The American Age, Iraq

Before his death while on assignment in 2012, Anthony Shadid visited Iraq’s all-but-defunct Baghdad College, an American institute that aimed to provide young Iraqis with both knowledge and a sense of acceptance. Spending time with ex-students and their retired Jesuit teachers, Shadid portrayed a time when America was known in the Arab world not for military action but for cultural education – a time now marred by years of conflict. This essay, ‘The American Age, Iraq’, by the two-time Pulitzer