Our guest is Elliot Ackerman, the author of several widely-acclaimed novels who's also a former Marine; he served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. Ackerman joins us to discuss his new book, a collection of autobiographical essays called "Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning." Per a starred review of this volume in Booklist: "[A] searing, contemplative, and unforgettable memoir-in-essays.... Deeply personal yet never losing sight of the big, historical reasons for recent events, this collection recalls Michael Herr's classic 'Dispatches' as well as William T. Vollmann's voluminous ruminations on violence in 'Rising Up and Rising Down,' and is perhaps the finest writing about the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts that has been published to date."
"Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning"
