American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant - Hardcover

Tyson, Ann Scott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062114980 ISBN 13: 9780062114983

Publisher: William Morrow, 2014

Synopsis

Lawrence of Arabia meets Sebastian Junger s War in this unique, poignantly dramatic true story of heroism and heartbreak in Afghanistan, written by a veteran war correspondent one of the most remarkable stories of love and war ever told.

Army Special Forces Major Jim Gant changed the face of America s war effort in Afghanistan. A decorated Green Beret who spent years in Afghanistan and Iraq training indigenous fighters, Gant argued for embedding autonomous units with tribes across Afghanistan to earn the Afghans trust and transform them into a reliable ally to defeat the Taliban and counter al-Qaeda networks. The military's top brass, including General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, approved, and Gant was tasked with implementing his controversial strategy.

Veteran war correspondent Ann Scott Tyson first spoke with Gant when he was awarded the Silver Star in 2007. Spending time with him, she began to share his vision. Risking her life, she accompanied him to Afghanistan to cover the story. And then they fell in love.

Illustrated with dozens of photographs, American Spartan is their remarkable story one of the most riveting, emotional narratives of wartime ever published.

About this title

Product Description:

[ American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant By ( Author ) Mar-2014 Hardcover

Review:

An astonishing new account . . . This book will be read a lot longer than most books about the American war in Afghanistan. It especially will resonate with people interested in Special Forces... We need people like Gant to do real foreign internal defense. (Tom Ricks)

Former Washington Post reporter Ann Scott Tyson tells this story not from a news bureau desk, but from the tribal front lines, where she lived it side-by-side with Gant. . . . If you read only one book this year about war or politics, read American Spartan. (Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of Gates of Fire)

Tyson concentrates on Gant s campaign, which produced plenty of fireworks, heroism, suffering and, this being Afghanistan, constant frustration. . . . One of the only satisfying products of a dismally unsatisfying war: this entertaining book. (Kirkus Reviews)

American Spartan is a riveting, powerful account of the service of Major Jim Gant, a man seen by many of us as the perfect counterinsurgent . . . Ann Scott Tyson had a ring-side seat . . . and takes us there in this extraordinary, gripping book. (General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.))

This story captivated me like no other I ve read on combat action in Afghanistan. I don t condone Jim Gant s every decision or the way he did things, but I do respect the hell out of what he did as a warrior. (Dalton Fury, author of Kill Bin Laden)

In the half-century since Robin Moore s The Green Berets, no other account of Special Forces at war could match its range and depth and candor-until now. American Spartan will enlighten and disturb readers with its searing honesty... (Dr. Kalev I. Sepp, former Green Beret and coauthor of Weapon of Choice)

A momentous account... The overall story is enticing, brutal, and current. (Publishers Weekly) --various

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0062114980
• ISBN 13: 9780062114983
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384