PanThe GuardianJunger is particularly insightful when he is discussing combat soldiers and the difficulties they experience when returning from war zones. He makes the provocative, but plausible, observation that one of the reasons American combat veterans suffer such high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is because they find it difficult to separate out the harm of war from its pleasures ... But in many other ways, this is a deeply unsatisfactory book. The chief problem is that Junger is nostalgic for a world that never existed – at least not for most people .. the idea that 'poor people are forced to share their time and resources more than wealthy people are, and as a result they live in closer communities' simply does not ring true ... I don’t understand Junger’s glamorisation of violence, disaster and catastrophe.
