HAMPTON SIDES is an award-winning editor of Outside and the author of the bestselling histories In the Kingdom of Ice, Hellhound on His Trail, Blood and Thunder, and Ghost Soldiers, which won the PEN Award for Nonfiction. A past fellow of the Santa Fe Institute, he teaches narrative non-fiction at Colorado College.
"Superb...a masterpiece of thorough research, deft pacing and
arresting detail...Sides shows how brave Marines — officers and
grunts — innovated, organized and blasted their way out of the trap
their fabulously famous boss had helped set. This war story — the
fight to break out of a frozen hell near the Chosin Reservoir — has
been told many times before. But Sides tells it exceedingly well,
with fresh research, gritty scenes and cinematic sweep."
—Washington Post
“To this pantheon [of the best books on the Korean War] we can now
add Hampton Sides’ On Desperate Ground, which hits all the right
notes...It’s a story Marines are rightly proud of and one that
should be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about the
remains that just returned home from Korea, and why those men
deserve to be remembered.”
—Wall St. Journal
Gripping...Master storyteller Hampton Sides, specializes in
captivating readers with his trademark moment-by-moment
accounts...Sides captures the big personalities who run
things...[and] also immerses readers in vivid accounts of horrific
battles and an infamous "attack in reverse."
—Christian Science Monitor
“Excellent…On Desperate Ground is a first-rate work of
military history, and its combat narratives are rich with
individual stories of danger, bravery, loss, survival and wrenching
poignancy.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Sides’ brilliant reporting and crisp storytelling provides a
backdrop for events on the world stage almost 70 years later…It’s
an epic worthy of Homer…In their will to survive the Americans are
just as crafty as their Greek forebears.”
—Santa Fe New Mexican
“Hampton Sides's On Desperate Ground is a heart-pounding,
fiercely written account of the brutal Chosin Reservoir Campaign
during the Korean War. Every page pulsates with drama. Sides, an
American master of nonfiction, has written one of the finest battle
books ever."
—Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author
of Rightful Heritage and The Wilderness Warrior
"On Desperate Ground is first-rate narrative history. Hampton
Sides' characters are richly drawn, his background history
engrossing, and his battle scenes bone-chillingly realistic—a great
read."
—Daniel James Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author
of The Boys in the Boat
“On Desperate Ground is a masterpiece of war history, a sweeping
and powerfully drawn epic of the Korean War and its mightiest
battle. The astonishing heroism, resourcefulness, and grit of the
Marines trapped at Chosin Reservoir boggles the mind, and Hampton
Sides’s telling of the story largely through the voices of those
who fought (including Koreans) makes for a spellbinding and moving
narrative. One of the most harrowing accounts of war I have ever
read, this book is destined to become a classic.”
—Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lost
City of the Monkey God
“What a book! Through moment-by-moment, intensely-researched
details, On Desperate Ground utterly immerses the reader
in this harrowing battle. Hampton Sides gives us a better
understanding of the history behind current U.S. relations with
Korea and China while offering a series of captivating profiles in
human courage—an absolutely riveting read.”
—Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light
We Cannot See
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