{"product_id":"places-and-names-on-war-revolution-and-returning-9780525559986","title":"Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of NPR's Best Books of 2019 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Lyrical . . . A thoughtful perspective on America's role overseas.\" \u003ci\u003e--\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom a decorated Marine war veteran and National Book Award finalist, an astonishing reckoning with the nature of combat and the human cost of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"War hath determined us.\" --John Milton, \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eToward the beginning of \u003ci\u003ePlaces and Names\u003c\/i\u003e, Elliot Ackerman sits in a refugee camp in southern Turkey, across the table from a man named Abu Hassar, who fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq and whose connections to the Islamic State are murky. At first, Ackerman pretends to have been a journalist during the Iraq War, but after establishing a rapport with Abu Hassar, he takes a risk by revealing to him that in fact he was a Marine special operation officer. Ackerman then draws the shape of the Euphrates River on a large piece of paper, and his one-time adversary quickly joins him in the game of filling in the map with the names and dates of places where they saw fighting during the war. They had shadowed each other for some time, it turned out, a realization that brought them to a strange kind of intimacy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe rest of Elliot Ackerman's extraordinary memoir is in a way an answer to the question of why he came to that refugee camp, and what he hoped to find there. By moving back and forth between his recent experiences on the ground as a journalist in Syria and its environs and his deeper past in Iraq and Afghanistan, he creates a work of remarkable atmospheric pressurization. Ackerman shares vivid and powerful stories of his own experiences in combat, culminating in the events of the Second Battle of Fallujah, the most intense urban combat for the Marines since Hue in Vietnam, where Ackerman's actions leading a rifle platoon saw him awarded the Silver Star. He weaves these stories into the latticework of a masterful larger reckoning with contemporary geopolitics through his vantage as a journalist in Istanbul and with the human extremes of both bravery and horror. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt once an intensely personal story about the terrible lure of combat and a brilliant meditation on the larger meaning of the past two decades of strife for America, the region, and the world, \u003ci\u003ePlaces and Names\u003c\/i\u003e bids fair to take its place among our greatest books about modern war.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-8803546\"\u003eElliot Ackerman\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Penguin Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/09\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780525559986\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0525559981\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-HIS\"\u003eHistory\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-HIS027110\"\u003eMilitary | United States\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO026000\"\u003ePersonal Memoirs\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO008000\"\u003eMilitary\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eElliot Ackerman \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of several novels including \u003ci\u003eDark at the Crossing, \u003c\/i\u003e which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and most recently \u003ci\u003eWaiting for Eden.\u003c\/i\u003e His writings appear in \u003ci\u003eEsquire, The New Yorker, The Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, among other publications, and his stories have been included in \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Travel Writing.\u003c\/i\u003e He is both a former White House Fellow and Marine, and served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He divides his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42688243532013,"sku":"9780525559986","price":25.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_6c5268c2-31bf-4825-9ff9-ecf2ae5d2d43.jpg?v=1649786530","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/places-and-names-on-war-revolution-and-returning-9780525559986","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}