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Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

by Sebastian Junger (Goodreads Author)

4.05 · Rating Details · 9,802 Ratings · 1,385 Reviews

Sebastian Junger, the bestselling author of War and The Perfect Storm, takes a critical look at post-traumatic stress disorder and the many challenges today’s returning veterans face in modern society.

There are ancient tribal human behaviors-loyalty, inter-reliance, cooperation-that flare up in communities during times of turmoil and suffering. These are the very same beha ...more

Hardcover, 192 pages

Published May 24th 2016 by Twelve

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Aug 08, 2016 Petra Eggs rated it liked it

Shelves: popculture-anthropology, reviewed, 2016-read, 2016-150-reviews

Update Yesterday I had a friend request saying that he didn't want to friend me just to tell me that he objected to my review being so prominent when it was wrong, crap etc. as the author hadn't meant what I said. I didn't read the rest of the long wodge of no doubt insulting text but the ending was that he was flagging the review. I ignored his FR and wrote back tl;dr. He replied (although I don't know how he got through the privacy settings and blocks) some more troll stuff and that I was wron ...more

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May 29, 2016 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

Proves the adage that good things can come in small packages. In this short book, not a wasted word, Junger combines memoir, journalism and scholarly writing to give us a book that makes one think about where our society has been and where it is heading. Tackles the tough subjects of the rising rate of mental illness and PTSD that many in our society are experiencing. Starting at the beginning with the Native Americans and their society that celebrated communal living. Warning us of the selfishn ...more

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Jun 18, 2016 Shannon rated it really liked it

Shelves: informational

If you watched the PBS series with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers in the late '80's and read this book, you'll shake your head and realize how right Campbell was simply based on reading and understanding myths. Humans are tribal people, with tens of thousands of years of tribal evolution, myth, and ceremony. Living in an isolated world with a lack of shared stories and myths, with a lack of ceremony, and with a lack of meaningful social structure and social interaction will be our undoing unles ...more

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Jul 27, 2016 Michael rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, anthropology, psychology, essays, war, evolution

Junger has an appealing message. That humans have evolved a high order of altruism associated with our tribal social nature which leads us to be willing to take great risks to save another member of the tribe. In many circumstances people are willing to sacrifice themselves for total strangers. Time and again when disasters like earthquakes occur the vast majority of people relinquish all sense of selfishness and pitch in to help. In specific examples like the Blitz of daily bombing of London by Junger has an appealing message. That humans have evolved a high order of altruism associated with our tribal social nature which leads us to be willing to take great risks to save another member of the tribe. In many circumstances people are willing to sacrifice themselves for total strangers. Time and again when disasters like earthquakes occur the vast majority of people relinquish all sense of selfishness and pitch in to help. In specific examples like the Blitz of daily bombing of London by the Luftwaffe, the Bosnia civil war, or Nova Scotian miners of Springhill trapped underground, all sense of class and racial distinctions disappear, and a special form of teamwork emerges that expands upon our tribal nature. Qualitative differences may be seen between more immediate physical actions to save others and a more persistent empathetic form of moral courage, roles that often are filled by men and women, respectively. Our tribalism is tied up with a capability to wage war, and, as he emphasized in his outstanding book on an American company fighting in Afghanistan, “War”, the men were sustained in their heroic efforts from their bonds with their immediate buddies and peers and not from a sense of fighting for their country. When the special state of unity is lost with the return from war or the recovery of society from a natural disaster, the recovery from trauma is tragically challenged by the relative isolation and alienation of modern society compared to hunter gatherer societies. PTSD abounds. We can’t go back to living like Native Americans or bushmen of the Kalihari, but we could do a better job in socially validating the experience of those who fight in our wars or survive disasters.

For many these ideas may come across as fresh and accessible. For me as a former scientist I am wary about sweeping generalizations about the foundations of phenomena like altruism, mental illness, and war. The evolution of social behavior is a speculative enterprise, and the diagnosis of the fundamental ills of our present society on the basis of poorly founded inferences about the biology of human nature needs either a more humble outlook or a more systematic construction of argument. Junger adds a bibliography of studies in the back of the book, but rarely makes reference to them in any critical way. Still, I do like the fermentation of ideas and courage of arguments in an essay on important topics like these.
...more

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Nov 21, 2016 Otis Chandler rated it really liked it

Shelves: business, nonfiction, history, psychology

A fascinating book about community and belonging, and how modern society has moved us away from our roots in potentially signifiant ways. The book opens with a thought provoking fact: in early America, there were numerous instances of white people joining primitive, native Indian societies - but zero instances of the opposite, because "the intensely communal nature of an Indian tribe held an appeal that the material benefits of Western civilization couldn’t necessarily compete with."

