Road Work: Among Tyrants, Heroes, Rogues, and Beasts

Road work : among tyrants, heroes, rogues, and beasts

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With access to key sources, Mark Bowden takes us inside the rooms where decisions were made and on the ground where the action unfolded. After masterminding the attacks of September 11, , Osama bin Laden managed to vanish. Over the next ten years, as Bowden shows, America found that its war with al Qaeda—a scattered group of individuals who were almost impossible to track—demanded an innovative approach. Step by step, Bowden describes the development of a new tactical strategy to fight this war—the fusion of intel from various agencies and on-the-ground special ops. After thousands of special forces missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the right weapon to go after bin Laden had finally evolved.

Bowden shows how three strategies were mooted: In the end, the president had to make the final decision. It was time for the finish. Bowden weaves together accounts from Obama and top decision-makers for the full story behind the daring operation. The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw.

Road Work: Among Tyrants, Heroes, Rogues, and Beasts by Mark Bowden

Killing Pablo is the story of the fifteen-month manhunt for Colombian cocaine cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar, whose escape from his lavish, mansionlike jail drove a nation to the brink of chaos. In a gripping, up-close account, acclaimed journalist Mark Bowden exposes the never-before-revealed details of how U. Drawing on unprecedented access to the soldiers, field agents, and officials involved in the chase, as well as hundreds of pages of top-secret documents and transcripts of Escobar's intercepted phone conversations, Bowden creates a narrative that reads as if it were torn from the pages of a Tom Clancy technothriller.

Killing Pablo also tells the story of Escobar's rise, how he built a criminal organization that would hold an entire nation hostage -- and the stories of the intrepid men who would ultimately bring him down.

ROAD WORK: Among Tyrants, Heroes, Rogues, and Beasts

Preview — Road Work by Mark Bowden. Road Work gathers the best of his award-winning writing, from his breakout stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer to his influential pieces in the Atlantic on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Paperback , pages. Published March 28th by Penguin Books first published To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

To ask other readers questions about Road Work , please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Mar 26, Jim rated it really liked it Shelves: I really enjoy long-form journalism and one of my favorite writers is Bowden. He does admirable research and tries, I think, to understand the nuances and complexities of the situations or events he is covering, and most of the time I think he gets it right, and also he is a pretty good narrative nonfiction writer.

I didn't love every piece collected here as much as the other, but most were powerful and interesting. I enjoyed his sports stories, was saddened by the ill children and gorilla piece I really enjoy long-form journalism and one of my favorite writers is Bowden.

More by Mark Bowden

I enjoyed his sports stories, was saddened by the ill children and gorilla pieces. This is the type of journalism I would have aspired to had I chosen that direction. I've never read anything by Mark Bowden that was anything less than engrossing, entertaining, interesting, and well written. This collection of previously published material was no exception.

I had not known that Bowden wrote stories on sports. There were several here including his telling of a minor league baseball game and the substitution of a potato for a ball.

Road Work: Among Tyrants, Heroes, Rogues, and Beasts

Equally captivating were tales of I've never read anything by Mark Bowden that was anything less than engrossing, entertaining, interesting, and well written. Equally captivating were tales of US pilots over Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein from his days in power, the fight between the powers-that-be in Philadelphia on if and where the Rocky statue might be displayed, Black Rhino poachers, Norman Mailer and Al Sharpton. Dec 19, Tom rated it it was amazing.

I've been a fan of Bowden's nonfiction for a while. This collection assembles a fair collection of his early writing with prefaces by the author, himself. Not only is the collection quite varied and interesting in itself, but I also appreciate the combined insight into how Bowden has refined his writing process over the years.

The commentary on the articles also provides a rare insight into the formative experiences of his career, which have shaped his philosophy.

It is rare for a nonfiction wri I've been a fan of Bowden's nonfiction for a while. It is rare for a nonfiction writer to put himself too much into his body of work, though after reading this, I feel I know the man a little better. A tad too many about political matters in America and sports but that is up to personal taste and not quality of writing. They all pulled me in and the author definitely has the ability to describe people so that you feel you have met them.

I may just have to get around to reading Black Hawk Down which has been lingering on my to-be-read pile for ages. Jun 30, Barbi rated it it was ok.

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This collection of essays was a mixed bag for me. I liked how each essay was given the context of its original publication, but some of the essays were a bit heavy-handed for a liberal-minded reader.

Bowden has a very clear political perspective, and I almost did not get past the first few more partisan-ish essays. However, formatting rules can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study. The specific requirements or preferences of your reviewing publisher, classroom teacher, institution or organization should be applied.

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