“Fuckery aside, this place is actually beautiful.”

About this site

C.J. Chivers.

Writer at Large, The New York Times Magazine.

Adjunct Professor, Columbia Journalism School.

Author of THE FIGHTERS, an unvarnished account of the rank-and-file experience of modern combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, called a "a classic" by The New York Times, "a memorial in pages" by The Washington Post, and "an honest reckoning" by The Wall Street Journal.

Author of THE GUN, a social history of the AK-47 that examines the origins & proliferation of automatic arms, & their influence on war.

Contributor, here and there.

PGP: AE4C E7EA F09E 0A2B C995 4659 30A3 E36D 949C 4FC1

Fishcatcher. Woodcutter. Quahog crew. Small-scale farmer, working by hand. Butcher. Breeder. Briner. Boathand. Root-cellar fan. Former Marine. Wearer of earplugs and hearing aids, too. (Not quite deaf as a nail.) Toggling between on and off the grid. Usually preferring off. Apprenticing, still.

What happens here?
Field reporting on conflict, tactics, insurgency and counterinsurgency, the arms trade and human rights. Behind scenes glimpses of work. Front-line forensics, battlefield paleontology, appreciative nods, mini-profiles, explanatory riffs. Pix. Tweets. Updates. Links. And occasional accounts of the other, better life.

Find me on

Follow @cjchivers

Posts I like

Photo via theeconomist
The reconstructed wreckage of the MH17 airplane is seen after the presentation of the final report into the crash of July 2014 of the Malaysia Airlines flight over Ukraine, in...

Photo via theeconomist
Post via nickturse
A tweet
BBC News: Burundi state TV cameraman and his family killed by police http://t.co/jIth7u1qlg
— Nick Turse (@NickTurse)
October 14, 2015
Post via nickturse
Photo via humanrightswatch
Taliban Unrolls its Media Hit List
The latest addition to the Taliban hit list are two of Afghanistan’s largest TV channels: 1TV and TOLO News. On October 12, the Taliban...
Photo via humanrightswatch
Photoset via salon
Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest poultry supplier, is going antibiotic-free. In just over two years’ time, the company announced Tuesday morning, it plans to eliminate the use...

Photoset via salon
Post via chechenrepublic
Residents of Chechnya state being forced to take part in rally in support of accession of Crimea
The rally, held in Grozny on March 18 in support of Russia’s incorporation of the...
Post via chechenrepublic
Post via theatlantic
There Is No Global Jihadist 'Movement'
“What’s sometimes referred to as the global jihadist ‘movement’ is actually extremely fractured. It’s united by a general set of shared...
Post via theatlantic
Photoset via instagram
1,000 Miles on Alaska’s Iditarod Trail with photographer @katieorlinsky

To see more of Katie Orlinsky’s sled dog photos and videos from the Iditarod Trail, follow @...
Photoset via instagram
Photo via anarchyfaith
Speaking of the NFL….

Photo via anarchyfaith

Sites we follow

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“Fuckery aside, this place is actually beautiful.”

– from Miguel, a U.S. Marine. Re: Well, it almost does not matter, because we hear this almost everywhere we work. (UPDATE: O.K., because you asked. Miguel was referring to Afghanistan.)