The book als A fascinating book about community and belonging, and how modern society has moved us away from our roots in potentially signifiant ways. The book opens with a thought provoking fact: in early America, there were numerous instances of white people joining primitive, native Indian societies - but zero instances of the opposite, because "the intensely communal nature of an Indian tribe held an appeal that the material benefits of Western civilization couldn’t necessarily compete with."

The book also argues that the wealth we enjoy in modern society is isolating, against the grain of millions of years of our evolution, and can lead to depression, because our happiness is in large part rooted in a need to feel connected to others. While this feels right and intuitive, it doesn't seem to be the way we are optimizing our lives.

"A wealthy person who has never had to rely on help and resources from his community is leading a privileged life that falls way outside more than a million years of human experience. Financial independence can lead to isolation, and isolation can put people at a greatly increased risk of depression and suicide. This might be a fair trade for a generally wealthier society— but a trade it is."

Another loss the book points out is the loss of the transparency and social justice that being in a small community used to bring. When your neighbors and community members all know each other and what is going on with each other, group peer pressure tends to reward good actions and punish bad ones. The book points out that people wouldn't for instance cheat unemployment if their neighbors were paying for it and everyone knew what was happening. In anonymity we have lost a sense of responsibility to each other.

Another data point about the power of human connection that a disaster, such as a war, can bring to a society. Junger talked about this in a recent guest post on the Goodreads blog, saying "Time and time again in history, civilians have forged incredibly strong bonds in the face of wars and earthquakes and floods and gone on to miss those heady times of cooperation. Also demonstrating the power of bonding is the fact that one of the most devastating thing a soldier can face is the loss of a buddy. "Interestingly, a strong bonding experience can also lead to social change - for instance: "The coming-together that societies often experience during catastrophes is usually temporary, but sometimes the effect can last years or even decades. British historians have linked the hardships of the Blitz— and the social unity that followed— to a landslide vote that brought the Labour Party into power in 1945 and eventually gave the United Kingdom national health care and a strong welfare state."

The book basically concludes that the largest cost or risk of modern society is the loss of community. This is something worth giving a lot of thought in terms of our priorities. ...more

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Aug 10, 2016 Clif Hostetler rated it it was amazing

Shelves: health-and-selfhelp

This book provides a convincing articulation of reasons why modern society is ill suited to the innate social needs of homo sapiens (i.e. human beings). Our ancestors lived—and evolved—many thousands of years in hunter gatherer groups that were closely bonded together in a cooperative bond in order to survive dangerous surroundings. Everybody in the group knew that they were dependent on others, and the group expected loyalty, cooperation, and sharing of resources from individuals in the group. ...more

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Jul 25, 2016 Allison Scott rated it it was ok

There are many good ideas in this book, including disorders of trauma as disorders of integration, isolation, and group dynamic, however I had too many issues with the way this story was told to fully embrace the important message it meant to convey.
When I read “tribe” in this book, I imagine only men. Men at war, men at work at construction sites, male aggression, and male friendship. Where are the women? His main example of a “female” style of leadership is about … MEN! (The dual roles taken b There are many good ideas in this book, including disorders of trauma as disorders of integration, isolation, and group dynamic, however I had too many issues with the way this story was told to fully embrace the important message it meant to convey.
When I read “tribe” in this book, I imagine only men. Men at war, men at work at construction sites, male aggression, and male friendship. Where are the women? His main example of a “female” style of leadership is about … MEN! (The dual roles taken by men stuck in a collapsed coal mine.) If what Junger implies is true and there are differences to the gender roles in close-knit societies, especially in times of stress, I would like to read more about the female experience and female sacrifice. Even in the Bosnian war story, Ahmetasevic’s quotes were largely centered around the men, taking no account of what the women did when they were alone. The military, for example, would be a fantastic place to expand on the leadership roles and altruistic behavior of women. Yes, historically the military has been a male-dominated institution, however when he is talking about contemporary PTSD statistics, we have to recognize the existence of women in the military. This could have been a chance to explore the potential further isolation caused by being women in a historically “man’s world.” Do they fare better on return because of their female friendships and support systems? Or do they fare worse, because we tend to ignore the existence of female veterans, as this book does? By not discussing women, he misses a potential opportunity to strengthen his argument. If we are to truly become the functioning society that Junger imagines - communal and supportive - I should hope we include the experiences of both/all genders.
Additionally, Junger fails in his attempts to invoke science to support his claims by either being inconsistent with his analogies or getting the analogies wrong altogether. In the chapter, War Makes you an Animal, I struggle to understand if Junger believes that the “tribe” society is an animal behavior, or a human one. In a confusing misuse of biology, he sites group selection as a basis for altruism, an idea generally discredited by evolutionary biologists, except in eusocial animals like bees, ants, or termites (see Dawkins’ “Selfish Gene”; John Maynard Smith 1964; Abbott et al 2011). By writing, “[altruistic choices] are profound acts of selflessness that distinguish us from all other mammals, including the higher primates we are so closely related to,” and that “risking male lives to save female lives makes enormous evolutionary sense,” Junger claims that it is the evolutionary course that pushed humans toward acts of heroism, as we have evolved past our close relations towards greater group unity. But, at the same time, he writes, “virtually all mammals seem to benefit from companionship; even lab rats recover more quickly from trauma if they are caged with other rats rather than alone.” This is true because, as scientists who study them know, rats are social mammals, however many mammals (male deer, most big cats, etc.) are predominantly solitary, and prefer to be. So, I still don’t understand, is being part of a tribe what makes us animals? Or makes us human? In another, unrelated, but equally vexing quote, Junger describes a “state of hyperarousal” as having a “firm basis in the neurobiology of the brain.” A vague hand waving in the direction of an authority called “science,” though this fact means nothing without further discussion.
It is too bad Junger doesn’t research the science as thoroughly as researches the history of war and experiences of soldiers. It has made the reading much less enjoyable than I had anticipated picking it up. ...more

