In this intense, compelling, and unsettling account of Americans at war, Chris Chivers explores the recent history of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq not from the vantage of senior officers and civilian policymakers, but from the perspectives of those in the lower and middle ranks who’ve done the bulk of the fighting. Although The Fighters focuses on six individuals from different military branches who served in different places and at different times, the accounts capture what many other troops have gone through. As a former Marine and experienced journalist with the New York Times, Chivers himself is particularly well-qualified to tell this story. He writes about military affairs with the authority and informed eye for detail of a veteran and with the clarity and punch of a talented wordsmith.