Sebastian Junger

toyed with the idea of fictionalizing minor parts of the story- conversations, personal thoughts, day to day routines- to make it more readable, but risked diminishing the value of whatever facts I was able to determine. ..."
The author decided to stick to the facts, and in doing so, wrote a gripping adventure at sea that is also a mystery. We don’t know what happened to the Andrea Gail or other victims of the "Halloween Gale" of October 1991. Rather than speculate, he interviewed survivors of similar storms and shipwrecks. It might have taken more work but it made for "edge of the seat" reading. One passage in particular recounts what it is like to drown, written by a survivor of a shipwreck.
I haven't seen the movie but I intend to watch it now that I read the book.… (lisätietoja)

In a several years when all of the ruckus is behind us this book will be much more appreciated as a story that sums up at least last 20 years of constant mental play with minds of every person on this planet, constant gaslighting by contradictory news and information.

It is not like other author's works. This one has a feeling of more private diary into which one writes thoughts while going through a journey - physical or spiritual.

We follow author and his friends as they travel by foot from Eastern USA towards West, from Pennsylvania towards Ohio. They are all men who went through much, too much and they have taken this track as a way of escape from craziness of modern world, sort of a going back to the roots and attempt to keep their minds sane.
As they track and live off land and generosity of people they meet they are on constant lookout and avoiding authority [guarding against vagrants and guarding railroad installationss] they start to contemplate on people, individuals and states we have today. And what better symbol of technical progress and today's techno society than railroad - strong, visible and in plain sight (unlike planes or ships), actual bloodline of the civilization linking it and bringing every possible good and materiel wherever needed. Everything in the book happens around railroads, from author's tracking to stories about the people that lived and fought following the same paths railroads were built on.

In all of this atmosphere author starts writing his thoughts on people, humans, describing them in all their might and weakness. Evolved from the thousands of years of hard-ship humans have hardened themselves up physically and socially. I truly enjoyed chapters on human physical endurance, it was truly inspiring. Then we move from one time period to another - from native tribes of East Coast to settlers that were given chance to settle the Wild West in order to act as buffer in wild frontier - people who faced very short lives but endured. Today we might call them whatever we want because we are so far from the hardships they endured as we are away from walking strange planets in the deep space.

They had to live in hard circumstances but free from the state control and as it goes in such situations they encountered native tribes that followed the same philosophy. War between them was more than equal - guerilla fighters on both sides, equally bloodthirsty and equally savage in their attempts to protect their families. To talk about natives as mild, meek people would be an affront - these were people and tribes proud and ready and willing to conquer everything around them. In many ways unlike the colonists that were trying to carve their own piece of Heaven on Earth while escaping prosecution form their countries of origin.

And then author further develops discussion about the relation between freedom - in true sense, individual and close family - and community/state, social construct (ha!) made to make people safer and live more easily but with a price, rules and obligations that apply to all. Then we are taken to the role of leaders - and how unscrupulous always want the power but no obligation and how hard it is to to get true leaders to position of power (interestingly in most nomadic nations all true leaders have that oh so vilified streak of stoicism). As society grows author touches on aspect of dehumanization (you know that old, them fascists/conservatives/lefties/commies/stupid/fools/low-iq etc) in order to divide the people and get greater hold of larger populace and justify any kind of repression. Then we are given another aspect of human being, ideology and willingness to fight for the idea - from guerilla fighters in Americas west to urban chaos in Ireland. We are shown what is possible when people are united as were workers in US unions fighting the corporations and big business - how they were mowed down by state working hand in hand with above mentioned corporations but also how they finally got their satisfaction when laws were brought that broke the corporate hold on their lives.

Isn't it funny how economic injustice runs human societies to greatness. It looks like it is unbroken rule - when one creates society of opportunities it is impossible to guarantee the economical equality because to have economical equality one has to impose rules, restrictions and start treating people equally but in this case opportunities are lost because not everything can be made available to everyone. As author states it is those most nomadic societies that are most free and economically equal but they come with few drawbacks - they are always the most warlike ones and I would like to see people wanting to live their lifestyle, always surrounded by death and possibility to quickly perish due to lack of food and water. Not quite appealing, right?

I wont go into details any more but in this short book one will find various information on people, individuals and societies, their strengths and weaknesses, power of the human will (or spirit if you like) and many more. This is not book on one subject.

This is book on plethora of subjects that have boggled minds of many a man in the past and definitely will in future. Subjects that are becoming more actual today - in days when dehumanization and ad-hominem attacks are the only language public knows, respects and uses to explain everything around them, where we all become more and more dependent on the corporations that are working hand in hand with the state. Not to mention micro-dictators that have risen their heads in all corners of the world and that have no intention of relieving themselves of the power they have taken.

This is interesting book for interesting times, treat it like an index booklet referencing other works treating every subject in more detail.

It is strange in the most beautiful way. I wholeheartedly recommend it.… (lisätietoja)

Excellent book that shows the true nature of war and the way reckless rushing into conflict by powers to be leaves great scars on people that enter the fray in order to fight for their country and stay fighting for most important reason they have - to save the lives of those fighting with them and living the life on the battlefield with them.

Very fact that this view of fighting man, issues they have, their fears and brotherhood, confronting death every day, does not differ from views one can find in WW1 and WW2 books and biographies shows that only thing that changes when it comes war is technology. Everything else is as old as humankind itself.

Highly recommended.… (lisätietoja)