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Jul 04, 2017 Monica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: soc-sci-politics, behavior-psychology, kindle_nonfiction, military, tbr-challenge

**Warning: This review may be longer than the entire book.**

Interesting and thought provoking; if not entirely convincing. On the one hand, some very compelling ideas about the feeling of smaller, close knit communities and how they can foster and encourage good mental health and enhance happiness. On the other hand, Junger for the most part, blames wealth and technological advances for the moral decline of America. While not without evidence, it's still an arduous climb to get to where he wants **Warning: This review may be longer than the entire book.**

Interesting and thought provoking; if not entirely convincing. On the one hand, some very compelling ideas about the feeling of smaller, close knit communities and how they can foster and encourage good mental health and enhance happiness. On the other hand, Junger for the most part, blames wealth and technological advances for the moral decline of America. While not without evidence, it's still an arduous climb to get to where he wants you to go. Mostly because I'm not exactly sure where he wants to go.

So this was in the forward:

I do not use footnotes because this is not an academic book and footnotes can interfere with the ease of reading. Nevertheless, I felt that certain scientific studies about modern society, about combat, and about post-traumatic stress disorder had the potential to greatly surprise or even upset some readers. [sic] After giving the matter much thought, I decided that doing so was within my journalistic standards as long as I was clear with my readers about my lack of documentation.

I read this as "caveat emptor" aka brace yourself for some unsubstantiated and perhaps unpalatable bull pucky.

I approached with the appropriate (in my mind) amount of trepidation and what I found was a philosophical potpourri, some of which I suspect to be true (which perhaps demonstrates some bias in me) and some of which details the bias of the author. Junger starts out with a very compelling premise about the nature of communities. His premise boiled down to the idea that smaller, simpler communities were better for mankind in all the ways that matter (spiritually, physically, psychologically). Basically he asserts that the small communities are more egalitarian and force everyone to do their fair share and promotes a view for the common good rather than for self. The bulk of his proof stemmed from the pioneer days where most of the kidnapped settlers ended up preferring the Indian way of life to the European. From the book summary:

Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same.

Junger felt like the pioneers had too much technology and materialism.

First agriculture, and then industry, changed two fundamental things about the human experience. The accumulation of personal property allowed people to make more and more individualistic choices about their lives, and those choices unavoidably diminished group efforts toward a common good.

And in all honesty, philosophically that resonates with me. Fast forward to modern times with our big cities and high tech and wow have we faltered…

Although happiness is notoriously subjective and difficult to measure, mental illness is not. Numerous cross-cultural studies have shown that modern society—despite its nearly miraculous advances in medicine, science, and technology—is afflicted with some of the highest rates of depression, schizophrenia, poor health, anxiety, and chronic loneliness in human history. As affluence and urbanization rise in a society, rates of depression and suicide tend to go up rather than down.

It is as this point that I remember "caveat emptor" because wow that is some unsubstantiated stuff. Though I can admit that it feels very true, the intellectual part of me that thinks that he's wildly extrapolating and/or misinterpreting studies and data aka manipulating to influence thought, though I can't prove it because he has very few notes. But I enjoyed the journey. Junger goes on to say that natural disasters and warfare (in other words stressors) make communities closer and more egalitarian. No he is not advocating for war, he is presenting an observation:

Communities that have been devastated by natural or man-made disasters almost never lapse into chaos and disorder; if anything, they become more just, more egalitarian, and more deliberately fair to individuals.

According to Junger (and it again "feels" true)

If anything, he found that social bonds were reinforced during disasters, and that people overwhelmingly devoted their energies toward the good of the community rather than just themselves.

He by the way seems to think that being poor is in the realm of natural disaster and warfare (again "feels" true, but also biased and unsubstantiated)

The mechanism seems simple: poor people are forced to share their time and resources more than wealthy people are, and as a result they live in closer communities.

