Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Men Who Stare at Goats

  • By: Jon Ronson
  • Narrated by: Jon Ronson
  • Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,524 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Men Who Stare at Goats cover art

The Men Who Stare at Goats

By: Jon Ronson
Narrated by: Jon Ronson
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.00

Buy Now for £13.00

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Elephant in the Room cover art
Things Fell Apart cover art
The Last Days of August cover art
Frank cover art
Alan Partridge: Big Beacon cover art
Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries cover art
From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (Series 1) cover art
Them: Adventures with Extremists cover art
Rescued from ISIS cover art
The Debutante cover art
The Call of the Weird cover art
Saddam's Bombmaker cover art
The Hostage's Daughter cover art
The Jonathan Shade Series: Box Set - Books 1-3 cover art
Slaughterhouse-Five cover art
Left of Boom cover art

Summary

In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice - and indeed, the laws of physics - they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them.

Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren't joking. What's more, they're back and fighting the War on Terror.

The Men Who Stare at Goats reveals extraordinary - and very nutty - national secrets at the core of George W. Bush's War on Terror. With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson traces the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades, and sees how it is alive today within US Homeland Security and post-war Iraq.

Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? Why have 100 de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? How was the US Military associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego? The Men Who Stare At Goats answers these, and many more, questions.

Jon Ronson is an award-winning writer and documentary maker. He is the author of many best-selling books, including Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie, Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries, The Psychopath Test, The Men Who Stare at Goats and Them: Adventures with Extremists. His first fictional screenplay, Frank, co-written with Peter Straughan, starred Michael Fassbender. He lives in London and New York City.

©2012 Jon Ronson (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Few more earnest investigative journalists would have had the brilliant bloody-mindedness to get what he has got and hardly any would have the wit to present it with as much clarity." ( The Observer)
"Simultaneously frightening and hilarious." ( The Times)"

What listeners say about The Men Who Stare at Goats

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    781
  • 4 Stars
    447
  • 3 Stars
    223
  • 2 Stars
    46
  • 1 Stars
    27
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    871
  • 4 Stars
    298
  • 3 Stars
    100
  • 2 Stars
    31
  • 1 Stars
    36
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    670
  • 4 Stars
    385
  • 3 Stars
    200
  • 2 Stars
    50
  • 1 Stars
    29

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I'm an hour in and wanting to burst my own heart!

Because I actually paid money for this title, I'm going to torture myself and finish it in the vain hope that I find something of value in the information I hear.
I have no idea what other peoples idea of a good narrator is but in my opinion Jon Ronson isn't one.
He definitely should leave the oration to the experts and the repetitive "he said", "then I said", "then he said" ping pong dialogues to the local junior school.
He puts emphasis on the wrong words in sentences and bounces about the subject like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh on speed.
It's painful and frustrating to listen to and if it were a free title I would have deleted it but I'm tight and deserve punishing for not reading the many other reviews similar to mine.
I seriously hope that there is some redeeming feature in this title.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

43 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A book written the wrong way round.

This was okay but in my opinion a long way from Ronson's best.

Its starts out amusing, slightly whimsical and typically bizarre and then weaves a slightly scatter-gun narrative through the US Military from the late 70s to the present day.

By the end of the book it becomes clear that Ronson's aim has been looking at how progressive but radical ideas have been misappropriated. Unfortunately, this aim wasn't clear throughout the book and I would have preferred Ronson to state his thesis at the outset.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Truth is stranger than fiction

While a lot of readers may find this conspiratorial, it is actually bizarrely captivating and incredible to listen to. Some of the areas explored borders on bonkers, but actually much of it is true. Around 75 per cent of the time, it is absolutely hilarious, but there poses a genuine concern about what our intelligence agencies are doing outside of public knowledge.

Having read Jon Ronson's works before, it hardly comes as a surprise that he has managed to infiltrate such an eccentric part of the US military. I only wish each idea was more carefully investigated rather than feeling like Alice tumbling down a rabbit hole. Thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Better than the Film

I'm a fan of Jon Ronson's work and this is certainly more entertaining than the film, but it is not him at his best. It is full of laugh out loud moments in his understated sardonic style, made all the better by his narration (I am not at all sure it would work so well if somebody else was narrating it).

However, the narrative jumps around, leaves one yearning for more depth at times, and somehow the book falls slightly short of a coherent whole. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it because I certainly did - Ronson has a great ability for teasing out the barmy views of people who have, or have had, worryingly, a great deal of power and influence.

"Maybe, I thought, as my mind drifted, and I glanced out of his window to the lawn outside his office in the vain hope of spotting injured goats, he was performing some kind of PsyOp on me."

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling Ronson at his best

Ronson has a really compelling style that draws the reader in. The audible version of this and his other books has the added dimension of his own speech pattern- something Ronson does really well. At points it's like he is say in the room with me revealing a secret he heard from someone over the garden wall. A real pleasure for the ears.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I bought this expecting to hear lively-told stories of extraordinary investigations etc. Well, the stories were ok but the narration is dire. Boring, lifeless and, strangely, a narrator with a British regional accent that didn't sit well with essentially US-based stories involving the Pentagon's mad-cap ideas on how to win wars. I tried to get past this and concentrate on the stories but it was useless and I switched off before the end - very unusual for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Eye opening and jaw dropping

Loved the film but had no idea of the depth this topic and book goes too. Amazing and shocking.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story. Really engaging

I wasn't sure about this at first, but it was fantastic. Really interesting and thought provoking and not what I expected. A good listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thank you Jon Ronson

A step into the bizarre world of the psychic spy with an excellent performance by the author- thank you Mr Ronson for taking not only the time to write the book but to read it to is as well. Without this I feel the book would have lost much of its charm

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely sh#t

Narrative diabolical.. I said he said ping-pong, never been so bored, gave up half way through

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful