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bennylee 's review for:
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
by Sebastian Junger
1.5/5*
While most assume war and complete lawlessness to be a breeding ground for the worst in men to thrive, this dude believes that war brings out the innate good in humans. War is a holy place where courage meets responsibility, and so we are at our best when we are unifying in the name of a common enemy. The us vs. them may be atrocious for the “them,” but it does wonders for the “us.” Point taken.
Overall, Tribe reads as a collection of assumptions, loose correlations, and poorly contextualized interdisciplinary research. Most irking to me as a student of history, Junger is, at best, anachronistic in his interpretation of historic primary and secondary sources (Francis Parkman taken at face value? Really?)
Honestly, I would have enjoyed this book if Junger had approached it as more of a self-help book, a “how to live a more meaningful life” type. Instead, he accepts imperial primary source documents as largely credible, treating critical analysis of primary sources as a stylistic option. While he presents a compelling argument on the disconnect between what we (humans) find meaningful and how we actually live, Junger peppers his philosophical musings with “evidence” that serves to continually remind the informed reader that the author is unfamiliar with the scholastic precedent of the works he references.
While most assume war and complete lawlessness to be a breeding ground for the worst in men to thrive, this dude believes that war brings out the innate good in humans. War is a holy place where courage meets responsibility, and so we are at our best when we are unifying in the name of a common enemy. The us vs. them may be atrocious for the “them,” but it does wonders for the “us.” Point taken.
Overall, Tribe reads as a collection of assumptions, loose correlations, and poorly contextualized interdisciplinary research. Most irking to me as a student of history, Junger is, at best, anachronistic in his interpretation of historic primary and secondary sources (Francis Parkman taken at face value? Really?)
Honestly, I would have enjoyed this book if Junger had approached it as more of a self-help book, a “how to live a more meaningful life” type. Instead, he accepts imperial primary source documents as largely credible, treating critical analysis of primary sources as a stylistic option. While he presents a compelling argument on the disconnect between what we (humans) find meaningful and how we actually live, Junger peppers his philosophical musings with “evidence” that serves to continually remind the informed reader that the author is unfamiliar with the scholastic precedent of the works he references.