But things get a little tilted as Junger continues to assault modern society

Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.

and,

Financial independence can lead to isolation, and isolation can put people at a greatly increased risk of depression and suicide.

and,

The beauty and the tragedy of the modern world is that it eliminates many situations that require people to demonstrate a commitment to the collective good.

and,

As modern society reduced the role of community, it simultaneously elevated the role of authority.

It's at this point that Junger tries to tie the concept of tribalism to military veterans specifically those with PTSD. While I think he had some interesting concepts about the nature of mankind in small communities versus the cities today, I really think he struggled with trying to link veterans. I understand his point about military units being a bit like tribes and how most members of the unit are more concerned with the success of their comrades than themselves. As an ex-military member I know this to be similar to my own experiences. However Junger takes it to a very weird place. Ostensibly he is talking about the type of communities that the veterans return to.

Such public meaning is probably not generated by the kinds of formulaic phrases, such as “Thank you for your service,” that many Americans now feel compelled to offer soldiers and vets. Neither is it generated by honoring vets at sporting events, allowing them to board planes first, or giving them minor discounts at stores. If anything, these token acts only deepen the chasm between the military and civilian populations by highlighting the fact that some people serve their country but the vast majority don’t.

Junger seems to be talking almost exclusively about combat veterans not the entire military, however he doesn't seem to know there is a distinction. His references are to a shared trauma that binds veterans but he also has this rather stunning negativity towards veterans.

The one way that soldiers are never allowed to see themselves during deployment is as victims, because the passivity of victimhood can get them killed. It’s yelled, beaten, and drilled out of them long before they get close to the battlefield. But when they come home they find themselves being viewed so sympathetically that they’re often excused from having to fully function in society.

and those folks familiar with Hillbilly Elegy may find this thinking a little familiar:

Instead of being able to work and contribute to society—a highly therapeutic thing to do—a large percentage of veterans are just offered lifelong disability payments. And they accept, of course—why shouldn’t they? A society that doesn’t distinguish between degrees of trauma can’t expect its warriors to, either.

Essentially, he's saying that veterans are not that different than other traumatic experiences in life and he's not sure they deserve special dispensation.

The public is often accused of being disconnected from its military, but frankly it’s disconnected from just about everything. Farming, mineral extraction, gas and oil production, bulk cargo transport, logging, fishing, infrastructure construction—all the industries that keep the nation going are mostly unacknowledged by the people who depend on them most.

In Jungers view, being a warrior is just another job within the community (tribe) and should be treated in the same way as other occupations. Again, incredibly thought provoking, and again "feels" like a ton of manipulation of data and intellectual bullying to arrive there.

A lot of what Junger said resonated with me. But I read enough to know he was catering to my biases in order to arrive at a place that he wanted to go. Frankly there was a lot of hidden messaging in the book that I picked up on. The contention that a "good" community is a small community where everyone only does things that help the community. Smacks of two things, isolationism and rural America is the only America that counts with just a smidgen of white nationalism. Also throughout the book there was a bit of an assertion of masculinity. There's the statement that

It may say something about human nature that a surprising number of Americans—mostly men—wound up joining Indian society rather than staying in their own.

or the

To the extent that boys are drawn to war, it may be less out of an interest in violence than a longing for the kind of maturity and respect that often come with it.

The book is peppered with such examples that indicate to me that Junger is concerned about the patriarchy. By the way, all of the veterans that he refers to are men. My earworm reading this book was "I'm a maaan, yes I am and I can't help but let you know…" Yes, I know that isn't the real lyric. Look, it's my earworm…

3.5 conflicted Stars rounded up because I was completely fascinated

It's a short read that is well worth a look, but with a watchful eye...

Read on my kindle. ...more

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Jan 06, 2017 Louise rated it liked it

Shelves: psychology, social-commentary

Sebastian Junger poses that tribal societies had a strong sense of community and fairness because these values were necessary to survive. He poses that while tribal culture buffered its members against catastrophic loss (illness, death, violent weather) its sense of community was protection from what today we call PTSD. He makes his case mostly through anecdotes and a few statistics.

While there is a lot of food for thought in Junger’s anecdotes they have alternative interpretations. For instanc ...more

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May 20, 2016 Robin rated it it was amazing

There are many great books that I cannot wait to introduce to my customers - but then there are other books that I become obsessed with and so passionate for that I need to put it into every single person's hand that walks into my bookstore. Sebastian Junger's new book "Tribe" is one of those books. It is historical, psychological, anthropological and personal. I will think about this book for a very long time. It helped me to understand so much about war, about community, about self. Isn't that ...more

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Dec 19, 2016 Jean Poulos rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, sociology, audio-book

I have read several articles recently about our society’s problems with individualism. When I saw Junger’s short book on the subject, I thought it might give me a more in-depth viewpoint on the subject, which it did.

Junger tells of Benjamin Franklin’s 1753 observation that white prisoners of Native American Tribes when recused would run back to the Native American Tribe they had been with. But the situation never worked it reverse. Franklin concluded there was something wrong with our society.

