Peter's new book is Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent. The book is fiction, but based on the real events: the social and economic changes in America between WWII, the decline of the blue collar middle class and the rise of the Working Poor. Ghosts of Tom Joad will be published in April 2014,and is available for preorder on Amazon.Peter Van Buren is also the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, a sarcastic, funny, sad, angry book about his work for the Department of State as the leader of two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) in rural Iraq, 2009-2010. His blog at www.wemeantwell.com continues the story, with daily satire and commentary about national security.Van Buren, a 24-year veteran Foreign Service Officer at the State Department, spent a year in Iraq leading two State Department Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Following his book, the Department of State began termination proceedings, and stripped him of his security clearance and diplomatic credentials. Through the efforts of the Government Accountability Project and the ACLU, Van Buren instead retired from the State Department with his full benefits of service.Peter's commentary has been featured on TomDispatch, The New York Times, Salon, NPR, al Jazzeera, Huffington Post, The Nation, American Conservative Magazine, Mother Jones, Michael Moore.com, Le Monde, The Guardian (UK), Daily Kos, Middle East Online, Guernica and others. He has appeared on the BBC World Service and BBC Radio, NPR's All Things Considered and Fresh Air, CurrentTV, HuffPo Live, al Jazeera, RT, ITV, Britain's Channel 4 Viewpoint, CCTV, Voice of America and more.Van Buren speaks Japanese, Chinese Mandarin, and some Korean (his books are all in English, don't worry). He lives in New York City.Learn more at http://www.ghostsoftomjoad.com and http://www.wemeantwell.com