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:
Great Story.......2007-10-18
Tell's the story of courageous fighters even when the mission does not go their way during a modern war. Great for all new recruits in the armed forces!
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.
Book Description
On April 14, 1994, two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighters accidentally shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopters over Northern Iraq, killing all twenty-six peacekeepers onboard. In response to this disaster the complete array of military and civilian investigative and judicial procedures ran their course. After almost two years of investigation with virtually unlimited resources, no culprit emerged, no bad guy showed himself, no smoking gun was found. This book attempts to make sense of this tragedy--a tragedy that on its surface makes no sense at all.
With almost twenty years in uniform and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior, Lieutenant Colonel Snook writes from a unique perspective. A victim of friendly fire himself, he develops individual, group, organizational, and cross-level accounts of the accident and applies a rigorous analysis based on behavioral science theory to account for critical links in the causal chain of events. By explaining separate pieces of the puzzle, and analyzing each at a different level, the author removes much of the mystery surrounding the shootdown. Based on a grounded theory analysis, Snook offers a dynamic, cross-level mechanism he calls "practical drift"--the slow, steady uncoupling of practice from written procedure--to complete his explanation.
His conclusion is disturbing. This accident happened because, or perhaps in spite of everyone behaving just the way we would expect them to behave, just the way theory would predict. The shootdown was a normal accident in a highly reliable organization.
Customer Reviews:
Utterly fascinating.......2002-11-29
I went into this book thinking "how in the world could this happen" and finished it asking "how is it that this didn't occur before."
A fascinating book that has significance for all types of emergency responders, who need to understand how such "mistakes" might occur and thus how to potentially prevent such mistakes from occuring in the future.
An Organizational Analysis.......2000-12-14
Friendly Fire is a insightful, intriguing analysis of the 1994 incident that resulted in the needless deaths of 26 peacekeepers in the Iraqi Norther No Fly Zone. Snook presents a compelling tale of a complex system gone awry, an organization operating on the edge of chaos, and the ultimate result of a deterministic system spinning out of control. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of systems theory and organizational behavior, LTC Snook presents his thesis with exceptional clarity and depth of understanding; his conclusions are as disturbing as they are fascinating: a series of rational decisions made by equally rational human beings still failed to prevent the very incident the organization was designed to forestall. A concise, well-written account of and incident with lessons that we should all take to heart.
An Exceptional Account and Evaluation.......2000-09-30
Friendly Fire is a marvelous analysis of one of the most horrific accidents in recent military history. Snook is unfaltering in his tenacity to get to the root causes of this tragedy. The reader is given a broad perspective of how events, even those occuring years previous, led to the fateful day when 26 peacekeepers lost their lives. His ability to put the reader into the mind of each participant is riveting. More than just a recitation of facts or an outpouring of emotion, this book blends all the elements into a comprehensive understanding of a most complicated event. Friendly Fire should be required reading for all military personnel and anyone whose actions hold the lives of others in their hands.
When bad things happen to good organizations.......2000-04-13
In this book, Scott A. Snook, Ph.D. provides a thoughtful and readable account of how things can go tragically wrong in normal, healthy organizations. The author creatively applies several key theories in organizational structure and change to develop an understanding of (1) the tragic shootdown of two Army helicopters by U.S. Air Force jet fighters, which occurred in northern Iraq in 1994, and (2) "friendly-fire" events in general and broadly-defined --- or how it is that bad things can happen to good organizations, and there really is no one to blame. The book begins with an impressive, detailed examination of the data surrounding the 1994 Blackhawk shootdown. This includes thousands of hours of transcribed testimony gathered in hearings and court martial proceedings. In addition to official reports, Snook personally interviewed many of the key players in the Blackhawk friendly-fire incident. Using a "grounded-theory" approach, the author allows the data to shape and guide his reconstruction of the event itself, and his subsequent theoretical formulations to explain what happened. His resultant theory of "practical drift" spans multiple levels-of-analysis, from the individual to the cultural, providing dramatic insight into how such seemingly impossible events can be expected to occur in complex organizations. This book sheds the kind of light which both clarifies and disturbs. It should prove of real value not only to military leaders interested in reducing friendly-fire incidents, but also to leaders in non-military organizations who wish to understand, and perhaps avoid, normal disasters.
