Prominent Journalist Discusses U.S. Role in Afghanistan

Jon Lee Anderson, one of the world’s most respected journalists, will deliver the Alpha Sigma Nu--Rev. Vincent Daues, S.J., lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, in Mabee Theater. Anderson will discuss “The U.S. Dilemma in Afghanistan: Building a Nation or Fighting a War?”

As a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and author of several acclaimed books, Anderson has become a renowned authority on Central Asia and the Middle East. Anderson is drawn to parts of the world that have undergone or are in the process of undergoing profound social change. The result has been a career of in-depth coverage of places like Afghanistan, Peru, El Salvador, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Lebanon and Cuba.

Anderson’s most recent book, The Fall of Baghdad, was praised by reviewers for its insight and, what one reviewer called, “unobtrusive voice [that] mediates the voices of others faithfully and with humanizing integrity, resisting any impulse to convert what he observes into political argument.”

Anderson’s The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches From Afghanistan provided a vivid account of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan when the American attack on the Taliban began. Anderson’s Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life is considered the most definitive and objective account of the Argentinian revolutionary who made his fame in Cuba.

Mabee Theater is located in Sedgwick Hall on the Rockhurst University campus, 54th Street and Troost Avenue. This event is free of charge and open to the public. To register your attendance, call (816) 501-4828.