Ju ...more

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Aug 08, 2016 Hadrian rated it liked it

Shelves: society-culture-anthropology-etc, war, psychology-and-cognition, nonfiction

Junger's most recent work - his documentaries, as well as his books - have been keen observations of the lives of soldiers. This is a short meditation on PTSD, where front-line troops and other veterans have a difficult time reintegrating into society - that war, for all of its hardships, creates a feeling of belonging and absolutely unbreakable bonds, and that returning to contemporary society leads to feelings of incredible isolation.

how many. He gives the unusually high figure of almost 40% c ...more

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Feb 27, 2016 Chantel Coughlin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sebastian Junger takes us on a historical journey that is both anthropological and psychological in his latest work of non-fiction, Tribe. The age old cliche that history repeats itself is being realized in today's society and Junger presents many examples of this with warrior re-integration into their communities following traumatic conflict throughout history and their varied success rates at combating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Junger documents many of the thoughts today's veterans strug ...more

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Apr 27, 2016 Bahramo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow. By far the best non fiction I've read so far this year (2016). Timely. Engaging. In my opinion, his best work yet. I'm tempted to complain that it is too short, but the point gets hammered home effectively. It should be required school reading. I'll be thinking about this for a while....

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Apr 11, 2016 Ron S rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: community, war

An expanded version of an article that first appeared in Vanity Fair titled "How PTSD Became a Problem Far Beyond the Battlefield." Junger has matured as one of the finest American reporters in print. Thinking of him as "the Perfect Storm guy" is as reductive as thinking of Jon Krakauer only as "that guy that wrote Into Thin Air." In this work, Junger looks at community, tribal behaviors, and issues facing veterans while briefly weaving in personal experiences that help connect us to this work o ...more

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Jul 09, 2016 Jennifer Taw rated it it was ok

Tribe provides a good foundation for discussions about war, community, gender roles, government, economics, justice, violence, and the intersections of all of the above. It also has some really interesting statistics kind of scattered throughout. That said, as a book on its own, I found it disappointing. There are too many oversimplified or over-generalized observations; there are too many times that an outcome is explained using one variable (sense of community, for example), and then explained ...more

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Jun 08, 2016 Barbara (The Bibliophage) rated it really liked it

Shelves: mindfulness-and-mental-health, 2016

Back in the 90s, my father said email and the Internet were making people unable to communicate with each other. This was before smart phones and social media. But if you've ever agreed that we are becoming more distanced and less comfortable with face-to-face communication, this book is a required read.

Junger looks at the innate tribal nature of humans and how it affects us during war time and peace time. The difficulty, of course, being that many societies have become less tribal and more ind ...more

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Jul 11, 2016 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, non-fiction, illuminating, psychology, academic-notations

"Today's veterans often come home to find that, although they're willing to die for their country, they're not sure how to live for it." -Sebastian Junger.

Every veteran and visitor to a war-zone should read 'Tribe" when returning to their home country. Not only does the book connect the dots of being a feeling human being and a soldier, and illustrate briefly war experiences from history and more current adventures, it describes what sort of games an ex-soldier can expect from returning home aft ...more

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Jul 05, 2016 Wendell rated it liked it

Tribe is a magazine article, not a book – and readers are advised to take seriously the twice-repeated warning that the text is “unaltered” from the version that appeared in Vanity Fair in 2015. As a magazine “think piece,” it was no doubt compelling in the way that “serious” journalism in Vanity Fair (as opposed to 750 well chosen words about hats) is always meant to compel: a writer “goes in” to explore in close-up a phenomenon or group of individuals that the reader is unlikely to have encoun Tribe is a magazine article, not a book – and readers are advised to take seriously the twice-repeated warning that the text is “unaltered” from the version that appeared in Vanity Fair in 2015. As a magazine “think piece,” it was no doubt compelling in the way that “serious” journalism in Vanity Fair (as opposed to 750 well chosen words about hats) is always meant to compel: a writer “goes in” to explore in close-up a phenomenon or group of individuals that the reader is unlikely to have encountered and reports on them in muscular, trenchant prose. That’s fine as far as it goes, though the last person who managed to pull it off was David Foster Wallace, but Junger here is playing both investigative journalist and pop psychologist and, frankly, he barely has the chops for the second. The blurbs and advertising for this book promise a level of gravitas and of reflection that Junger never delivers. Quite to the contrary, one of the impressive features of this book is Junger’s habit of taking wild, largely unsupported leaps between pieces of information or events—and then proclaiming his flights over the chasm to be a “universal human phenomenon.” In other words, in a book that is supposedly a thoughtful exploration of “homecoming and belonging,” there’s more than a whiff of the kind of informal, “just thinking out loud” conversation one tends to have with the adjacent stranger at the bar, and the analysis is precisely that deep. Junger thinks a lot of things and has collected all kinds of interesting anecdotes, but that doesn’t mean he has particular insight into what he has observed or knows what to make of the sometimes quite random data points he attempts to string into a necklace. The result is sometimes irritating and, too often, merely shallow, including his discussion of PTSD. Then there is Junger’s groovy, unnecessary use of the singular “they,” which he deploys—as so many writers now deploy it—as a shibboleth of trendy, “with it” prose, as a feint at political hipsterism. In fact, Junger demonstrates that he is quite capable, as anyone would be who knew how to write in English, of constructing sentences in such a way as to avoid the need for the singular they. Except sometimes he doesn’t, which means it’s no more than affectation. Nor can he decide if singular “they” is actually singular, which leads him to write sentences such as “What would you risk dying for ... is perhaps the most profound question a person can ask themselves.” The leap between second and third person is, for starters, awkward and amateurish. Then comes the real issue: If “they” is singular and takes the place of “a person,” then shouldn’t it be “the most profound question a person can ask themself”? No? Because that sentence is intolerable in English? Exactly the point. If there is an editor at Twelve, Junger’s publisher, THEY should be tarred and feathered—multiple times, in keeping with the insistence on pluralizing what does not need to be plural. ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 Jamie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

