then participate in a old time Calvary charge while being covered by laser guided bombs from aircraft that couldn't be seen. I do recommend this book, you will get through the slow parts and you will find yourself saying, I cannot believe this actually happened while I was home watching television with my family.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

L. D. Weimer

Important information

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book tells the story of early U.S. intervention in Afghanistan after 9/11. As a nation, most of us didn't realize how quickly our government and military responded with actual boots on the ground. Our "first responders" were a small group of CIA paramilitary guys and another small group of carefully selected, specialists from among our Special Forces. These specialists began preparations for deployment immediately upon news of the 9/11 attacks, and before our government and top military strategists identified our initial response. Their subsequent deployment represents the first time a U.S. response in war time was led by Special Forces. The capabilities and achievements of these two small groups, supported by incredible technology and U.S. air support and combined with Afghan forces, had an immediate and substantial impact in backing down the Taliban.

On the negative side: The book would have benefited from a little closer editing.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Charles E. Rittenburg, Major, M.I., USAR, ret.

The Human Side of the Defeat of the Taliban

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2009

Verified Purchase

This is the first audio book I've listened to in years, but I found that I enjoyed it tremendously. I was able to hear the whole thing on one long car trip, and it kept me rivetted the whole time. I hated to get off the road for food and gas because it interrupted the story! This is an inside look at the secret, special warfare operators who led the Afghan Northern Alliance, which had just lost its inspirational commanding general and was on the verge of defeat on 9-11, to complete liberation of Afghanistan in literally a few months. We are introduced to some of the soldiers, and can follow their rollicking adventure tale from the first helo drop into fog-shrouded mountains and an uncertain fate to the final victory parade in Kandahar. The story is interesting, exciting, and well told. The Taliban was driven into the no-man's land technically belonging to Pakistan, and the listener knows that they have made a comeback since then so that we are again fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But what a great achievement it was for America, after 9-11, to militarily defeat and remove from power the extremist government which had shielded and aided Al Queda in its terrorist campaign to kill Americans around the world. And they did it with only 50 American special operators in-country, on the ground, using the force multiplier of American air power to reinforce our Northern Alliance allies. Great story, great tape. I am now inspired to buy and read the book at my earliest opportunity.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Steve

Excellent tale of heroism.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great account of a (up until the recent movie 12 Strong) little known true story following the events of 9/11
Sent into Afghanistan, a crack unit of spec-operatives & air-combat controllers assist the Northern Alliance to direct air-power (mainly B52's) against the Taliban forces.
It's a sometimes complex tale, especially as more US troops & Warlords enter the arena & things start to get very political.
Avoid the movie unless you fancy something cheesy, it does no justice at all to the true series of events, it leaves out major characters & represents about 50% of what went on during the op, and gets very Hollywood-ised with nods to old US Cavalry movies, adding events that did not even occur. Shame because it would an excellent mini-series for Netflix or similar who would have made a much better job of it.

A great book nonetheless.

One person found this helpful

November Charlie Bravo

Great Book about a Little Known Story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

Really interesting read and covers a little known but very important event in great detail while still being interesting to the reader. It achieves an excellent blend of historical writing with the interesting nature of prose and it well worth reading for anyone who is interested in war/counter insurgency/irregular warfare/Afghanistan

It is naturally much more fleshed out than the movie (12 Strong) and covers a much wider amount of detail

irishpropheticart

Nice inside look at the US SF A and B Teams in the first operation in Afghanistan

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great book on the beginning of the American Afghanistan War and the Special Forces teams that carried out the assignment alongside their Afghanistan counterparts in attacking the Taliban.Fast moving and never dull.

SJ Green

Couldn't put it down.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 14, 2014

Verified Purchase

Writing was fantastic and the story incredible, recommend this to anyone interested in military history or the military. It may become hard to process if you have no military knowledge, though the the write endeavours to simplify all of his writing for non-military users.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

An amazing book-gripping and exciting as any fiction

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

An amazing book-gripping and exciting as any fiction. A must read for anyone interested in the conflict, Afghan culture or military history.

See all reviews