The Men Who Stare at Goats

Book cover of The Men Who Stare at Goats

Book description

Often funny, sometimes chilling and always thought-provoking, journalist Jon Ronson's Sunday Times bestseller The Men Who Stare at Goats is a story so unbelievable it has to be true.

In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known military practice…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Men Who Stare at Goats as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Tone Milazzo

Author

Set in the height of the Cold War, The Men Who Stare at Goats is the story of the US Army’s psychic warfare unit, the First Earth Battalion. These self-declared “warrior monks” trained in remote viewing and aspired to psychic slay capra with the force of their concentration.

Unlike the rest of the books on my list, The Men Who Stare at Goats is non-fiction. The bulk of the material in these pages are interviews with people in the First Earth Battalion.

Reading this book made me question the reality of psychic phenomena. Is there something to it? Or was…

From Tone's list on spies in strange places.

Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

Author

When I picked up this book from a yard sale for a quarter, I had no idea that Ronson was such a master of the absurd. I still marvel at how he went into one of the most staid, tightly-run organizations in the world, the US military, and found a story that was so off-the-wall bananas. I don’t know whether it made me more hysterical with laughter, or hysterical with fear, but I appreciate his ability to employ both subtle and broad humor to keep me turning pages.

From Matthew's list on stranger – and funnier – than fiction.