Customer Reviews:
One of a kind.......2006-12-04
This book portrays the Indian spirit Black Hawk as known to the Spiritualist Churches in New Orleans. Black Hawk is a 19th century Midwestern Indian warrior especially dear to the heart of African-American spiritual faith in the deep South. Black Hawk's following first blossomed in New Orleans sometime around the 1920s through the work of the spiritualist Leafy Anderson. The book has biographical material about both Black Hawk and Leafy Anderson and includes interesting material about several of the spiritualists who came after her and who still keep the tradition alive. The book tells of the way Black Hawk benefits the lives of those who call on him - "He'll fight your battles." - Jason Berry is a fine, sensitive writer. The photos are great, expecially the one of Big Chief Jolly of the Wild Tchoupitoulas taken at the time of Mardi Gras in 1979.
Outstanding.......2006-10-03
This is the only book I have been able to find on Black Hawk and the Spiritual Churches of New Orleans. The author takes you on a journey into the heart of New Orleans both with text and color photographs. The author really seems to know his stuff. I have enjoyed reading this book several times, each time learning something new. The author gives details of the spiritual church movement in New Orleans and throughout the African community. We read about the incorporation of Black Hawk, a powerful Inidan warrior is venerated and worked for the benefit of all, including usual shrines to the Black Hawk spirit. Highly reccomended!
Book Description
Each edition of Medical-Surgical Nursing has not only covered new developments in nursing, it has actively anticipated trends and advances. The 7th edition keeps readers on the cutting edge with the very latest information on nursing practice. It presents more detailed coverage of basic anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology, medical management, and nursing care than any other book available. Its focus on clinical outcome management emphasizes patient outcomes and makes the material understandable. A completely new design integrates information in the book with web enhancements on the accompanying Evolve website, such as online exercises, care plans, client education guides, and clinical pathways, as well as more on chapter topics such as diversity, ethics, religious beliefs affecting health care, and more.
Customer Reviews:
NO OTHER.......2007-09-11
This 2-volume book is highly recommendable as it is well written, easily understood, comprehensive and current. To me, its the best med-surg textbook to use.
Medical-Surgical Nursing.......2007-07-27
I received this item as described. It was in mint condition with cellophane still wrapped around it. The price for this book and the free shipping was unbelievable. It would have cost me more some where else. The shipping was ridiculously quick. I want to thank Amazon for their wonderful service and making this transaction pleasant.
Informative but Frustrating.......2006-05-03
This book contains tons of useful information that you will need as a nurse. However, it is written in such a style that if you are a student approaching med-surg for the first time, you will go through periods of confusion. Some things are written as statements without details and there are gaps in explanations. This book was required for two semesters in my nursing program and I constantly found myself referring to other sources for details and understanding of concepts and then back to this book for the "big" picture. It was very frustrating. But as my experience grew, this book was helpful as a reference. However, I still feel that it is not for beginning med-surg students who have no previous medical background.
Medical-Surgical Nursing: Clinical Management for Positive Outcomes.......2006-03-24
As a nursing student, this was a required text book for my courses. The information contained is very in-depth and informative, but it is a very tough, and at times impossible read for those with limited or no previous medical background. The book comes either as one single book, or in two volumes. Ordering from Amazon.com, I was able to get it in the two- volume version, whereas my classmates are stuck carrying a 2500+ page book with them to their classes every day.
great book to help you start thinking like a nurse.......2005-12-03
I love this textbook! I have only one quarter left until I graduate with an associate's degree in nursing and I needed a textbook that would help me start thinking like a nurse and not just a student trying to pass a test. At my college we used a different textbook that I found confusing and unhelpful. I really wanted and needed a textbook that would help me develop critical thinking skills, not just skills to answer NCLEX-style questions.
