Not since his #1 New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down has Mark Bowden written a book about a battle. His most ambitious work yet, Hue 1968 is the story of the centerpiece of the Tet Offensive and a turning point in the American War in Vietnam.

By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which “the end begins to come into view.” The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke. Part military action and part popular uprising, the Tet Offensive included attacks across South Vietnam, but the most dramatic and successful would be the capture of Hue, the country’s cultural capital. At 2:30 a.m. on January 31, 10,000 National Liberation Front troops descended from hidden camps and surged across the city of 140,000. By morning, all of Hue was in Front hands save for two small military outposts.

The commanders in country and politicians in Washington refused to believe the size and scope of the Front’s presence. Captain Chuck Meadows was ordered to lead his 160-marine Golf Company against thousands of enemy troops in the first attempt to re-enter Hue later that day. After several futile and deadly days, Lieutenant Colonel Ernie Cheatham would finally come up with a strategy to retake the city, block by block and building by building, in some of the most intense urban combat since World War II.

With unprecedented access to war archives in the U.S. and Vietnam and interviews with participants from both sides, Bowden narrates each stage of this crucial battle through multiple points of view. Played out over twenty-four days of terrible fighting and ultimately costing 10,000 combatant and civilian lives, the Battle of Hue was by far the bloodiest of the entire war. When it ended, the American debate was never again about winning, only about how to leave. In Hue 1968, Bowden masterfully reconstructs this pivotal moment in the American War in Vietnam.

“A relentlessly immediate chronicle of the bloody, monthlong centerpiece of the Tet Offensive . . . This is the definitive account of a turning point in America’s Vietnam strategy and in public opinion about the war.”—Wall Street Journal, “top 10 nonfiction books of 2017”

“[A] skillful, gripping account of the turning point of the Vietnam War.”—Christian Science Monitor, “30 best books of 2017”

“An extraordinary feat of journalism . . . the result of four years of travel, investigation and, above all else, interviews with those who were there. In this last element—the first-person, human element—it’s a battle history alone in its class . . . Through the words and actions of hundreds of such people, and through his scrupulous day-by-day reconstruction of this battle, Mr. Bowden encapsulates the essential lessons of the Vietnam War, lessons that we seemingly forgot when conducting our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, lessons we need to go over now so that we never forget them again . . . Hue 1968 is also an exploration of what is common to all wars: humankind’s capacity for violence, cruelty, self-sacrifice, bravery, cowardice and love. Mr. Bowden undertakes this task with the talent and sensibility of a master journalist who is also a humanist and an honest man . . . the book is full of emotion and color . . . I urged several friends as well as my wife’s book club to read this book. I now recommend it to the readers of this newspaper. You need to know about this battle because you are citizens of this republic, because you can vote, and because some of you influence or make policy . . . Though stupidity and arrogance will always be with us, it is reasonable to hope that the more people who read and learn from books such as Hue 1968, the more will lend their weight in the war against folly . . . In Hue 1968, we read about humanity placed in a crucible, out of which comes both refined steel and slag. Here the best and worst of human behavior is exposed in glaring light. You will find the reading gripping.” —Karl Marlantes, Wall Street Journal

“A remarkable book.” —Dave Davies, NPR’s Fresh Air

“[A] magnificent and meticulous history, which tells, with excruciating detail, a story that is both inspiring and infuriating . . . Bowden’s interviews, almost half a century on, with those who fought, on both sides, have produced unexampled descriptions of small-unit combat.” —George F. Will, Washington Post