I wish there were ideas here that were new to me, but it’s the same ideas I’ve held true for years. If it was new, than maybe it wouldn’t be obvious— and maybe it wouldn’t be true. But it’s true. It’s obvious. It’s Wendell Berry and Charles Bowden and Joseph Campbell and Barry Lopez and on and on, every other voice who has said for years what Junger’s saying: we’re bleeding at the roots.

Excellent, succinct, damning, necessary book.

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May 24, 2016 Rachel Bayles rated it it was amazing

Shelves: professional

As previous reviews have pointed out, this is a very short book. I read it in a little over an hour. But it is dense, well-written, well thought through and so damn important. Junger brings up the ideas that should be a primary part of the national conversation, but mostly aren't being raised at all. He has proven himself again and again to be someone who is doing the thinking we desperately need.

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Jun 13, 2017 Calzean rated it really liked it

Shelves: author-american, nonfiction, social-issues

More of a long essay, Junger's book is another way of looking at why the world is in a mess, consumerism and economic growth may be easy to measure but don't make life happier and no surprises, man is a tribal animal. He is probably right unfortunately.
His use of American Indians provides strength to his argument and his treatment of PTSD is interesting as he looks at it from a number of different angles.

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Aug 13, 2016 Murtaza rated it really liked it

Shelves: best-of-2016

This book asks a question that resonates quite widely: why does an ultra-wealthy, safe and individually-free society feel so miserable for so many people? Rates of depression and suicide are actually much higher in fully modernized societies, despite an abundance of goods and rights. People may be less connected but they have more available than ever to thrive on their own, theoretically.

Junger touches on his own upbringing and his experience of life in warzones to show that what creates happine This book asks a question that resonates quite widely: why does an ultra-wealthy, safe and individually-free society feel so miserable for so many people? Rates of depression and suicide are actually much higher in fully modernized societies, despite an abundance of goods and rights. People may be less connected but they have more available than ever to thrive on their own, theoretically.

Junger touches on his own upbringing and his experience of life in warzones to show that what creates happiness for human beings is related to deep communal solidarity and a feeling of being needed by others. This is something that is absent in our individualistic modern societies, that encourage us to go it alone in large part or seek narrowly defined "personal fulfillment." If we want to truly feel indispensably needed by others (with the possible exception of close family) it'd be hard to know where to even start today. Avenues for such forms of solidarity are largely closed.

As Junger notes, during war or natural disasters people are forced together. But rather than resulting in a war of all against all, what tends to happen is that egalitarianism and supportive social structures take root. People become closer and develop a shared purpose. Statistics show that wars and disasters actually lead to reductions in suicide and mental illness, whereas people living in atomized conditions (where they are rendered essentially superfluous to the common good) tend to get depressed.

Junger explains this in terms of evolutionary biology. People lived for most of their history in closely knit tribes. Our sterile modern individualism is a sudden and radical departure from how people have normally lived, and how they still do in surviving tribal societies. Evolutionary change usually takes 25,000 years to begin to manifest. Agricultural society only started 10,000 years ago, and industrial modernity started much sooner. Needless to say, none of the biological adaptions for these new eras have even begun to occur yet. Although I tend to be wary of evolutionary explanations for contemporary social phenomena Junger makes his argument elegantly and with a lot of supporting data so it is worth hearing out. Forms of social organization already change so rapidly that its useless to "wait" thousands of years until biology adapts and better to build social structures that fit who we are as humans.