Here is what I like about this textbook:
1. There aren't alot of fussy break-out boxes and tables that clutter up the pages. I get distracted very easily, and if there are alot of tables on a page, it is hard for me to stay focused on the text. This book does have tables, boxes and illustrations, but they are simple and easy to comprehend. I found with the other textbook I would get overwhelmed with all the detail and anxious about trying to memorize everything. I feel alot better with this textbook, because it seems to get you focused on what you need to know to practice nursing.
2.The text of this book seems to go from general principals to more specific. For example, the general assessment, pre-op and post op care, and diagnostic tests are described for a body system before the book gets into the specific details of various conditions are discussed. This has helped me to get a big picture and see commonalities for the nursing care before getting into finer details that are disease and condition specific.
3. This textbook give a lot of valuable information. It does try to give the rationales to help you understand why you are doing something. For example, a sign and symptom of hyperkalemia is oliguria or anuria. But, this books goes further to state that oliguria and anuria are often precursors to hyperkalemia and not a result of hyperkalemia. If your kidney can't make urine to excrete potassium, you will get a build up of potassium in the system. This kind of explanation helped me to easily understand and memorize the symptoms of hyperkalemia. I like having the reason described so that I am not left to just memorize without understanding.
4. This textbook also tries to teach you how to delegate to nursing assistants. Before I bought the textbook, I went to the publisher's website and they had a web page devoted to advertising this book. There, the author described that they also looked at how nurses are more and more being pulled into court to defend their nursing care. They looked at areas where nurses are most often involved in litigation, and tried to include teaching about these areas to help furture nurses not get pulled into court. So, throughout the book are boxes that describe delegation issues to help you know what you can and cannot delegate, and what instruction you need to give to people you delegate a task.
5. THis book has critical thinking exercises at the end of most of the chapters. Just doing a few of these exercises has already helped me feel more confident about what I need to do as a nurse with patients in my care. My problem with my other textbook was it just had a few NCLEX questions at the end of a chapter. But, my anxiety was that when you have a real patient, you're not going to be given a list of four things to choose from like you will on a NCLEX test. This textbook has a companion cd and a website where you can go to find a discussion of the critical thinking exercises so you are not left hanging wondering if you came up with a good answer.
Lastly, this textbook comes in a 2-volume set, and I would recommend getting that instead of the single volume. It is a HUGE book, so it is nice to have it broken down into 2 smaller texts that are a more manageable size.
Book Description
In 1832, facing white expansion, the Sauk warrior Black Hawk attempted to forge a pan-Indian alliance that would preserve the homelands of the confederated Sauk and Fox tribes on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. However, the ensuing war with the United States decimated Black Hawk's band. The conflict has captured the imagination of historians for more than a century, and Patrick J. Jung here re-examines its causes, course, and consequences. Correcting mistakes that plagued previous histories, Jung focuses on the complex nature of Indian resistance and the role of intertribal conflict in the war.
Customer Reviews:
A handful of black-and-white maps and illustrations grace this chronicle.......2007-09-03
Patrick J. Jung (Assistant Professor of History, Milwaukee School of Engineering) presents The Black Hawk War of 1832, an in-depth examination of the last Indian war that was fought in present-day Wisconsin and Illinois. Volume ten in the Campaigns and Commanders series, The Black Hawk War of 1812 covers the war from rumors preceding its inception to the major battles of the storm, and calm that settled after it. A handful of black-and-white maps and illustrations grace this chronicle, written in plain terms to be accessible to scholars and non-specialist general readers alike
Book Description
“Blending history with ethnography and a bit of sociology, Trask’s volume explains the war and its lingering impact extremely well . . . Fascinating.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
In the spring of 1832, Black Hawk and his Sauk followers, including 700 warriors, rose up in a rage and defiantly crossed the Mississippi to reclaim their ancestral home in Illinois. The rebellion was dashed in just three months, yet no other violent encounter between white America and native people embodies so clearly the U.S. Republic’s conflict between exalted ideals of freedom and human dignity and its insatiable appetite for territory.
