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MarthaRaddatz.comHighly lauded and respected reporting by one of America's premiere journalists and war correspondents. |
TV Alert: Martha Raddatz appears on the Charlie Rose Show (on PBS) weekend of 4/13/07
Martha's daughter Greta Bradlee writes as a college student about her mother's war coverage and the personal impact.
Martha Raddatz ABC News Chief White House Correspondent is a highly respected journalist who has made more than 13 trips to Iraq during the past four years to cover the war.
Martha recently visited the same marketplace in Baghdad that John McCain did. She discusses her experience during the Charlie Rose show on 4/13/07.
She has authored a brand new book about her interviews, experiences, interactions with soldiers and their families and her embedded visits during the Iraq War.
Her ABC colleague Bob Woodruff has recently been featured on ABC News, Primetime, Nightline, Good Morning America, Imus in the Morning, and other news reports regarding the traumatic brain injury (TBI) Woodruff suffered when an IED (improvised explosive device) struck the tank in which he was riding — and his amazing road back to recovery.
Martha was the first journalist to learn about and report Woodruff's injury in Iraq. Learn more about this brave reporter and the amazing soldiers she has come to know, love and respect.
"Gripping account!"
"Vivid; personal; timely"
"A horrifying story, clearly told"
People Magazine's Critics' Choice Book Pick
The Long Road Home:
A Story of War and Family
Release Date: March 2007
Selected Reviews of The Long Road Home:
Barnes & Noble:
War has many fronts, many of which are not on the battlefield. ABC News journalist Martha Raddatz has spent several years both in Washington as the network's chief White House correspondent and on the ground in Iraq. In The Road Home, her first book, she follows the troops of the 1st Cavalry Division as they head off on their Sadr City patrols, then picks up the stories of the mothers, spouses, and families they left behind. This first-person, split-screen approach reveals the full experience of war more realistically than either a combat narrative or a home-front memoir. Vivid; personal; timely.
From the Publisher
From ABC White House correspondent Martha Raddatz, the story of a brutal forty-eight-hour firefight that conveys in harrowing detail the effects of war not just
on the soldiers but also on the families waiting back at home.
In April 2004, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division were on a routine patrol in Sadr City, Iraq, when they came under surprise attack. Over the course of the next forty-eight hours, 8 Americans would be killed and more than 70 wounded. Back home, as news of the attack began filtering in, the families of these same men, neighbors in Fort Hood, Texas, feared the worst. In time, some of the women in their circle would receive "the call"-the notification that a husband or brother had been killed in action. So the families banded together in anticipation of the heartbreak that was certain to come.
The firefight in Sadr City marked the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency, and Martha Raddatz has written perhaps the most riveting account of hand-to-hand combat to emerge from the war in Iraq. This intimate portrait of the close-knit community of families Stateside-the unsung heroes of the military -distinguishes The Long Road Home from other stories of modern warfare, showing the horror, terror, bravery, and fortitude not just of the soldiers who were wounded and killed but also of the wives and children whose lives now are forever changed.
About the Author: Martha Raddatz is one of our most respected news journalists. As ABC's Senior National Security Correspondent, she reported extensively from Iraq. A two-time Emmy Award winner, she was recently named Chief White House Correspondent for ABC News, and has appeared on Nightline, Larry KingLive, The Charlie Rose Show, Washington Week, and many other news programs. The Long Road Home is her first book.
Some of the critics are saying:
Publishers Weekly
Violent resistance in post-invasion Iraq kicked into high gear on April 4, 2004, when American troops in Sadr City faced a massive assault that claimed eight soldiers' lives and wounded more than 70 others. Raddatz, an Emmy-winning correspondent for ABC News, clearly aims to equal the storytelling in Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Downin her account of the battle, and hits the mark with distinction. Extensive interviews with the commanding officers of the army's 1st Cavalry division and the soldiers pinned down in the streets provide a clear narrative of how U.S. troops, prepared for "a babysitting mission," found themselves in a bloodbath, as efforts to rescue the first soldiers fired upon met with even greater resistance from Mahdi militiamen who did not hesitate to use small children as frontline attackers. Heroic moments abound, like Casey Sheehan's volunteering to take another man's place on the rescue team, which resulted in his death. Raddatz touches upon the reaction of his mother, noted antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, but this is just one of many perspectives from families on the home front. The gripping account eschews politics and focuses squarely on the soldiers and their sacrifices. (Mar. 1)
Reed Business Information
Violent resistance in post-invasion Iraq kicked into high gear on April 4, 2004, when American troops in Sadr City faced a massive assault that claimed eight soldiers' lives and wounded more than 70 others. Raddatz, an Emmy-winning correspondent for ABC News, clearly aims to equal the storytelling in Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down in her account of the battle, and hits the mark with distinction. Extensive interviews with the commanding officers of the army's 1st Cavalry division and the soldiers pinned down in the streets provide a clear narrative of how U.S. troops, prepared for "a babysitting mission," found themselves in a bloodbath, as efforts to rescue the first soldiers fired upon met with even greater resistance from Mahdi militiamen who did not hesitate to use small children as frontline attackers. Heroic moments abound, like Casey Sheehan's volunteering to take another man's place on the rescue team, which resulted in his death. Raddatz touches upon the reaction of his mother, noted antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, but this is just one of many perspectives from families on the home front. The gripping account eschews politics and focuses squarely on the soldiers and their sacrifices. (Mar. 1)
Kirkus Reviews
The personal stories of U.S. soldiers caught in a deadly 2004 ambush in Sadr City that the author believes marked a turning point, when the war's mission shifted from peacekeeping and nation-building to battling an insurgency. ABC News Chief White House correspondent Raddatz, who has reported frequently from Iraq, displays a compassionate heart in her first book, which is also notable for its cinematic narrative structure. Chapters are short and focused.
The author whisks us rapidly from Iraq to Texas to Alabama and frequently shifts her lens from the killing zone to the home front and back. Raddatz is comfortable writing about high-tech weapons and the intricacies of urban warfare. She doesn't shy away from gore, either: After a battle, soldiers clean from vehicles the remains of their comrades' brains, "soft and slippery and horrifying."
She was able to coax intimate revelations from combatants, their officers, their families; she makes use of this material in italicized passages that voice the players' thoughts. Raddatz's principal interest is in the human beings caught up in the war. She tells their backstories, describes their experiences in high school, their marriages, their parents. She shows us what the wives were doing back at Fort Hood, reveals how some of them received the awful news that a husband had fallen. Her message appears to be that we are asking some sweet young people to do some awful things. Two-thirds of the way through, a surprise-the story of the death of Casey Sheehan, son of antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. A horrifying story, clearly told...
More critcially reviewed, acclaimed and award-winning books about the Iraq War
Martha Raddatz is a frequent contributor to PBS Washington Week; learn more here.
Watch Martha's most recent appearances on PBS Washington Week