Hell Before Breakfast

“Robert H. Patton paints a vivid picture of those nearly inconceivable times through the eyes of those who wrote about major historical events.”
—The Washington Post
 
 “A highly entertaining window into a long-lost, quintessentially 19th-century world of wars great and small and of the brave and resourceful men who covered them… Tells the story of the early years of this new profession and its practitioners with considerable gusto… [Patton] is a graceful writer… A great tale.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“Hell Before Breakfast takes us from the battlefields of Bull Run and Antietam to Europe’s bloodiest pre-World War I conflicts… their intriguing tales, enough for three books, are worthy of resurrection.  Patton’s account showcases innovation, bravado, and showmanship… Patton’s spirited chronicle evokes a lost age of journalism.”
—Boston Globe

“[Patton] tells this story with readability and color that would have made a newspaperman of that era proud… Engrossing.”
—New York Journal of Books
 
“Patton follows a dozen of the 19th century’s best war correspondents, from the battlefields of the Civil War to the deserts of Central Asia.  The portraits — of American, French, German, Russian and Turkish men and officers — are sharply drawn, and some of the scoops, like the ‘Bulgarian Horrors’ of 1876 still send a chill up the spine.”
—Geoffrey Wawro, author of A Mad Catastrophe and Director, University of North Texas Military History Center.
 
“Epic…splendidly written…Patton has once again proven that he is a gifted writer with a keen eye for chronicling their tales in a way that is both entertaining and insightful.”
—Carlo D’Este, author of Patton: A Genius For War and Warlord: A Life of Churchill at War, 1874-1945
 
“A fascinating cast of characters…Patton details major conflagrations and social and technological changes amid the gore of war and the prose of reporters of another era.”
—Booklist