Until 1822, the 6,000-strong Sauk Nation had occupied one of North America’s largest Indian settlements, just east of the Mississippi. Supported by hundreds of acres of planted fields, their domain was the envy of white Americans who had already begun to encroach upon the rich land. When the conflicts between natives and white squatters inevitably turned violent, the Sauks were forced into exile, uprooted and banished to the uncharted west.
Resurrecting the heroic efforts of Black Hawk and his men, Trask illuminates the tragic history of frontier America through the eyes of those who were cast aside in the pursuit of manifest destiny.
Customer Reviews:
Worth a read..........2007-04-25
Dr. Trasks's work FINALLY attempts to balance the Black Hawk War with something other than Black Hawk-- the hundreds of other personalities and downright characters that participated in the 12 week war. A bold, even radical departure from the tired monographs from the 1970s on the same subject. For a change, Black Hawk is looked at as a human being-- and not a sub-diety-- and major players including Dodge and Henry are seen in the significant roles thay played-- and not as smaller than life 'angry white guys.'
The book does have some drawbacks. I agree with the numerous post-modern "Professorisms" that leak into the book (as mentioned by a previous reviewer.) Trask ardently refuses to cut through the the accounts of Stillman's Run to present his interpretation of what happened.
Three American accounts indicated that BH's men fired first; BH does not indicate that in his autobiography-- and Trask waivers between "can't decide" and siding with BH anyway. Trask makes mincemeat of early settlers (calling the frontiersman a "myth" and presenting a big dissertation regarding Trask's use of James Fennimore Cooper's work as an example of an indian captivity story upon which the myth subsisted. unfortunately he neglects to tell his readers that the captive narrrative in Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" was in part based on TRUE events!
All in all, the narrative is much more balanced that previous works, and is generally insightful into the conflict as a product of its times. Buy or borrow it.
Excellent book.......2007-02-15
I purchased this book for my history buff husband. He loved it. Great writing.
A Well-Researched, Informative Read.......2006-07-13
This book gives detailed information related to the causes, effects, and events leading up to, and including the BLACK HAWK WAR. While the title suggests the book is a biography of Black Hawk's life, it is not that at all--and this did not disappoint me in the least.
Trask tells the story with just the right amount of depth, and in a contemporary, reader-friendly style. I had read a few other books about the BLACK HAWK WAR and Black Hawk's autobiography, but this book was more thorough, and easily understood. There are ample footnotes and resources listed in the apppendix for those who desire further research.
Black Hearts in the Midwest.......2006-05-16
Like some of the previous reviewers, I grew up in Black Hawk country. As a result, I have read many accounts of the Black Hawk War, and this is one of the best.
Black Hawk : The Battle for the Heart of America is fair and balanced (and not in a Fox News kind of way). Trask documents the rapacity of the government and the businessmen who cheated the Sauk and Fox out of their lands. He discusses the Indian culture in which internecine warfare, including revenge murders and mutilations, was considered to be an essential element of manhood, and how this reputation led to panic among the whites and the subsequent overreaction to the Sauk incursion into Illinois. He explains how a similar macho culture among the white frontiersmen led many of them to feel they had to prove their own manhood by going out and killing a few Indians. He points out not only Black Hawk's qualities as a leader but also the flaws that eventually contributed to the destruction of his people in a tragic precursor to the massacres at Sand Creek and Wounded Knee.
Trask's book tends to concentrate more on the social and cultural issues behind the conflict rather than on the military campaign. This is appropriate and after reading the book, I feel I have a much better understanding of the background of this significant episode in American history. However, I would have liked to have seen a little more detail about such military events as the Battle of Stillman's Run in which Black Hawk led 40 Sauk warriors against 300 Illinois Militiamen and completely routed them.
