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 Prize winner, which first appeared in Granta 116: Ten Years Later, is now published as individual e-book, accompanied by an interview with Shadid which first appeared on granta.com, to celebrate the launch of his memoir, House of Stone, published by Granta Books in the UK on 2 August.