Book Review: ’38 North Yankee’

38 North Yankee

By: Ed Ruggero

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication Year: 1990

Genre: Military Fiction, Late Cold War Era “Hot War Scenarios,” Second Korean War Fiction

📚 Review: 38 North Yankee by Ed Ruggero

Set in the precarious shadow of 1990, 38 North Yankee unfolds at a time when the Cold War has drawn its final breath and the ideological firmament of Marxism-Leninism is crumbling across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet sphere. Yet in the north of the Korean peninsula, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea clings fiercely to the old dogma—its regime steeped in isolation, poverty, and the towering personality cults of Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il.

With a staggering 784,000 soldiers serving a population under 20 million, North Korea boasts the largest per-capita standing army in the world. When South Korea erupts once more in political unrest and Pyongyang is roiled by internal power struggles, the fragile peace established in 1953 shatters. A deliberate North Korean invasion plunges the peninsula back into war, drawing in American forces with terrifying speed.

Enter Captain Mark Isen and Charlie Company of the 25th Light Infantry Division, deployed from Hawaii in one of the largest U.S. military operations since Vietnam. As guerrilla attacks escalate and troops mass along the DMZ, the signal comes—“38 North Yankee”—confirming that war has begun.

💥 Ruggero, then an Infantry captain and West Point instructor, delivers a blistering debut that captures the grit, fear, and resilience of the American soldier. His characters pulse with authenticity, and the battle scenes—ambushes, night patrols, and air assaults—are rendered with visceral honesty and cinematic precision.

Though Ruggero’s subsequent novel, Common Defense, didn’t catapult him to the same commercial heights as Larry Bond or Stephen Coonts, his prose stands shoulder to shoulder in elegance and realism. It’s a shame his work isn’t more widely recognized—because it deserves to be.