Francis Fukuyama is another author who wrote of the lack of purpose and struggle in modern societies as a major potential problem. Junger reiterates that point in this book, albeit in different terms. While modernity eliminates most real struggle from life, that struggle, and the opportunities for heroism, courage, solidarity and sacrifice it made possible, was much of what made us "human." In its absence we risk being reduced to docile animals, content to merely be fed and safe. But unlike animals, such benign comfort doesn't even make us happy. As humans we need deep bonds with one another to feel fulfilled. We also need purpose, and that purpose comes from our relationship with a tribe, whom we can do good for, rely upon and feel needed by. Modern society exchanges tribal relationships for an almost unlimited individual freedom. While there is some good in that, it is a real trade-off that we have yet to grapple with.

Petty littering, mass shootings and Wall Street parasitism are a few examples cited by Junger of actions by those who clearly don't feel themselves to be part of the society they live in. They have been detribalized, and that sometimes manifests in anti-social behaviors as well as just dissatisfaction.

This book is intended as food for thought rather than a grand philosophical narrative. Though buttressed by ample empirical data, it is written in plain terms and filled with engaging anecdotes. Despite an initial intimation otherwise, he doesn't really offer an obvious solution to the problem (in fairness, that would be asking a lot). Junger imparts wisdom about the nature of "man as man," and how the modern world both succeeds and fails to accommodate what human beings need to thrive. Material abundance just isn't enough, people need purpose, struggle, and the sense of intimate community that that inexorably brings. Its worth looking at how such things can be built into the society we live in today - incorporated in harmony with technological advancement and wealth instead of in conflict with it. ...more

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Mar 10, 2017 Conor rated it liked it

Shelves: americana, audiobook

This was way too short! But it was very enjoyable.

As my law school roommate deracinates himself to briefly join the cause of the native people of North Dakota, the contrast between egalitarian, Earth-centered communal living and the infrastructure we require (read: want) for the rest of it could not be more apparent. This book might have been a bit too hamfisted with the evolutionary biology at times, but it really made me ponder how unnatural it must be for us as a species to be so isolated, g ...more

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Jul 11, 2016 CD rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: Not recommended

Shelves: journalism, read-in-2016

One of my favorite writers of the past two decades has written a book that I'm not overly fond of at all.

The last few paragraphs of the book could possibly redeem author Junger, but not the book. Elegant words about service, a nation and world in turmoil, and that we live in a unique and virtually unprecedented time or in the author's words, an 'extraordinary moment in our history' conclude the book. How the journey to these few final phrases transpires in "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging" i ...more

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Nov 04, 2016 Carmen rated it it was ok

Although an interesting insight about cohesion being essential for group survival in the face of danger or catastrophe, and our lack of this as fundamental to the fragmenting and isolation of modern American society, Junger never really develops his thesis beyond this. His idea that prolonged and unabated ptsd does not stem from the trauma but rather from an inability to reconnect with a society most never felt a part of anyway rings true. He cites Israel as an example of a society as effectivel ...more

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Apr 01, 2016 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, united-states-and-canada, mental-health-issues, journalism, anthropology-and-culture-studies, dealing-with-trauma, novellas-and-quick-reads, psychology-and-neuroscience, midwest-and-middle-america, northwest, 2016, powerful-writing, facing-oppression, deep-and-insightful, intellectual-writing, loneliness-seclusion-and-isolation, social-science-and-sociology, identity-and-finding-oneself, melancholy-and-longing, living-with-disabilities, fear-war-and-terrorism

Finished this 3 hour audiobook in one sitting because I was sucked in. I want to take more time to digest this before writing a full review, but I enjoyed it a lot. It presents very compelling ideas about modern society, human nature and evolution, and our psychological bent towards solidarity.

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May 15, 2016 Langston rated it it was amazing

Loved it. A well-written rumination on the basic human need for belonging and communal living. And how our fractured, alienating and isolating modern society opposes our tribal instincts which can lead to very unfortunate circumstances.

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May 26, 2016 Gea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-stars, war, non-fiction, 2016-read

Outstanding and deeply impactful. Wish it had been longer.

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Aug 08, 2016 Kelsey Dangelo rated it it was ok

Junger, a war correspondent and world traveler, seeks to promote tribal life, as seen both historically and currently in American Indian and aboriginal groups around the world, as well as in the military. He blames individualism (in terms of hurting the society, such as in alienation and in greed) for the ills of society (mainly in terms of mental illness).

Although I greatly admire Junger’s points, and I do strongly wish for a greater sense of altruism, selflessness, and community belonging in Junger, a war correspondent and world traveler, seeks to promote tribal life, as seen both historically and currently in American Indian and aboriginal groups around the world, as well as in the military. He blames individualism (in terms of hurting the society, such as in alienation and in greed) for the ills of society (mainly in terms of mental illness).

Although I greatly admire Junger’s points, and I do strongly wish for a greater sense of altruism, selflessness, and community belonging in the world—particularly in terms of our tragic greed, I have many issues with this book. There are sweeping generalizations in much of what he says (none of which is footnoted, and also comes from his memory, observations, and conversations—much of which feels cherry-picked). Sweeping generalizations and glaring holes of logic and understanding, of judgement are always off-putting to me. Life, human life, is so much more complicated.

