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To Dare and to Conquer is a complete history of the use of special forces in warfare. I’m not talking about a complete history of the U.S. Army Special Forces stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I’m talking about every single time that “special forces” have been used in battle, going back further than the Roman Legions. Coming in at 596 pages of text, this book leaves no special operation unexamined. Author Derek Leebaert has done his homework amazingly well for this book.
Starting with Homer’s story of the Trojan Horse and walking right up to the operations taking place in Afghanistan today, Leebaert chronicles the adventures of a very special breed of soldier. At times he seems to lavish too much praise on the special operations soldiers. He comes dangerously close to blatant hero worship in some places. But that flaw is offset by the quality of his research and his ability to tell a great story.
History is, after all, the telling of important stories from earlier generations, and in that light, Leebaert hits a home run. He takes his subject and makes it come off the page with his casual prose. Instead of reading like a college history book, To Dare and to Conquer reads like someone is talking to you. Broken down into logical blocks of time, this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the world of military special operations.
This is a long book, and many people are going to be turned off by the sheer size. That’s a shame. This is a great book for students of military history. It’s also very accessible for readers who are interested in the subject matter but don’t have an extensive background in it. It never reaches above the reader’s head, but it still teaches even the most astute reader something new in every chapter.
