"With Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden ably details that grim action in a
fast-paced factual account that reads like a non-fiction thriller. . . .
Through exhaustive research and interviews with the survivors, Bowden
masterfully transcribes not just the swirling chaotic events, but also
the heightening of charged emotions as the battle intensified. . . .
Black Hawk Down is an engrossing read, a well-told take of modern
combat."

"A vivid, immediate and unsparing narrative that is filled with blood
and noise. . . . It bears comparison to S.L.A. Marshall's classic
account of a battle in Korea, Pork Chop Hill."

"[Bowden] is obsessive about accuracy as a watchmaker, and the
rhetorical strategies he employs make Black Hawk Down a descendent of books like The Killer Angles, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the
battle of Gettysburg, and We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young, a
best-selling eyewitness account of the Vietnam-era battle of Ia Drang;
like those two, Black Hawk Down ranks among the best books ever written about infantry combat. . . . Anybody who has spent a day with
contemporary America's warriors will recognize immediately the
authenticity of Black Hawk Down. It's an intimate, minute-by-minute
chronicle of suffering, futility and courage, infused with the
Gen-X-speak of the 20-something soldiers, who talk about their
profession as an extreme sport, way cool until the killing starts."
 

"This after-action report is an admirable effort to record the skill and heroism 'of ninety-nine American soldiers trapped in an ancient African city and fighting for their lives.' With a good reporter's attention to detail and a novelist's appreciation of the lingo of the professional military, the author has written a vivid account of deadly, hand-to-hand urban fighting. This is an authoritative picture of the Rangers and the men of Delta Force who think of themselves as 'faster, stronger, smarter, and more experienced than any soldier in the world."
 

"Dramatically, graphically reconstructing the October 1993 gun battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, journalist Bowden leaves nothing about combat to the imagination. . . . It is a horribly fascinating bullet-by-bullet story, in which the purpose of Americans in Somalia fades to irrelevance amidst the immediate desperation of fighting. . . . In effective New Journalism style, Bowden projects the individual soldier's thinking: his pride in his elite training, his surprise at the strangeness of combat, his determination to hold out until rescue, and in two instances, his pure self-sacrificial heroism. An account impossible to stop reading, especially for those with army associations."
 

"A battle that changed the world, Black Hawk Down will alter how we look at the modern battlefield and the respect we have for those who fight on it. The story sends you from anger to tears, from laughter to quiet moments alone. It is the power of the personal accounts and the research of the author that brings the 1993 battle into your heart. Mark Bowden is not a military expert, but his manner and style of reporting earned him the respect of some family members and the people he interviewed. Thus the book becomes the combatants story told through a single author. A book not built on finger pointing or blame, yet is well aware of all of the issues. At the end of the book the author looks at many of the issues and dedicates it to the people who fought the good fight. That dedication was forged starting on his first interview, and has developed into a book for generations."
 

"Bowden has succeeded in writing what will doubtless soon be considered one of the most important works on military combat in the post Cold War era. Perhaps the best book ever written on military special operation forces (SOF) in a combat environment, Black Hawk Down provides unseen view into the world of both overt and covert warfare. . . . We are rewarded with a story that reveals the complex and chaotic events of October 1993 in a manner that is as breathlessly exciting as it is informative."

"A fascinating, blow-by-blow account of the Mogadishu raid that went wrong and cost the lives of so many brave American warriors. Mark Bowden has done us all a great service with his meticulous reporting of this incident."

"Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down is superb both as journalism and as literature. Not only has Bowden produced one of the finest pieces of investigative journalism of our time, but his vital, vibrant descriptions of this heroic yet tragic day in American military history place the reader and all of his senses in the midst of the chaotic action. One can not only see the heroism and death and fear and tragedy, but can feel, hear, smell, and even taste it, both from the American and Somali points of view."

"The only thing more phenomenal than the depth of reporting in Black Hawk Down is the quality of the writing. Mark Bowden is a brilliant storyteller."

"Terrifyingly real . . . Mark Bowden shoves you into the middle of this fierce battle and has you fighting for your life. His story honors all who served in Mogadishu; Bowden has earned his stripes."
 

"I can't remember having read such good reporting of a combat engagement . . . It caught such things as what it feels like to kill and to be wounded and to see death firsthand. . . . It also documents how, despite technological improvements, infantry war is still a very personal affair . . . Journalistic writing at its best."
 

"This graphic narrative about the disastrous U.S. military operation in Mogadishu, Somalia, raises jarring questions about America's role as a global peacekeeper and the Pentagon control over press coverage of warfare. To dig out the details of this one-day battle, in which 91 elite American soldiers were killed or wounded, the author broke down the military's wall of secrecy by obtaining classified records and interviewing dozens of participants, including Somali fighters and members of America's secret Delta unit."

"The best thing I have read in many a year, period. And the best thing I've read about war and combat ever."

"This is a great piece that I predict will become the definitive work on this battle."

"A monumental piece on several levels . . . I am impressed with the portrayal of combat-as we have heard through the ages from men who have been there, there is nothing glorious about war except perhaps surviving it. The story has given us all the fear, anxiety, adrenaline and hatred that combat provokes without glamorizing it, and the pain, destruction and death without the unnecessary Hollywood gore. As one who has served, my hat goes off to you for this." 

"Mark Bowden has done all of us analysts a favor by performing the first step of a comprehensive analysis, that is, in determining "what happened?" Mark's work is operations research done the old fashioned way, through painstaking interviews and careful sifting through conflicting reports to determine the truth."

"A superb account of that firefight in Mogadishu in the best traditions of S.L.A. Marshall. As an analyst, I know the critical first step in preparing the lessons learned of such an action is to first determine what actually happened. Mark's work is a detailed and accurate account, through the interview process, of exactly what occurred during the fight. I was so impressed with his work that I invited him to speak at a symposium of professional military analysts, which he did in June. His diligence and thoroughness is impressive, and his knowledge of the subject is complete. Especially noteworthy was his coverage of the Somali side of the action through interviews."

"Mr. Bowden has taken the complex story of a desparate battle and relentlessly covered the facts, providing an extremely accurate picture of heavy urban combat from the shooters perspective. A bulls-eye of literary work."

"I did not 'read' Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down series; I devoured it. It is a compelling tale of noble endeavor gone awry, written with such clarity and insight that the reader quivers as if trapped in the desperate, close quarters firefight Bowden's gifted narrative brings to life. Honest journalism and understated drama that probably describes the most likely future of warfare."