What Our Generation Learned in War
In this Memorial Day essay, Elliot Ackerman argues that the greatest lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan are not tactical but societal. He examines the widening civil-military divide, the costs of...
Essays
The Daily Beast
Tim O'Brien on Ken Burns' Vietnam War
Elliot Ackerman speaks with acclaimed author Tim O'Brien about Ken Burns' documentary The Vietnam War, exploring the history of the conflict, the nature of memory, writing about combat, and why...
How Denis Johnson Chased the Epic Novel
Elliot Ackerman remembers Denis Johnson through two of his greatest works, Tree of Smoke and Train Dreams, examining how Johnson pursued the epic American novel through vastly different styles while...
Dark at the Crossing Excerpt
Read an exclusive excerpt from Dark at the Crossing, Elliot Ackerman's award-winning novel set along the Turkish-Syrian border. Through Haris and Daphne, this scene captures the human cost of war,...
Am I Safe in Turkey?
Following the 2015 Ankara bombing, Elliot Ackerman examines how terrorism, war, and everyday violence shape our understanding of security. Blending personal experience as a Marine veteran and father living in...
How the Longest War Ate Its Children
In this The Daily Beast feature, novelist Atticus Lish introduces an excerpt from Elliot Ackerman’s debut novel, Green on Blue, a work of literary fiction that portrays the war in...
I Shot Bin Laden
In this work of fiction for The Daily Beast, Elliot Ackerman imagines the perspective of the Navy SEAL who kills Osama bin Laden and then struggles with the strange, bodily,...
Watching ISIS Come to Power Again
Drawing on firsthand experience at the Turkish-Syrian border, Elliot Ackerman recounts witnessing the early rise of ISIS through the stories of refugees and survivors. The essay explores extremism, intervention, and...
Four Hundred Grand
In this short story, Elliot Ackerman examines the emotional aftermath of war through the unraveling marriage of a young Marine and his wife after the death of a fellow soldier....
Apathetic Teenagers and the Apocalypse
Elliot Ackerman reviews Maxwell Neely-Cohen's debut novel Echo of the Boom, exploring how privilege, technology, and youthful apathy converge in a dystopian vision of the modern apocalypse.
War Nostalgia and the Road Back
Through the story of missing journalist and Marine veteran Austin Tice, Elliot Ackerman explores why some veterans are drawn back to conflict zones, examining war nostalgia, identity, memory, and the...
A Man to Believe In
Following the death of Marine Master Sergeant Aaron Torian in Afghanistan, Elliot Ackerman delivered this deeply personal eulogy at Arlington National Cemetery, reflecting on friendship, leadership, service, family, and the...
Can Joyce Carol Oates Write a War Novel?
Elliot Ackerman reviews Joyce Carol Oates's novel Carthage, exploring what defines a true war novel, why authenticity matters, and how authority, rather than military experience alone, shapes enduring literature about...
The Fourth War: My Lunch with a Jihadi
In this deeply personal essay, Elliot Ackerman meets a former al-Qaeda operative he once fought against in Iraq. Over tea and lunch in a Syrian refugee camp on the Turkish...
Greg Baxter's The Apartment Review
Elliot Ackerman reviews Greg Baxter's The Apartment, praising its restrained storytelling and nuanced depiction of a veteran navigating memory, identity, and life in an unnamed European city. Rather than relying...