Books like Black hearts by Jim Frederick


Black Hearts follows the 502nd Infantry Regiment’s “Black Heart Brigade,” a unit of the 101st Airborne Division deployed to Iraq’s Triangle of Death in late 2005. Over a year‑long, mortar‑laden, roadside‑bomb plagued tour, the brigade’s 1st Platoon collapsed under extreme combat stress, leading to widespread discipline breakdown, substance abuse, and acts of brutality, including the rape of a fourteen‑year‑old Iraqi girl and the execution of her family. The book draws on extensive interviews with Black Heart soldiers and firsthand reports from the battlefield to chronicle the psychological and moral deterioration that occurred in one of the U.S. Army’s most dangerous deployments. It offers a stark warning about leadership and character fragility in modern warfare.
First publish date: 2010
Genre: History/Military History
Authors: Jim Frederick
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5.0 (1 community ratings)

Black hearts by Jim Frederick

How are these books recommended?

The books recommended for Black hearts by Jim Frederick are shaped by reader interaction. Votes on how closely books relate, user ratings, and community comments all help refine these recommendations and highlight books readers genuinely find similar in theme, ideas, and overall reading experience.


Have you read any of these books?
Your votes, ratings, and comments help improve recommendations and make it easier for other readers to discover books they’ll enjoy.

Books similar to Black hearts (11 similar books)

The Things They Carried by 6882204|Tim O'Brien book cover

📘 The Things They Carried

A collection of linked short stories that follows a platoon of American soldiers and their experiences, thoughts, and burdens during the Vietnam War.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 (35 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The yellow birds by 11515198|Kevin Powers book cover

📘 The yellow birds

A poignant novel exploring the aftermath of war on a single Iraq war veteran.

★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 (2 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Sunrise over Fallujah by 6337754|Walter Dean Myers book cover

📘 Sunrise over Fallujah

It is a cool cat

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 (2 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Chain of Command by 6493423|Hersh, Seymour M. book cover

📘 Chain of Command

Seymour M. Hersh exposes how the Bush administration’s decisions turned the September 11 attacks into a divisive Iraq war, revealing the links between early intelligence failures, political ideology, and the Abu Ghraib scandal.

★★★★★★★★★★ 3.0 (1 rating)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
None of us were like this before by 11483611|Joshua E. S. Phillips book cover

📘 None of us were like this before


★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
International Library of Psychology by 6984093|Routledge book cover

📘 International Library of Psychology
 by Routledge


★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Generation Kill by 9507422|Evan Wright book cover

📘 Generation Kill

A nonfiction account of the First Recon Battalion’s 2003 Iraq war deployment, detailing the soldiers’ preparation, combat experiences, and personal toll as America’s first post‑Vietnam combat force.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The Long Road Home by 6978940|Martha Raddatz book cover

📘 The Long Road Home

Martha Raddatz chronicles the First Cavalry Division’s harrowing experiences during the 2004 Sadr City attack, while recounting the long wait of families eight thousand miles away. Her narrative blends valor, sorrow, and resilience.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Consequence by 11955903|Eric Fair book cover

📘 Consequence
 by Eric Fair

This "is the story of Eric Fair, a kid who grew up in the shadows of crumbling Bethlehem Steel plants nurturing a strong faith and a belief that he was called to serve his country. It is a story of a man who chases his own demons from Egypt, where he served as an Army translator, to a detention center in Iraq, to seminary at Princeton, and eventually, to a heart transplant ward at the University of Pennsylvania"--Amazon.com. Eric Fair grew up in the shadows of crumbling Bethlehem Steel plants, nurturing a strong faith and a belief that he was called to serve his country. Consequence is Fair's story, the story of a man who begins with a desire to serve and, through a winding series of choices, becomes an interrogator for a private contractor at Abu Ghraib during one of our nation's darkest moments. In 2004, after several months as an interrogator, Fair's now constant nightmares take new forms: first, there had been the shrinking dreams; now the liquid dreams begin. By the time he leaves Iraq after that first deployment (he will return), Fair will have participated in or witnessed a variety of aggressive interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, diet manipulation, exposure, and isolation. Years later, his health and marriage crumbling, haunted by the role he played in what we now know as "enhanced interrogation," it is Fair's desire to speak out that becomes a key to his survival. Fair chases his own demons from Egypt, where he served as an army translator, to the police force in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to a detention center in Iraq, to seminary at Princeton, and eventually to a heart transplant ward at the University of Pennsylvania. Spare and haunting, Eric Fair's memoir urgently questions the very depths of who he and we as a country have become.--From dust jacket.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The outpost by 11635953|Jake Tapper book cover

📘 The outpost

Jake Tapper uncovers the root cause of a deadly Afghan War battle and explores the stories of soldiers and commanders alike in a gripping account of U.S. forces and the Taliban conflict.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Never leave your dead by 8210800|Diane Cameron book cover

📘 Never leave your dead

Diane Cameron blends memoir, history and true crime to uncover the story of her stepfather, Donald Watkins, a Vietnam-era Marine who served in China during the 1937-39 Japanese invasion and later convicted of murder, exploring trauma, mental illness and family dynamics.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0

Some Other Similar Books

While the Fire Burns by Richard Newcomb
My Men Are What They Are by Marc Levy
Fives and Twenties by Derek Emerson
Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold by Author Unknown

Have a similar book in mind? Let others know!

Please login to submit books!