Strength & Compassion: Photographs and Essays - Hardcover

Eric Greitens was born and raised in Missouri, where he was educated in the public schools. He was an Angier B. Duke Scholar at Duke University, where he studied ethics, philosophy, and public policy. Selected as a Rhodes and a Truman Scholar, he attended the University of Oxford from 1996 through 2000. There he earned a master's degree in 1998 and a Ph.D. in 2000. He has worked as a humanitarian volunteer, documentary photographer, and researcher in Rwanda, Cambodia, Albania, Mexico, India, Bosnia, and Bolivia.

Eric also served as a United States Navy SEAL officer and deployed four times during the Global War on Terrorism to Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Iraq. In 2005, he was appointed by the President to serve as a White House Fellow, and in 2011 the Association of the United States Navy named him the Navy Reserve Junior Line Officer of the Year. His military awards include the Combat Action Ribbon, the Purple Heart, and the Bronze Star.

After returning from Iraq in 2007, Eric donated his combat pay to found The Mission Continues, a national nonprofit organization that challenges veterans to serve and lead in communities across America.

A photographer and writer, Eric is the author of two books. Strength and Compassion is a collection of photographs and essays that was recognized as ForeWord Magazine's Photography Book of the Year, and as the Grand Prize Winner of the 2009 New York Book Festival. The Heart & the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL, relates Eric's story of leadership and service as a humanitarian and a warrior, and was a 2011 New York Times Bestseller.

His work has been covered by national media outlets including NPR, CNN, NBC Nightly News, Fox, CBS, MSNBC, The Colbert Report, the TODAY Show, USA Today, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Eric currently serves as CEO of The Mission Continues and lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife, Sheena.

"[Eric] has walked in places where human beings have committed the most evil acts, and yet has retained an affection for people. These photographs are all so truly human that we recognize others not only as our brothers and sisters, but as our beautiful brothers and sisters...Eric's images and essays bring us to see others, and to see ourselves, in a new way...This is a book that is as challenging as it is enlightening, and it contains a vision that is as honest as it is hopeful." - Paul Rusesabagina, inspiration behind the film Hotel Rwanda

Awards

• New York Book Festival, Winner for Photography and Grand Prize Winner
• Foreword Magazine Book of the Year, Gold Medal for Photography
• 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Winner for Photography
• Silver Medalist for the Nautilus Book Awards for Art/Photography Book
• Winner of the National Indie Excellence Award for Best Photography Book