I was also annoyed by the fact that Trask chose to end this otherwise excellent book with a rather silly and specious analysis of why so many things in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin are named after Black Hawk. It's guilt; he says. I disagree. People everywhere like to identify with famous people that lived in their area. In central Illinois, things are named after Abraham Lincoln, and across the Mississippi in northern Missouri, after Mark Twain. In my area, it's Black Hawk. If the people south of us feel guilty about Abe and Mark, that's their problem. Around here Black Hawk is the only famous and heroic figure we've got, so we build strip malls and bowling alleys in his honor. And if that theory sounds silly and specious to you, well I have an excuse-I don't know what I'm talking about.
Outstanding - Much more than dry history.......2006-04-22
I came upon this book entirely by accident while killing time waiting for a flight. I spent my first 21 years in Northwest Illinois, and while I only became interested in U.S. history 30 years after moving away, as Trask states at the end of this book, people from that part of the Midwest can't really get away from Black Hawk. It was certainly one of our myths, tangential to history, growing up there. I had no idea that Alexander Hamilton's son, sometime Indian fighter, had a fort within ten miles of my hometown and Henry Dodge, founder of Dodgeville, became a frontier hero in a nearby skirmish. Author Trask is dead-on contrasting today's sleepy Illinois-Wisconsin towns with their brief brushes with Black Hawk during the summer of 1832. The whole story fits nicely, or maybe awkwardly, into white America's concept of settling North America.
I found the book fascinating and an artful mix of history and perspective. There is just enough analysis of white and native interaction and perspective to keep this anything but a dry historical account. The research seems meticulous, the writing and editing superb, and the narrative strong enough to make the book a page turner. It is hard for me to imagine better coverage of the Black Hawk War.
I'll have to disagree with another reviewer who thinks Trask goes to far with naive, modernist analysis. I hate pedantic, term-paper analysis and frankly, I found very little here. I liked his Trickster analogy and was most happy this book was not a rote recital of historical events.
Customer Reviews:
The Autobiography of Black Hawk.......2000-07-05
The last "Indian War" in Illinois occurred in 1832 when a small band of Sauk refused under the leadership of the warrior Black Hawk to abandon their village (located under a subdivision of the present Rock Island, Illinois). They wandered up the Rock River, fighting contingents of regular army and state militia (a young Abraham Lincoln served several stints as a volunteer but saw no fighting; a young Jefferson Davis played a role in the last phases of the conflict), slipped into Wisconsin, and were finally defeated in a brutal massacre of men, women, and children on the banks of the Mississippi. Black Hawk surrendered and was taken East to meet President Jackson. After a short term in confinement, he and his companions were taken on a tour of the East Coast, an effort by the United States government to impress him with the young nation's overwhelming superiority in numbers and technology. The plan worked, by Black Hawk's own testimony, and when he returned to the Midwest he lived out the rest of his life in obscurity in a village in Iowa. He never saw his home again.
The origins of the autobiography published under Black Hawk's name has generated controversy. It was dictated to a half Native American interpreter, Antoine Le Claire, who rendered it into English, then edited by an Illinois newspaperman named John B. Patterson, who put it into publishable form. Both men swore that the result was faithful to Black Hawk's words, but the skeptical reader may be permitted some doubt; the language is clearly that of the period (surely Patterson's work), and Black Hawk himself complains on at least one occasion that his interpreter's grasp of the Sauk language did not suffice to translate a flowery speech. So what we have here, while no doubt in general faithful to Black Hawk's intentions and life story, cannot be his ipsissima verba. (It is a pity, given these doubts, that the editor of the volume, who has otherwise done an admirable job of annotation and commentary, did not compare the language of the preface, which records Black Hawk's own Sauk, with that of the text as a whole.)
