This book’s genre differs from other books I have reviewed this past year, as my focus has been on a functional medicine approach to mind and wellness. There are a few points I pulled from this book that can contribute toward improved health and wellness. Reading Sebastian Junger’s book Freedom influences one to reflect on what does it mean to be free. At one point, Sebastian states, “we were the only people in the world who knew where we were. There are many definitions of freedom, but surely that is one of them.” This statement made me reflect on my childhood before we had cell phones. I would be out alone hunting in the mountains, sure my parents had a general idea of my location, yet I was free from the distractors of the world that maintain an occupied mind. It served as a reset and rejuvenation of the mind.
If you enjoy history, anthropology, and sociology, you will get a bit of it all when you read this book. Sebastian sheds light on the principle of belonging to a community and the freedoms that result from effectively functioning communities. Sebastian explains that humans are driven by the desire to achieve freedom and a sense of community as humans, yet sometimes, they work against each other. Modern-day communities with various laws and restrictions emplaced for our protection tend to limit some of these freedoms. He explains how “Mass societies… require such high levels of obedience… The choice is to either rise up or submit.”
This book describes what Sebastian calls “the last patrol.” Sebastian, who has experienced combat as an embedded reporter, takes a long trek from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh, following the railroad line along the Juniata River. Accompanying him are a few combat veterans. Sebastian shares this experience of walking the rail lines, which is illegal. While avoiding authorities, encountering different, friendly, and not-so-friendly people, they slept on the ground and cooked their food by a campfire as they dealt with the various environmental factors along the route.
Through the book, he shares this experience while weaving in historical stories of the communities that settled along the Pennsylvania Frontier. I pulled many new historical perspectives from this book, an appreciation of these early settler’s experiences, and it furthered my current research into the various theories of human development.
