From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and In the Kingdom of Ice, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War.
.. we can now add Hampton Sides’s On Desperate Ground [to the pantheon of literature on The Battle of Chosin Reservoir], which hits all the right notes in the novelistic way that histories are written today ... Mr. Sides does an admirable job of balancing the book’s two storylines, explaining the upper-echelon politics that put the Marines in such a precarious position, and the on-the-ground planning, execution and sheer bravery that helped them escape. To Mr. Sides, the Marines’ Gen. Smith is the hero of the story, and rightly so. Smith had the better understanding of the conflict his men were thrust into, even as he was being thwarted at almost every turn by MacArthur and his staff.
...a superb account of the greatest battle of the Korean War ... As narrative history, the book is a masterpiece of thorough research, deft pacing and arresting detail. As an allegory for America’s current leadership predicament, it is nothing less than terrifying ... In On Desperate Ground, Sides focuses his considerable narrative gifts on the human consequences of that failure.
In his new book, On Desperate Ground, best-selling author and historian Hampton Sides has delivered a combat thriller, focusing on the hellish 1950 Battle for Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War ... The cinematic battle scenes make up the heart of this gripping narrative, the result of Sides dogged reporting that involved interviewing more than four dozen veterans in 20 states ... A gifted storyteller, Sides once again has crafted an incredible tale, a heart-stopping narrative filled with rich detail and moments of incredible humanity that will appeal to far more than just military readers. This is a book not to be missed.
