The Heart and the Fist

The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL

By: Eric Greitens

Narrated by: Eric Greitens

Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Like many young idealists, Eric Greitens wanted to make a difference. During college and afterward, he traveled to the world's trouble spots, working in refugee camps, serving the sick and the poor on four continents, from Gaza to Croatia to Mother Teresa's home in Calcutta, among others. Yet he could not prevent violence or save anyone from becoming a refugee; he could only step in afterward and try to ease the damage. So Eric joined the Navy SEALs and became an elite warrior.

In a moving and inspiring memoir, told with genuine humility, Eric offers something new in the history of military memoirs: a warrior who wanted to be strong to be good, only to discover that he had to be good to be strong. Throughout his SEAL training and deployments in Kenya, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the lessons of his humanitarian work bore fruit. The result is a lesson for us all: the heart and fist together are more powerful than either one alone.

©2011 Eric Greitens (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This tale of [Greitens's] dual military/humanitarian effort could be paired with Rye Barcott's It Happened on the Way to War." ( Library Journal)

The Heart and the Fist vs Resilience

Any additional comments?

To save you guys the trouble since there is quite a bit of overlap between books, I believe the story for this book over that of Resilience is better. Being that Resilience was more of a self help motivational book influenced by socratic dialogue (letters between Greitens and Walker), this book was more of the life story of Greitens. Both are wonderful pieces but I read Resilience first and I think that it's not necessary to read both books. This book shows how great of a guy Greitens is, whereas the latter develops and expounds on different principles of living a fulfilling life and overcoming obstacles. That being said, I found resilience a better listen overall because of the socratic dialogue-esque style of writing.

My Favorite Book!

What did you love best about The Heart and the Fist?

Eric Greitens is a phenomenal story teller. Weaving many life events into one fantastic life lesson. I have listened to this book over and over and it is by far my favorite.

Inspiring

Loved this book. Now I'm having my teenage son who wants to be a Navy seal read it.
Thanks Eric

inspiration

This book helped me remember the importance of doing whatever work lays near with as much passion and purpose as possible.

Great listen

I frequently search for stories about life experience that lead to the path of a warrior. Greitens’ stories from all his experiences as a warfighter and an all around humanitarian, remind you of the good and evil in the world.

Good Read...Rhode Scholar who becomes a Navy Seal

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Heart and the Fist?

This book gave a view of a view of how Eric Greiten lived his life and his journey as a Navy SEAL. It is an interesting view of Eric's personal journey through the early years of his life and his years as a Navy SEAL. For those that are looking a book just about Navy SEAL training or life within the teams you may be disappointed. This book is more about his journey as a person and his journey through the world from the point of civilian and Navy SEAL. I would not consider this book heavy military, maybe 50% of the book is dedicated to his Navy SEAL training and career.

Fantastic book

Great book to read no matter what the age. Very inspiring and insightful. I would highly suggest to add this to your reading list.

Not very action packed

Story is not very action packed, but did hold my attention. Was looking for eventful events.

journey of a humanitarian.

what a great story of compassion and determination to help the human cause in every way.

Interesting story of a well travelled man,

If you could sum up The Heart and the Fist in three words, what would they be?

Not for everyone

Who was your favorite character and why?

Earl, solid human being trying to improve the lives of his students

What about Eric Greitens’s performance did you like?

It was unusual, I was interested to hear a book narrated by the author. Initially it was a little difficult and some of the reading felt stilted - I had expected it to flow, but after a while I got used to the style and it was fine.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

In some ways, it prompted me to think about what difference, if any, I was making. I found myself coming up very short in comprarison to Greitens.