Sebastian Junger Popular Books

Sebastian Junger Biography & Facts

Sebastian Junger (born January 17, 1962) is an American journalist, author and filmmaker who has reported in-the-field on dirty, dangerous and demanding occupations and the experience of infantry combat. He is the author of The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (1997) which was adapted into a major motion picture and led to a resurgence in adventure creative nonfiction writing. He covered the War in Afghanistan for more than a decade, often embedded in dangerous and remote military outposts. The book War (2010) was drawn from his field reporting for Vanity Fair, that also served as the background for the documentary film Restrepo (2010) which received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Junger's works explore themes such as brotherhood, trauma, and the relationship of the individual to society as told from the far reaches of human experience. Background Junger was born in Belmont, Massachusetts, the son of Ellen Sinclair, a painter, and Miguel Chapero Junger, a physicist. Born in Dresden, Germany, and of Russian, Austrian, Spanish, and Italian descent, his father immigrated to the United States during World War II to escape persecution because of paternal Jewish ancestry, and to study engineering at MIT. Junger grew up in the Belmont neighborhood, which he learned was the territory of the Boston Strangler. He was later inspired to write A Death in Belmont (2006).Junger graduated from Concord Academy in 1980 and received a bachelor of arts degree from Wesleyan University in cultural anthropology in 1984. As an accomplished long-distance runner, he spent a summer training on the Navajo Nation reservation and wrote his thesis on Navajo long-distance running and its traditional, pre-Columbian roots. Career Junger began working as a freelance writer, often trying to publish articles on topics that interested him. He often took other jobs for temporary periods of time to support himself. Researching dangerous occupations as a topic, he became deeply engaged in learning about commercial fishing and its hazards. In 1997, with the success of his non-fiction book, The Perfect Storm, Junger was touted as a new Hemingway. His work stimulated renewed interest in adventure non-fiction. The book received a large pre-publication deal for movie rights, was on the New York Times bestseller list for a year in the hardback edition, and for two years in paperback.In 2000 Junger published an article "The Forensics of War," in Vanity Fair. He received a National Magazine Award for this. He continues to work there as a contributing editor. In early 2007, he reported from Nigeria on the subject of blood oil. With British photographer Tim Hetherington, Junger created The Other War: Afghanistan, produced with ABC News and Vanity Fair. It was shown on Nightline in September 2008 and the two men shared the DuPont-Columbia Award for broadcast journalism for the work.His book War (2010) revolves around a platoon of the US Army 173rd Airborne stationed in Afghanistan.Junger, along with Hetherington, used material gathered in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan for the book and to create a related documentary feature Restrepo. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won the Grand Jury Prize for a domestic documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. On April 27, 2011, Junger was presented with the "Leadership in Entertainment Award" by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) for his work on Restrepo.Junger's book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, was published in 2016. Junger has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' book Tools of Titans. His latest work Freedom, on the American ideal of the same name, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2021.While much of Junger's writing is subjective and participatory, he strives to maintain a neutral point of view and avoids contemporary political discussion, especially around frequent subjects like economic inequality and war. In 2021, he cited his "favorite quote" in an interview with The Guardian: "Journalists don't tell people what to think. They tell them what to think about." Personal life Junger lives in New York City and rural Cape Cod. He's married and lives with his wife and two children. His first daughter was born in 2016 when he was age 55. Previously, Junger was married to writer Daniela Petrova. They divorced in 2014. He is an atheist. Junger co-owned a bar in New York City called the Half King. Named after a Seneca warrior that played colonial forces against each other in the Seven Years War, the bar hosted in-house readings and photo exhibits and was favored by war correspondents and conflict photographers. Rising rents made the business unsustainable, and the Half King closed in 2019 after 19 years of operation.In June 2020, Junger had a near-death experience when his pancreatic artery ruptured while he was at home in rural Truro, Massachusetts. He is working on a book about the experience, tentatively titled Pulse: What Keeps Us Alive and What Happens When We Die. Notable work The Perfect Storm Junger's book The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (1997) became an international bestseller. It recounts a storm in October 1991 that resulted in the Gloucester fishing boat Andrea Gail going down off the coast of Nova Scotia, and the loss of all six crew members: Billy Tyne, Bobby Shatford, Alfred Pierre, David Sullivan, Michael Moran and Dale Murphy. In 2000, the book was adapted by Warner Brothers as a film of the same name, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. Junger said that while recovering from a chainsaw injury, he was inspired to write about dangerous jobs. He planned to start with commercial fishing in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He developed this project as The Perfect Storm, as he became more involved with learning about the crew members and the conditions and decisions that contributed to their deaths.Junger established The Perfect Storm Foundation to provide cultural and educational grants to children across the country whose parents make their living in the commercial fishing industry. A Death in Belmont A Death in Belmont centers on the 1963 rape and murder of Bessie Goldberg. This was during the period from 1962 to 1964 of the infamous Boston Strangler crimes. Junger received the 2007 PEN/Winship award for the book. Junger raises the possibility in his book that the real Strangler was Albert DeSalvo. He eventually confessed to committing several Strangler murders, but not Goldberg's. Roy Smith, an African-American man, was convicted in her death based on circumstantial evidence.Junger suggests that Smith's conviction for Goldberg's death was influenced by racism. The prosecution called witnesses who remembered seeing Smith chiefly because he was a black man walking in a predominately white neighborhood. (Eyewitness testimony has been shown to be notoriously flawed.) Smith had cleaned Goldbe.... Discover the Sebastian Junger popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Sebastian Junger books.