First of all and most of all, I am frustrated by Junger’s glorification of violence, war and misery, saying that humans thrive on it and that it is good for them. I believe his reason is because he wants us to know that we can survive and thrive from the bad things in our life, but his prose and writing fail to make that clear. He neglects to note that fear is what keeps tribes together, and fear might be helpful in the moment, but it isn’t particularly a great way to live, or even a successful way of life. Art, culture, free thinking, technology, medicine, freedoms, and acceptance do not thrive in fear. And that is a giant blind spot in Junger’s book: if terror creates unity, then where does that terror come from? Often, if comes from “tribes” warring on other “tribes”, on outsiders.

I have major issues with the statistics and findings that he reports to support his points. He says there is less mental illness among the poor. Often because the poor cannot afford to get diagnosed and/or self-medicate. He says that there was much more togetherness during the Great Depression or World War II, but there was also segregation, violence, and incredible sexism. He doesn’t mention the myth of “the greatest generation”. Junger fails to note that with the loss of individualism comes incredibly painful conformity. He quotes Thomas Paine, but not John Stewart Mill. He idealizes American Indian tribes, but otherwise, most of his focus is on white men. Junger neglects to note the drawbacks of “tribal” thinking: what if you don’t fit into the tribe? His conclusions are incredibly simplistic: that communal societies are better than individualistic ones. I am always weary about conclusions like “better”, particularly when they are so simplistic. Junger, I notice, doesn’t bring up living in Japan, where the suicide and depression rates are incredibly high due to the stress of having to live up to the community or tribe. He doesn’t mention the communist block or Nazi Germany or Puritanical England. He also fails to mention the “Springer effect” (so called by The Dollop) observed over and over in history: in the face of discrimination and being terrorized, two groups will fight each other. It doesn’t often cause bonding together against a foe. He also provides no ways or solutions for communities to come together. Are we all just supposed to ignore individual freedoms? Or is he talking about everyone just trying to help each other more? The answers aren’t clear, and it is confusing.

I am also incredibly turned off by the sexism/male-centrism in the book. I understand that we are a gendered species, but this book’s focus was almost completely on men. It was about men’s need to be heroes, to go to war, to serve, to protect, and their feelings of identity and belonging due to those feelings. If a man doesn’t, then he is a playing the woman’s role. The few times when studies or points on women are mentioned, they are dismissed because they don’t fit his points. For instance, he mentions that women’s depression rates rise during war time, but because they don’t commit suicide, he dismisses it and moves on. Maybe that is because their men are warring and their children and loved ones and selves are in danger because they are put in a situation of being the helpless victim? Maybe because women don’t find a need to go fight in order to take care? The dismissal of half of humanity throughout this book was incredibly off-putting and worked against his points.

Also, I always get a little peeved with the old line: technology alienates us! Things were so much better back when! I live in a very loving, supportive, caring community, I work as a teacher in another loving and supportive community that takes care of each other. I see what is in place, I see how people help each other. I have helped and receive help. And communications technology and online has brought that even further and give voices to people, break down barriers. I see a world that in my lifetimes has become much more understanding and accepting to LGBT people. Of course there are things we need to work on, but going backwards always seems problematic to me. Learn from the past, all its complications—good and bad—and move on.

His metaphors and analogies, his research and studies are inconsistent and often illogical. Junger often uses studies done at the moment of the terrorizing events and uses them to make long-term judgements.

Junger makes a wonderful point: that we need to come together as a community, take care of each other, be a tribe. But this isn’t balanced out against extremes. And, as an academic, I just can’t go along with a book that has bad writing, bad academics, bad history, bad science, bad statistics, bad psychology, bad sociology, bad anthropology, bad logic, that is simplistic and overly generalizes, is myopic in scope.

I did read that this is a think-piece from Vanity Fair. I suppose, if I went in understanding that, and reading it as food for thought over my morning cereal, I could forgive the pop-academia and just take it as something from Vanity Fair, rather than something to study and understand deeply. Take its message for the best, but don’t think too much about it.

The message: be part of the community and help each other, for your sake and everyone else’s.

“When people are actively engaged in a cause their lives have more purpose… with a resulting improvement in mental health.” (Lyons in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 1979 (The article I should have read.)

Grade: C
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About Sebastian Junger

Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of War, The Perfect Storm, Fire, and A Death in Belmont. Together with Tim Hetherington, he directed the Academy Award-nominated film Restrepo, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and has been awarded a National Magazine Award and an SAIS Novartis Prize for journalism. He lives in New Yo ...more

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“Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. It's time for that to end.” — 29 likes

“human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others. These values are considered "intrinsic" to human happiness and far outweigh "extrinsic" values such as beauty, money and status.” — 20 likes

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