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Living in Romantic Baghdad
An American Memoir of Teaching and Travel
in Iraq, 1924–1947
Ida Donges Staudt
Edited by John Joseph
Cloth $29.95
| 978-0-8156-0994-0
| 2012
"Provides valuable insight into the diversity of the Iraqi
people, their ancient and modern history, and the beauty
of their land."—Susan Chenard, Gateway Community College, New Haven, Connecticut
"Shows how an intelligent, energetic American woman from the early twentieth century interacted open-mindedly and warmheartedly with a very different culture, and it gives us a sense of what Iraq could have become, if history had taken another course."—Judith Caesar, author of Writing Off the Beaten Track: Reflections of the Meaning of Travel and Culture in the Middle East
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John Joseph is professor emeritus at Franklin and Marshall College. He graduated
from the American School for Boys in Baghdad in 1941 and taught at the
school’s intermediate division for four years.
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In 1924, an adventurous young couple accepted a commission to open
an American school for boys in Baghdad. Setting foot on Iraqi soil the
very day that the Constituent Assembly convened in Baghdad to frame a
constitution for the new nation, Ida Staudt and her husband Calvin witnessed
the birth of this fledgling country. For the next twenty-three years,
they taught hundreds of young boys whose ethnicity, religious background,
and economic status was as varied as the region itself. Cultivating
strong bonds with their students and their families, the Staudts were
welcomed into their lives and homes, ranging from the royal palace to
refugee huts and Bedouin tents.
In her captivating memoir, Staudt skillfully interweaves the political
and historical setting with personal anecdotes, recalling the people she
encountered and the places she explored. With vivid descriptions, she
relates the complexities of the people, the grandeur of the antiquities,
and the beauty of the region’s topography. Living in Romantic Baghdad
evokes the city, the villages, and the communities of Iraq, capturing a
unique chapter in modern Iraqi history, one marked by pluralism and
tolerance, and putting a human face on a largely misunderstood country.
View other series books on Contemporary Issues in the Middle East
6 x 9, 296 pages, 1 black-and-white illustration, 1 map, glossary, notes, bibliography, index
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