Best Seller Sebastian Junger Books of 2024

  • Summary of Tribe synopsis, comments

    Summary of Tribe

    Instaread

    Summary of Tribe by Sebastian Junger | Includes Analysis   Preview:   Tribe by Sebastian Junger is a scientific and journalistic consideration of the correlation between ...

  • The Fighters synopsis, comments

    The Fighters

    C. J. Chivers

    The harrowing account of US soldiers caught in America’s forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that The New York Times calls “relentless...a classic of war reporting,” by Pulitzer P...

  • Freedom synopsis, comments

    Freedom

    Sebastian Junger

    A profound rumination on the concept of freedom from the New York Times bestselling author of Tribe.Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideal...

  • Disasters at Sea synopsis, comments

    Disasters at Sea

    Liz Mechem

    A fully illustrated collection of the most thrilling shipwrecks of all time!Experience the mystery and wonder of the bottom of the sea with over sixty accounts of shipwreck catastr...

  • The War in the Air synopsis, comments

    The War in the Air

    H.G. Wells

    Following the development of massive airships, naïve Londoner Bert Smallways becomes accidentally involved in a German plot to invade America by air and reduce New York to rubble. ...

  • The Right Kind of Crazy synopsis, comments

    The Right Kind of Crazy

    Clint Emerson

    Clint Emerson, retired Navy SEAL and author of the bestselling 100 Deadly Skills, presents an explosive, darkly funny, and often twisted account of being part of an elite team of o...

  • A Hard And Heavy Thing synopsis, comments

    A Hard And Heavy Thing

    Matthew J. Hefti

    Top 10 First Novels of 2016Booklist 2016 Great Group Reads Selection Contemplating suicide after nearly a decade at war, Levi sits down to write a note to his best friend Nick, exp...

  • Whistles from the Graveyard synopsis, comments

    Whistles from the Graveyard

    Miles Lagoze

    “The most bracingly honest, refreshing account of the Afghan war” (Sebastian Junger, New York Times bestselling author) from a Marine Corps Combat Cameraman and director of the acc...

  • Bluegrass synopsis, comments

    Bluegrass

    William Van Meter

    By the lights of absolutely everyone who ever knew her, Katie Autry never harmed a hair on a dog's head. She came from a tiny village in Kentucky. The State moved her as a child...

  • Northeaster synopsis, comments

    Northeaster

    Cathie Pelletier

    A vivid and gripping story of an epic Maine snowstorm that tested the very limits of human endurance.For many, the past few years have been defined by climate disaster. Stories abo...

  • Addicted to Danger synopsis, comments

    Addicted to Danger

    Jim Wickwire & Dorothy Bullitt

    Adventurist Jim Wickwire has lived life on the edge literally. An eyewitness to glory, terror, and tragedy above 20,000 feet, he has braved bitter cold, blinding storms, and avala...

  • The Book of Leadership synopsis, comments

    The Book of Leadership

    Anthony Gell

    'Full of seriously good leadership wisdom a must read for those who aspire to greatness' Richard Koch, bestselling author of The 80/20 Principle 'One of the most stimulating books...

  • Volunteers synopsis, comments

    Volunteers

    Jerad W. Alexander

    “Riveting and morally complex, Volunteers is not only an insider’s account of war. It takes you inside the increasingly closed culture that creates our warriors.” Elliot Acker...

  • The Man Who Caught the Storm synopsis, comments

    The Man Who Caught the Storm

    Brantley Hargrove

    The saga of the greatest tornado chaser who ever lived: a tale of obsession and daring and an extraordinary account of humanity’s highstakes race to understand nature’s fiercest ph...

  • 88 Days to Kandahar synopsis, comments

    88 Days to Kandahar

    Robert L. Grenier

    The “first” Afghan War, a CIA war in response to 9/11, was directed by the CIA Station Chief in Islamabad. It put Hamid Karzai in power in 88 days. “If you want an insider’s accoun...