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Places and Names

On War, Revolution, and Returning

Author Elliot Ackerman On Tour
Listen to a clip Look inside
Paperback
$17.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
On sale Jun 09, 2020 | 256 Pages | 978-0-525-55998-6
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  • History > Period History: Middle East and North Africa > 21st Century
  • History > Period History: U.S. > America in the 21st Century
  • History > Topical History > Military History
  • History > U.S. History > U.S. Military History
  • Interdisciplinary Studies > Race and Ethnic Studies > Middle East History
  • Interdisciplinary Studies > Race and Ethnic Studies > Middle East Studies
  • Political Science > International Relations > International Conflict / Security
  • Military Science > Ethics and Military Profession
  • About
  • Author
One of NPR's Best Books of 2019

“Lyrical . . . A thoughtful perspective on America’s role overseas.” —Washington Post

From 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.


“War hath determined us.” —John Milton, Paradise Lost

Toward the beginning of Places and Names, 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.

The 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.

At 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, Places and Names bids fair to take its place among our greatest books about modern war.
© Alyssa Schukar
ELLIOT ACKERMAN is the author of the novels Red Dress in Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing (a finalist for the National Book Award), and Green on Blue (a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize), as well as the memoir Places and Names, and is the coauthor with Admiral James Stavridis of the best seller 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. Ackerman 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. View titles by Elliot Ackerman

About

One of NPR's Best Books of 2019

“Lyrical . . . A thoughtful perspective on America’s role overseas.” —Washington Post

From 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.


“War hath determined us.” —John Milton, Paradise Lost

Toward the beginning of Places and Names, 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.

The 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.

At 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, Places and Names bids fair to take its place among our greatest books about modern war.

Author

© Alyssa Schukar
ELLIOT ACKERMAN is the author of the novels Red Dress in Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing (a finalist for the National Book Award), and Green on Blue (a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize), as well as the memoir Places and Names, and is the coauthor with Admiral James Stavridis of the best seller 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. Ackerman 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. View titles by Elliot Ackerman

Additional formats

  • Places and Names
    Places and Names
    On War, Revolution, and Returning
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-525-55997-9
    $11.99 US
    Ebook
    Penguin Books
    Jun 11, 2019
  • Places and Names
    Places and Names
    On War, Revolution, and Returning
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-1-9848-8877-8
    $17.50 US
    Audiobook Download
    Penguin Audio
    Jun 11, 2019
  • Places and Names
    Places and Names
    On War, Revolution, and Returning
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-525-55997-9
    $11.99 US
    Ebook
    Penguin Books
    Jun 11, 2019
  • Places and Names
    Places and Names
    On War, Revolution, and Returning
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-1-9848-8877-8
    $17.50 US
    Audiobook Download
    Penguin Audio
    Jun 11, 2019

Other Books by this Author

  • Halcyon
    Halcyon
    A novel
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-593-32162-1
    $28.00 US
    Hardcover
    Knopf
    May 23, 2023
  • The Fifth Act
    The Fifth Act
    America's End in Afghanistan
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-593-49204-8
    $27.00 US
    Hardcover
    Penguin Press
    Aug 09, 2022
  • 2034
    2034
    A Novel of the Next World War
    Elliot Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis, USN
    978-1-9848-8127-4
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Mar 08, 2022
  • Red Dress in Black and White
    Red Dress in Black and White
    A novel
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-525-56347-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 27, 2021
  • Waiting for Eden
    Waiting for Eden
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-1-101-97156-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 03, 2019
  • Dark at the Crossing
    Dark at the Crossing
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-1-101-97155-0
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Nov 21, 2017
  • Istanbul Letters
    Istanbul Letters
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-525-43315-6
    $0.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Oct 04, 2016
  • Halcyon
    Halcyon
    A novel
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-593-32162-1
    $28.00 US
    Hardcover
    Knopf
    May 23, 2023
  • The Fifth Act
    The Fifth Act
    America's End in Afghanistan
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-593-49204-8
    $27.00 US
    Hardcover
    Penguin Press
    Aug 09, 2022
  • 2034
    2034
    A Novel of the Next World War
    Elliot Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis, USN
    978-1-9848-8127-4
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Mar 08, 2022
  • Red Dress in Black and White
    Red Dress in Black and White
    A novel
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-525-56347-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 27, 2021
  • Waiting for Eden
    Waiting for Eden
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-1-101-97156-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 03, 2019
  • Dark at the Crossing
    Dark at the Crossing
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-1-101-97155-0
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Nov 21, 2017
  • Istanbul Letters
    Istanbul Letters
    Elliot Ackerman
    978-0-525-43315-6
    $0.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Oct 04, 2016
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