"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...

"There is nothing imaginary about Junger's book; it is all terrifyingly, awesomely real." —Los Angeles Times

It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." In a book that has become a classic, Sebastian Junger explores the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms,

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Forest fires, terrorism, war: explorations of danger by the author of The Perfect Storm.

In Fire, Sebastian Junger brings to bear the same meticulous prose that made A Perfect Storm a modern classic onto the inner workings of a terrifying elemental force—an out-of-control inferno burning in the steep canyons of Idaho—and the cast of characters risking everything to bring that force under control.

Few writers

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This piece, which appeared in Outside magazine in 1995 and was originally recorded for "Rough Water: Stories of Survival from the Sea," is about an old man, a Bequian harpooner, who uses a wooden sailboat to hunt humpback whales. The piece is an elegy of sorts--an unsentimental lament for something lost.

Most people associate storms and other big weather with death—with the kind of force that makes each of us wonder about life, and time and the nature of our surroundings. Some people go out looking for bad weather or go to places where they’re likely to encounter it. Others have the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, the stories in Storm have more to say than that. They tell us about what happens when people find...

Most people associate storms and other big weather with death-with the kind of force that makes each of us wonder about life, and time and the nature of our surroundings. Some people go out looking for bad weather or go to places where they're likely to encounter it. Others have the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, the stories in Storm have more to say than that. They tell us about what happens when people find that...

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.

Every bit as intense and affecting as Oscar-nominated *Restrepo*, the follow-up KORENGAL goes a step further in bringing the reality of war into peoples' living rooms... The same men, the same valley, the same commanders, but a very different look at the experience of war. KORENGAL explains how war works, what it feels like and what it does to the young men who fight it. *"The film is a tribute to the courage, tenacity and sorrow of the men with their...

'Infidel' is an intimate portrait of a close band of warriors - a small battalion of US soldiers, posted to an outpost in the Korengal Valley and considered one of the most dangerous Afghan postings in the war against the Taliban. It documents the battalion, who model themselves on the Spartans, over the course of a year.

The award-winning and best-selling Jonathan Franzen picks the best essays from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. He brings his "elegance, acumen, and daring as an essayist" (New York Times) to the collection.