Despite these doubts, there can be no question that the Autobiography affords us an extraordinary opportunity to see the impact of midwestern expansion on the native population from their own point of view, and to obtain direct access -- even if it has been mediated somewhat for non-native consumption -- into the social world of a people soon to vanish. The war itself is somewhat of an anti-climax, and deeply sad, doomed as resistance clearly was from the beginning. It is rather the self-presentation of a proud, successful Sauk warrior, endowed with considerable facilities of self-reflection and honesty, that make this book a treasure that every American should read.
A Book for Anyone.......2000-05-11
As a college student from the blackhawk area, I found this book captivating. Really written for any age or education level, I think anyone and everyone should read it. A heroic story of a real man, the book is a beautiful journey through history. The story some details of Black Hawk's life before the war and describes the events behind the wars and his interpretation of them well. I would recomend this to anyone from junior high up and definatly anyone from Rock Island or the surrounding areas.
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
Autobiography of early 19th century leader of the Sauk and Fox Indians. Describes tribal customs, traditions, Indian wars, more.
Customer Reviews:
Black Hawk in his own words.......2007-08-01
This is an easy to read, valuable piece of near-primary source material - which fills in the gaps that I find in most collections of the last 400 years of American history. Like adding Howard Zinn material to your study of US history, the words of Black Hawk balance the traditional textbook summary of native Indian history and culture.
Black Hawk speaks in a narrative storyline that deserves our attention and understanding. He was without the benefit of support, and thus was unable to confirm the more than substantial memory at his grasp. The editorial notations added within the text that at times confirm or counter Black Hawk's telling, though intended to clarify the historical record, will thus serve to mildly frustrate the reading.
And although this is an "autobiography" of his life, there are significant questions as to the caliber of translation of Black Hawk's words. Just enough so that I imagined him actually telling of his life in his native tongue to one truly fluent in the language and how much richer the story would be.
I found myself marveling most the sections where Black Hawk speaks of the power of nature and it's interwoven influence on the lives of the native tribes, as well as their deep respect and understanding for the impact living things have on one another. By contrasting his culture with the encroaching white settler culture, he is prescient of what is to come. Through the eyes and words of this sincere man, we hear of the habit of deception and the power of greed of a dominating culture which will eventually strip away most all valuable material things from these people, while at the same moment speaking faithlessly of highest ideals and principles.
The book is a top read for anyone curious to hear a more authentic, first-hand narrative of the realities of life in the 1800's for a wise but slowly disappearing culture.
A view of the Indian Wars from the Native-American side.......2004-01-12
During the War of 1812, Black Hawk (1767-1838), a chief among the Sauk and Fox Indians, fought on the side of the British. In 1823, after signing a treaty with the United States, the Sauk and Fox were compelled to leave their lands in present-day Illinois, and move west of the Mississippi River. In April 1832, after Black Hawk had received what he considered to be too many affronts, he led a large following back to the disputed land, beginning what was later known as the Black Hawk War (April-August 1832). After his surrender, Black Hawk was given a tour of the expanding United States, and he decided that he wished to have recorded his life's story, so that the people of the United States could understand him and his reasons for going to war. This is the Black Hawk's life story.
This book was originally published in 1833, and was supposedly dictated by Black Hawk to his translator, Antoine Leclair. There is some speculation as to how much of this work is actually Black Hawk's own words, and how much is Leclair's ghost writing. But, I must admit that I did not bother much with this controversy. I found the book to be a fascinating look into Black Hawk's mind and how he saw the European-American settlement of the United States.
First of all, the hero of this story is no sugar-coated Disney character. His story is filled with battle and plunder and the taking of scalps. A true warrior, steeped in his culture's ideals, he lived and fought in what he considered an honorable and logical manner, and could not understand the way that the white people lived and fought. This is no politically correct paean to the Native-Americans, but a clear-eyed explanation of who Black Hawk was, and why he did what he did.
So, if you are interested in American history, and want a view of the Indian Wars from the Native-American side, then I highly recommend this book to you.
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Black Hawk Down
