I teach US History to high school students and this book has proven to be a worthy experience for their understanding of the Bataan Death March and the life of POW camps during the pacific war.

Most students only get a paragraph or so in a textbook and only learn the number of prisoners, years, and miles. Although this book culminates with the rescue of POW's from a prison camp in the Philippines the narrative of the conditions are what I believe to be most valuable.

Sides presents vivid accounts of the torture these soldiers endured along with their Philipino allies. I read excerpts of the march and time in the prison camps to my students and have witnessed their genuine response to the horror. I strongly believe as an educator that it helps them experience some of the brutality of war and gain better perspective.

If you are looking for a history book with real entertainment value this book is a must read. This is the best WWII I have ever read

This book is gripping from the start, retelling in the Prologue the story of the savage elimination of the American POWs at the Palawan camp in the Philippines. They were beaten, burned alive, and bayoneted by the Japanese prison guards. Even the few escapees were hunted down and executed. Starting the book this way builds suspense about the success of the Ranger-led prison break later in the story. You know that if the Rangers fail, or if they arrive too late, or if word gets out, then the prisoners in the Cabanatuan (KA-ba-na-TWAN) camp will also die in torment.

Hampton Sides, whose previous work I am unfamiliar with, interwove the story of the captured Americans after the fall of the Philippines with the story of the rescue attempt being planned and carried out, in alternating chapters. It was an interesting way to keep the book moving and heighten the tension. The two stories gradually came together, and then the triumphant rescue brought such a release of tension.

His treatment of the Bataan Death March was gruesome (and necessary), and conveyed the Americans' feelings of utter helplessness. The evil these men endured is incomprehensible.

I'm withholding a star because the author seems to have no sense at all of the American warfighter. He considers the US Army to be chauvinistic and racist, and he misses the fundamental likability and core decency of American soldiers. He could use a few days with Michael Yon. (Try reading "Moment of Truth in Iraq") There was even some editorializing about cultural relativism, as if the atrocities were *mere misunderstandings*, you see. Bah.

Otherwise, valuable reading.

*** Other good reading: Bert Banks' memoir "Back from the Living Dead" about the Bataan Death March and his captivity, and also "All this Hell" by Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee about the horrors our US Army nurses withstood during the seige and after the surrender of the Philippines.