«'A truth about the Bangladesh war is that remarkably few scholars and historians have given it thorough, independent scrutiny. Bose's research has taken her from the archives to interviews with elderly peasants in Bangladesh and retired army officers in Pakistan. Her findings are significant.'»

Ian Jack, The Guardian

«'The "Events of 1971", as the International Commission of Jurists called its report on the subject, have been an enduring source of agonized contestation in South Asia for forty years. Subject to endless mythmaking and exaggerations in Pakistan, Bangladesh and their diasporas, all too rarely have these events been considered with the non-partisan care they deserve. Sarmila Bose's stunning Dead Reckoning is the first book-length study that meticulously reconstructs the violence based on actual evidence. By showing how the terror of rape and massacre cut across many more cleavages of East Pakistani society than Pakistani and Bengali nationalists like to admit, her book is at once a correction of the record and a tribute to the virtues of humanistic scholarship. Written with courage and searing honesty, it will set anew the terms of debate about this dark chapter in the region's history.'»

A. Dirk Moses, Professor at the European University Institute, Florence and Associate Professor, Uni

«'Combining rigorous scholarship and a passionate interest in setting the record straight, Dead Reckoning is the finest study yet of the social, cultural and political meaning of the 1971 East Pakistan/Bangladesh war, one of the major events of the twentieth century. Dr. Bose writes in the service of the truth, we are in her debt.'»

Stephen Cohen, author of The Idea of Pakistan

«'I have felt the need for a dispassionate account of the Bangladesh war ever since witnessing that triumph of faith over fact, the Mujibnagar independence ceremony. No one can take on that challenge better than Sarmila Bose, whose courage, disregard for orthodoxy and meticulous research make her the enfant terrible of Indian historians.'»

Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, columnist and author of Waiting for America: India and the United States in th

«'History emerges only slowly from the passion-filled context of contemporary events. Sarmila Bose's book sets Bangladesh's liberation struggle at the start of this long passage.'»

Professor David Washbrook, Trinity College, Cambridge

«'Dead Reckoning is a useful resource for students of the region ... the reasoning is open and clear [and the] descriptive analysis makes for grim and startling reading.'»

Politics, Religion & Ideology

«'Finally we have a book that investigates the conflicts of 1971 using facts and testimonies from all sides. Some may find this search for the truth controversial, but the official histories, full of absurd exaggerations and one-sided claims, are the ones that truly demean the sacrifices of 1971... The painful task of recognizing historical evidence has surely begun.'»

Mushtaq H. Khan, Professor of Economics, SOAS

«'Powerful and poignant ... this is history as told by participants at the grass roots and it dispels many myths that have been fed by faulty memories of the so-called elites in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Dead Reckoning should help the people of both countries accept the facts of that tragic and bloody separation of 1971 and take responsibility for the war that stained the verdant Bengali countryside red.'»

Shuja Nawaz, author of Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within

«'Bose has written a book that should provoke both fresh research and fresh thinking about a fateful turning point in the history of the subcontinent.'»

Martin Woollacott, Guardian

«'A significant intervention into the historiography of the Bangladesh War of 1971.'»

Amber Abbas, H-Memory