God Forgives, Brothers Don't

“A detailed and unflinching look at the bedrock of American military training… Every day is a vindication of what this book is about.”
—Nicholas Russell, The Defector

“A compelling, disturbing and timely read, reminiscent of the work of Sebastian Junger and Jon Krakauer.”
—Ken Picard, Seven Days

“Expansive…. Serves as a counterweight to blind obedience to authority and hierarchy. Craven also offers an illuminating and useful examination of masculinity and traditional military training in a nation that gets embroiled in many conflicts abroad.”
—Booklist

“A searing deep dive [and a] unique and vital perspective on America’s masculinity crisis.”
—Publishers Weekly
“I could not put down Craven’s unique take on modern American masculinity and its birth on our military drill fields and foreign battlefields. If you are interested in the lives of men and boys and how they now operate in the world, read this book.”
—Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead

“Jasper Craven demonstrates how our national cult of toxic masculinity was made, not born–at America’s military service academies, from their gestation in 1802 in a country whose founders supposedly despised the idea of standing armies, all the way through a notorious military academy’s role in shaping the dark heart of Donald J. Trump. And, unfortunately, beyond.”
—Rick Perlstein, New York Times bestselling author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge

“Jasper Craven has produced a fascinating and barbed look at military education and American notions of manhood from the founding to the present day. God Forgives, Brothers Don’t doesn’t simply decry the long-running conflation of strength and cruelty, it makes a sharp argument for what true strength actually looks like.”
—Phil Klay, bestselling author of Redeployment

“Put Jasper Craven’s book on the shelf by John Steinbeck, Michael Herr and Sebastian Junger, the only civilians of the last century who’ve written as well or convincingly about the military. Craven is one of the few who can capture the foreign culture of the military without being captured by it.”

—Matt Farwell, former Army infantryman and author of American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan

“A lucid and fluent examination of how militaristic educational institutions like West Point, the Citadel, Valley Forge, ROTC, JROTC, and even the Boy Scouts warp and distort the psyches of men and boys, stamping out truly manly qualities like optimism, warmth, amity, honesty, and independence of mind, to create for the benefit of an immoral government obedient legions of servile and emotionally stunted hollow men afflicted by anger, shame, loneliness, and despair.”
—Seth Harp, NYT best-selling author of The Fort Bragg Cartel

Jasper Craven is a freelance reporter covering the military and veterans’ issues. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, Politico magazine, and The Baffler, among others. He is the author of God Forgives, Brothers Don’t and he is also the coauthor, with Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early, of the academic book Our Veterans. Follow him on X @Jasper_Craven.

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