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Writings From A Turbulent Decade
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
November 2009
On Sale: November 10, 2009
432 pages
ISBN: 0374175721
EAN: 9780374175726
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Throughout his career as a journalist, George Packer has always been attuned to the voices and stories of individuals caught up in the big ideas and events of contemporary history. Interesting Times unites brilliant investigative pieces such as βBetrayed,β about Iraqi interpreters, with personal essays and detailed narratives of travels through war zones and failed states. Spanning a decade that includes the September 11 attacks and the election of Barack Obama, Packer brings insight and passion to his accounts of the war on terror,Iraq, political writers, and the 2008 election. Across these varied subjects a few keythemes recur: the temptations and dangers of idealism; the moral complexities of war and politics; the American capacity for self-blinding and self-renewal.Β Whether exploring American policies in the wake of September 11, tracking a used T-shirt from New York to Uganda, or describing the ambivalent response in Appalachia to Obama, these essays hold a mirror up to our own troubled times and showcase Packerβs unmistakable perspective, which is at once both wide-angled and humane.
 Media BuzzOn Point - March 12, 2010
Diane Rehm Show - NPR - December 16, 2009
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