"The Spring Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence at Baruch College features George Packer, a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, which was named one of the 10 best books of 2005 by the New York Times Book Review. He is the author of two novels, The Half Man and Central Square; and two works of non-fiction, The Village of Waiting and Blood of the Liberals. The latter was a recipient of the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He is the editor of The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World. His reporting from Iraq and West Africa for The New Yorker has won three Overseas Press Club awards. His play, Betrayed, based on a New Yorker article, won the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for best Off Broadway play. Packer was a 2001-2002 Guggenheim Fellow. He lives in Brooklyn.

Roslyn Bernstein, Director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program, makes the opening remarks. Ervand Abrahamian, Distinguished Professor of Iranian and Middle Eastern history and politics, introduces the speaker.

The event takes place on March 24, 2009, at the Newman Conference Center, 7th floor.

[Part I -- 46 min.]
Opening Remarks by Roslyn Bernstein; Introduction of the Speaker by Professor Ervand Abrahamian; and Reading and Conversation with George Packer.

[Part II -- 50 min.]
Reading and Conversation with George Packer (cont.) and Q & A session"