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Outstanding
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Houston Chronicle Tony Freemantle
Engrossing. Its value lies not so much in the gripping, first-person account of the "shock and awe" with which the end came but in the insight it offers into the thinking of the Iraqi people who were first Saddam's victims, then war's casualties.
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
First-rate frontline reportage, full of luminous and eye-opening details.
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Outstanding
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Library Journal John F. Riddick
Rendered in compelling and lucid prose, this story of deceit, terror, death, and searing religious hatred evokes a great sense of despair and a deep sadness. [1 Oct 2004, p.98]
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
A thoughtful document of war, written with stunning precision.
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Outstanding
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Village Voice Joy Press
A riveting book that retains the visceral immediacy of the original pieces while also building cumulative resonance.
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Outstanding
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Washington Post John Whiteclay Chambers II
The great value of this book is that Anderson takes us beyond sound bites or official statements to hear the authentic voices of thoughtful, educated Iraqi civilians in interviews and vignettes that capture the chaos of wartime and its aftermath.
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Carol Brightman
Among three new books on U.S. involvement in today's Iraq, The Fall of Baghdad by Jon Lee Anderson comes closest to hinting at the regional implications of the election's outcome.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
[Anderson] has too willing an ear for the man on the street who proclaims: ''Middle East peace should not be secured on the backs of the Iraqi people. The Americans should see us as human beings, not only as oil.'' However heartfelt such declarations may be, they have a practiced sameness on the page.
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Favorable
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Booklist Vanessa Bush
This is a riveting look at the ill-conceived strategy to topple a dictator and reduce terrorism. [1 Sept 2004, p.41]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Brian MacQuarrie
Anderson's personal history of this fascinating time gave me a richer, broader understanding of how "the other side" experienced and endured the conflict.
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Favorable
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New York Review Of Books Chris Hedges
The best reporters, such as Anderson or the New York Times correspondent John Burns, were masters at slipping in enough details and writing with enough irony to remind us where they were reporting from. But I am not sure their work can be considered great reporting.
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Mixed
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The Guardian Ewen MacAskill
On the whole, though, there is not enough in the book about the Iraqis, especially the poorest, in part because western journalists' contact with the Iraqi population was often so difficult.
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Unfavorable
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Salon Ann Marlowe
Anderson never fails to give a brief description of what everyone he runs into looks like, but he rarely goes beneath the surface to show us how they feel, or how they make him feel.
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Unfavorable
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Paula Newberg
Without a clear interpretive lens, Anderson opts for a trudging chronology -- moving hotels, fiddling with phones, interviewing one's driver when time moves too slowly -- that too often places the reporter himself at the centre of the story.
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