Editors Reads Verdict
The best book about what combat does to soldiers who survive it. Junger writes about the Korengal with a precision and emotional intelligence that makes *Tribe* fully comprehensible — these are the men who then came home.
What We Loved
- The reporting is detailed and precise — Junger went multiple times over the course of a year
- The psychology of combat — why soldiers miss it when they come home — is rendered with genuine understanding
- The portrait of the Korengal platoon is individual and specific, not generic
Minor Drawbacks
- The book's acceptance of the soldiers' perspective does not fully engage with the Afghan civilian experience
- Readers wanting strategic or political context for the Korengal deployment will need to look elsewhere
Key Takeaways
- → Combat produces a form of belonging — mutual dependence under extreme conditions — that is extremely difficult to replicate in civilian life
- → The physical experience of fear and its management under fire is something that is almost impossible to convey from outside it
- → Young men who are good at combat are often very specifically talented — the skills transfer poorly to peacetime
| Author | Sebastian Junger |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Twelve |
| Pages | 288 |
| Published | May 11, 2010 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-Fiction, Journalism, War Reporting |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Readers of military non-fiction and war journalism, and anyone who wants to understand the psychological pull of combat before reading Tribe. |
The Korengal Valley
The Korengal Valley in northeastern Afghanistan was, during the period Junger reported, one of the most contested pieces of ground in the entire war. A narrow valley in the mountains of Kunar province, it was the scene of intense and sustained fighting between US forces and local insurgents — and the setting for the documentary Restrepo, which Junger co-directed with photojournalist Tim Hetherington.
War is the book-length account of what the documentary could only show. Junger had unprecedented access to the platoon over multiple deployments, and the portrait he produces is both journalistic and intimate. The soldiers he follows are young, scared, technically proficient, and — in the moments between contact — bored. It is the boredom and the bonds it produces that the book most illuminates.
Combat and Belonging
The argument of Tribe — Junger’s subsequent book — is comprehensible without reading War, but reading War first makes it viscerally real. The belonging that combat produces is not vague sentiment: it is the specific consequence of shared risk, mutual dependence, and the knowledge that the person beside you will die for you. Coming home from that is not a return to normal but an exile from something irreplaceable.
Hetherington was killed in Libya in April 2011, covering the civil war. War is also, in retrospect, an elegy for a collaboration and a friendship.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "War" about?
Sebastian Junger spent a year embedded with a US Army platoon at a small outpost in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan — one of the most violent postings of the entire war. The book is an account of what those men found there: the fear, the boredom, the violence, and the specific form of belonging that combat produces.
Who should read "War"?
Readers of military non-fiction and war journalism, and anyone who wants to understand the psychological pull of combat before reading Tribe.
What are the key takeaways from "War"?
Combat produces a form of belonging — mutual dependence under extreme conditions — that is extremely difficult to replicate in civilian life The physical experience of fear and its management under fire is something that is almost impossible to convey from outside it Young men who are good at combat are often very specifically talented — the skills transfer poorly to peacetime
Is "War" worth reading?
The best book about what combat does to soldiers who survive it. Junger writes about the Korengal with a precision and emotional intelligence that makes *Tribe* fully comprehensible — these are the men who then came home.
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