SEBASTIAN JUNGER
AMAZON • B&N • WALMART • TARGET
BAM • POWELL'S • INDIEBOUND • AUDIBLE
“Sebastian Junger has turned the multifaceted problem of returning veterans—post-traumatic stress, broken families, violence, suicide—on its head. He takes a hard look at modern industrial society where the individual is valued at the expense of the group, showing how in tribal societies, which were the opposite and lacked such characteristics as income inequality, hierarchy, estrangement, and isolation, the issues of veteran return were resolved much faster and veteran suicide was virtually non-existent. This is a book about why it is so difficult for American society to reintegrate its veterans. It’s not so much about what’s wrong with the veterans, but what’s wrong with us. If we made the changes suggested in TRIBE, not only our returning veterans, but all of us, would be happier and healthier. Please read this book.”
—Karl Marlantes, New York Times bestselling author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War
“There are three excellent reasons to read Sebastian Junger’s new book: the clarity of his thought, the elegance of his prose, and the provocativeness of his chosen subject. Within a compact space, the sheer range of his inquiry is astounding. I read it straight through, stopping only to make myself a cup of coffee.” —S. C. Gwynne, New York Times bestselling author of Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon
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We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding--"tribes." This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival.
Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today.
Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, TRIBE explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that-for many veterans as well as civilians-war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. TRIBE explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.
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CONTACT INFO
Book Publicity:
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Lecture:
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