Thunder Run - by David Zucchino (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter provides a brilliant account of the harrowing drive into Baghdad by an American armor brigade." --Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Based on reporting that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Thunder Run chronicles one of the boldest gambles in modern military history: the surprise assault on Baghdad by the Spartan Brigade, the Second Brigade of the Third Infantry Division (Mechanized). Three battalions and fewer than a thousand men launched a violent thrust of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles into the heart of a city of five million people--and in three days of bloody combat ended the Iraqi war.

More than just a rendering of a single battle, Thunder Run candidly recounts how soldiers respond under fire and stress and how human frailties are magnified in a war zone. The product of over a hundred interviews with commanders and men from the Second Brigade, it is a riveting firsthand account of how a single armored brigade was able to capture an Arab capital defended by one of the world's largest armies.

"The best account of combat since Black Hawk Down." --Men's Journal

Review Quotes

"Zucchino paints a vivid picture of the battle by stiching together the narratives of soldiers, officers, generals and Iraqis whom he interviewed during and after the war. . . . As an embedded reporter, Zucchino spent enough time with the troops he covered to understand the complex social dynamics that define warriors under fire." --Phillip Carter, The Washington Post

"Meticulously written . . . For every political figure who is eager for the adversary to "Bring it on", or who is quick to demand results without casualities (including non-combatants), Zucchino's book is a must-read. Both Zucchino and the heroes named in his book deserve our thanks for their courage in deepening our understanding of the real nature and costs of urban warfare and for toppling an obscenely tyrannical regime." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

"This meticulous "you are there" book should thrill fans of modern weaponry and military tactics. It captures the chaos of combat, from the orders barked by officers newly tested in war to the blasts unleashed by privates barely out of high school." --Scott Calvert, The Baltimore Sun

"The best account of combat since Black Hawk Down." --Men's Journal

"A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter provides a brilliant account of the harrowing drive into Baghdad by an American armor brigade, where the semichaos of combat is depicted with chilling realism." --John Marshall, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"No one has written a more compelling account of the war than David Zucchino. . . . The result is an unflinching chronicle of combat comparable to the best accounts of this generation." --Tom Miller, Military.com

"Takes us into the tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles and into the minds and thoughts of the tank crews during the battle. . . . This is an effective, gritty account." --Stan Brennan, Charlotte Observer

"A compelling narrative.A gripping account. The story unfolds like a novel. An excellent account of the battle for Baghdad." --LTC Clayton R. Newell, On Point Magazine

"[Zucchino] offers an in-depth look at the remarkable surprise assault on Baghdad by the Spartan Brigade of Georgia, which effectively ended the war. . . . The book is an interesting mix of detail of personalities, events and strategy." --Nan Goldberg, Newark Star-Ledger

"[A] riveting account of the American military's lightning capture of Baghdad. . . . It is not often a pretty picture, nor one for the faint of heart, because Zucchino unhesitatingly and graphically describes the violent and grisly fates that befell hundreds, if not thousands, of Iraqi Republican Guard troops and fedayeen militiamen, their Syrian allies. . . . [A] high quality example of in-depth and evocative war reporting." --Publishers Weekly

"David Zucchino is one of the best reporters and writers in America, and of all the journalists who risked their hides on the long ride to Baghdad, it doesn't surprise me that he's the one who got the best story. His ringside account of the Battle of Baghdad alone will amaze readers who think they know what happened in that war. The best thing about embedding journalists with military units in Iraq was not the piecemeal coverage that filled TV reports for a month, but the work of serious journalists who will be telling its stories over the next few years. Look for Zucchino's. It will be the best." --Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo

About the Author

David Zucchino is a contributing writer for The New York Times. He has covered wars and civil conflicts in more than two dozen countries. Zucchino was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his dispatches from apartheid South Africa and is a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting from Iraq, Lebanon, Africa and inner-city Philadelphia. He is the author of Thunder Run and Myth of the Welfare Queen.