Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War Paperback – Bargain Price, December 7, 2010

This is a an excellent book if you want to understand the background of Eric Prince and Blackwater. The book is not totally objective but having read other books and reports it is a fair evaluation of the company and its leader. Master of War is a fascinating book and a very quick read.

Displayed the conflicts between government and private business enterprise. Coupled with Eric Prince's own book, spells out what has occurred. Having had a relative working with a Blackwater operation rhyme and reason become self evident. Worth your time to read and draw your own conclusions...

I bought this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. The last book I read even remotely concerned with military history was Massie's excellent "Peter the Great", so I was surprised to find how riveted I was by "Master of War".While the book seems to get off to a slow start, it begins in earnest with a fairly brief bio of Erik Prince, a seriously Type A man, who left the Naval Academy but who later trained as a Navy SEAL. Prince, having inherited some $1 billion from a family business, initially set Blackwater up as a law enforcement/special forces training facility, which expanded rapidly (thanks to Prince's deep pockets) into providing military zone security forces for the State Department and other government agencies. Blackwater burst into the public's eye with the murder and desecration of several of its "contractors", and with the highly publicized incident involving the murder of civilians in traffic in Iraq.This book condenses to the very essence, the distinct differences between an enormous military and governmental bureaucracy, as opposed to the fairly nimble and adaptable capabilities of a business run with a nearly inexhaustible supply of immediate money, and an extremely zealous chief executive. When the State Department wanted security in Iraq, Blackwater provided it. When the US government believed that there was no clear picture of the number and operations of contractors operating at the behest of various US government agencies - it hired a contractor to provide that oversight.The tale of Blackwater then becomes one of flouting and exceeding the mandate they were given. Blackwater calls the people they send out on these jobs, conractors, and treats them as such for tax purposes. This is a thin veil which should be pierced, as they then use this as a corporate excuse for lawless behavior performed by individuals while performing assignments for Blackwater.That said, this is also a tale of American capitalism: Erik Prince saw a gaping hole in training, and security provision abroad, and used his financial wherewithal to fill that need - quickly. He is a driven man, with a business that he has set up with no board of directors to answer to. With his enormous wealth, he is able to deliver quicker than any governmental agency could ever hope to.The lack of coordination amongst the various contractors, together with those well publicized incidents, as well as a plane crash (due to lack of proper training) - and the arrogant, lawless behavior of some of the contractors, ultimately lead to Blackwater being banned from operating in Iraq, and the beginning of Prince's withdrawal from daily operations of Blackwater.The book left me feeling even more bewildered about the US war machine around the world: governmental inefficiencies exist on a much more massive scale than imagineable; private enterprise can fill some of those gaps; government is so big that it can't oversee the private contractors, let alone coordinate with other agencies to allow the various contractors to work cooperatively, much less under the ultimate purview of the US military command.This book serves as a strong indictment of big government at its most critical, and its very worst, and chronicles a man who saw opportunity there.

Erik Prince to me is a patriot of the highest degree! We need men like him! Private Warriors could be the future!

Nice to get someone else's opion on the Private Contractors life, how certain details are with held from the news to be bias in their report.

Uncritical, pseudo-biographical puff-piece in book form. Not quite hagiographic, but certainly fawning."M.o.W." is also missing the serious strategic analysis that, while probably more likely to contribute to a less-flattering narrative for Prince and his firm (especially in the context of corrupt government contracting), would've generated some historical value for the book. Another reader notes, "Blackwater started with $200,000 in contracts in 2000, and ended up with over $1 billion income in the next seven years. Simons explains very little of how that occurred." HBS won't pull a case-study out of this text...Looking back on "M.o.W." post-Snowden, in the age of Greenwald and Poitras when they're at the height of their professional power, success and relevance, this book seems to be the antithesis of real investigative journalism. It reads like something one would expect from a strategic/crisis communications firm."A CNN producer and anchor, Suzanne Simons is the first journalist to get deep inside Blackwater—and, as a result of her unprecedented access..." <===== says it all. "M.o.W." = "access-journalism", not investigative journalism. Meh.Nevertheless, given that you can buy a brand-new hardback version for $1.84 (+ $3.99 shipping), it's ok."Master of War" is literally a sub-$2 book.

Great

Eric's view of the world.