Sebastian Junger

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...

In 1963, with the city of Boston already terrified by a series of savage crimes known as the Boston Stranglings, a murder occurred in the quiet suburb of Belmont, just a few blocks from the house of Sebastian Junger's family, a murder that seemed to fit exactly the pattern of the Strangler. Roy Smith, a black man who had cleaned the victim's house that day, was arrested, tried, and convicted, but the terror of the Strangler continued. Two years later,...

Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm," turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat in this on-the-ground account that follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley.

On October 29, 1991, the 70-foot longliner Andrea Gail,on day 40 of an extended commercial swordfishing trip, was lost in a convergence of three powerful storms off Canada's Grand Banks. Data buoys measured waves as high as 100 feet, and the boat was hit with winds measuring 80 knots (92 miles per hour). The Andrea Gail's emergency beacon washed ashore that November on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, but the boat and 6-man crew were never...

Hear the stories of men and women battling the elements, and sometimes each other, to stay alive, confronting savage storms, rogue waves, icebergs, sharks, starvation and their own fear and suffering. From Sebastian Junger’s The Whale Hunter to Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny to Lawrence Beesley’s The Loss of The S.S. Titanic, Rough Water is a unique collection of the finest writing on why men and women go to sea, and what they find there. Rough...

Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don’t coexist easily: we value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. In this intricately crafted and thought-provoking audiobook, Sebastian Junger examines this tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human.

This documentary chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, strating in 2007. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, Restrepo, named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats.

What is it really like to go to war? For millennia, only warriors could really answer that question. Now, a new PBS documentary takes viewers inside the experience of battle and reveals the soldier's experiences as never before. It helps viewers make sense of this paradox and get to the heart of what it is like to be a soldier in times of war.

Explains how war works, what it feels like and what it does to the young men who fight it. As one cheers when they kill an enemy fighter, another looks into the camera and asks if God will ever forgive them for all the killing. As one grieves the loss of his friend in combat, another explains why he missed the war after his deployment ended and he would go back in a heartbeat if he could.