I am a big fan of unit histories, so when i saw the title on Smith's book I instantly bought it.
But my deception was really big after reading it, the content of the book does not match the title at all!
It does talk about the 1st Raiders, but not much, does not specifies on training or gives any account of interviewed veterans, he just took some books and cut-pasted some parts to do his.
If you see this book as a general account on the battle of Guadalcanal it is kind of good, but with some mistakes. For example he talks about the Goetge patrol on a chapter called "Time Out"!
He just talks and talks about Guadalcanal (While the Riders where at Tulagi) and Vandergift, giving irrelevant details for someone who wants to know about Edson and his Raiders.
At the middle of the book he starts centralizing on the riders, giving an interesting account of the battles of Edson Ridge.
The maps are nonexistent, and the pictures are not so good either.
All in all its not a book worth buying.

Extremely well done tale of a superbly trained group of men who prevailed despite tremendous odds against their success. Much of their actions were as a result, as is usual in war, of trial and error. But their dedication to persevere were unheralded. All these guys were real heroes.