Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I will note here that I experienced this book in audio format. Really this was more like a long podcast episode rather than a book being a little over 3 hours long to listen to. That is an observation, not a criticism. I like that Junger doesn't go on and on about his point long over-stating his welcome. The book is about how humans are tribal by nature and that a society that is too individualistic becomes atomized and can't meet the most existential needs that people have. It is why American soldiers miss war when they come back home to lead civilian lives. It is the kindness of strangers that is unexpected and makes you feel like you are part of a tribe rather than an outsider drifting along somewhere.
To be sure the examples of bonding with comrades in war or surviving the hellscape of living in Bosnia during the war there are problematic. Close knit tribes can be good for human belonging but in the context of war or other hardship it is bad. Not the tribal bonding but the larger issue that makes such bonding necessary, I mean. I am surprised Junger doesn't talk about faith communities or anything like that. A strong church binds people together in common purpose for the good without needing to exist in a war-torn environment or a combat situation.
Anyway, Junger is completely right about the tribal nature of humans and what is missing in first world contemporary society. He offers some food for thought but I hoped he would have gone further.
To be sure the examples of bonding with comrades in war or surviving the hellscape of living in Bosnia during the war there are problematic. Close knit tribes can be good for human belonging but in the context of war or other hardship it is bad. Not the tribal bonding but the larger issue that makes such bonding necessary, I mean. I am surprised Junger doesn't talk about faith communities or anything like that. A strong church binds people together in common purpose for the good without needing to exist in a war-torn environment or a combat situation.
Anyway, Junger is completely right about the tribal nature of humans and what is missing in first world contemporary society. He offers some food for thought but I hoped he would have gone further.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Pretty decent and fairly compelling. I've often wondered if hard times and sacrifice lead to a better society, Junger seems to think so. I read a bit of criticism that he was all "what we need's another war!", but I don't agree.
Obviously, he skews toward conflict as a place where community bonds are strengthened - he is a war journalist after all. However, it's not just war that brings out these behaviours. After Hurricane Katrina, crime fell. Same with 9/11.
If nothing else, I've added Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built In Hell as a follow-up, perhaps immediately.
Obviously, he skews toward conflict as a place where community bonds are strengthened - he is a war journalist after all. However, it's not just war that brings out these behaviours. After Hurricane Katrina, crime fell. Same with 9/11.
If nothing else, I've added Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built In Hell as a follow-up, perhaps immediately.
Having grown up in the former USSR, I always found it fascinating how wistfully my grandparents' generation remembered their life during the war, which disproportionately impacted them more than any other nation. Junger provides the answers. This is a quick read and, while not an academic treatise, very well-sourced, interesting, and, in places, somewhat controversial.
A short but intriguing read on how close social ties may help mitigate against depression, PTSD, and other mental conditions. I thought the author relied on several assumptions that a longer work could have better interrogated, but it's an interesting thesis with some reasonable support behind it (like lower rates of mental illness in non-industrialized nations as well as during times of crisis like the London Blitz when everyone is forced to pull together). War journalist Sebastian Junger makes some powerful points about how difficult it is for close-knit combat troops to reintegrate into our more isolated society, and of how a healthy community is one whose members feel connected to one another and to their overall way of life.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism
I enjoyed this book overall; it was a great exploration of what a tribe is and means and the need for and value of such, as well as the costs for modern society having lost such a sense of community. The book was also a cool list of touching or interesting stories in a variety of senses, and a discussion of PTSD and the effects and impacts that felt deeply important (and in this area the author had some very concrete and useful thoughts on issues, problems, and ways forward).
The end result though in the broader sense (beyond specific issues like PTSD) felt like a diagnosis of a societal illness without a real sense of a cure. The closest to next steps discussed seemed at times more the like grinding of the political axes of the author than real suggestions, and the final result thus seemed slightly lacking vis-à-vis a thesis. I'm totally with the author now on the loss involved in modern society and that it's an issue; I'm still unclear what to do about it. A shame because the buildup for such a thesis, had there been one, was pretty good.
The end result though in the broader sense (beyond specific issues like PTSD) felt like a diagnosis of a societal illness without a real sense of a cure. The closest to next steps discussed seemed at times more the like grinding of the political axes of the author than real suggestions, and the final result thus seemed slightly lacking vis-à-vis a thesis. I'm totally with the author now on the loss involved in modern society and that it's an issue; I'm still unclear what to do about it. A shame because the buildup for such a thesis, had there been one, was pretty good.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced