Erik Edstrom

Erik graduated from West Point in 2007. He was then deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as an infantry platoon leader. Erik spent the remainder of his service as the Presidential Escort Platoon Leader during the Obama administration.

He is a graduate of U.S. Army Ranger School, recipient of the Rippetoe Trophy during The Best Ranger Competition, was selected for the U.S. Special Forces (SFAS), and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

After the military, Erik went on to earn both an MBA and a Master of Science, studying climate change, from Oxford University. After graduate school, Erik moved to Australia for five years, where he worked as a management consultant for both Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and McKinsey & Company. He currently lives in New York.

UN-AMERICAN: A SOLDIER'S RECKONING OF OUR LONGEST WAR (Memoir, Published: Bloomsbury)

Erik Edstrom grew up in suburban Massachusetts with an idealistic desire to make an impact, ultimately leading him to the gates of West Point. Five years later, he was deployed to Afghanistan as an infantry lieutenant.

Throughout his military career, he confronted atrocities, buried his friends, wrestled with depression, and struggled with an understanding that the war he fought in, and the youth he traded to prepare for it, was in contribution to a bitter truth: The War on Terror is not just a tragedy, but a crime. The deeper tragedy is that our country lacks the courage and conviction to say so.

A searing examination of America and Americans at war, UN-AMERICAN poses three questions that should be asked before the decision to go to war is made. Through a hybrid of social commentary and memoir, he considers these questions and exposes how blind support for war exacerbates the problems it’s intended to resolve, devastates the people allegedly being helped, and diverts assets from far larger threats like climate change. UN-AMERICAN is a revolutionary act, offering a blueprint for redressing America’s relationship with patriotism, the military, and military spending

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Agent: Zeynep Sen