Granta 77: What We Think of America (Granta: The Magazine of New Writing) (Paperback)

The issue also addresses issues that in early 2002 were urgent and ever-present, but have since been forgotten as the United States has shifted its attention to Iraq. A photoessay shows the demise of the Taliban, and the rump of Afghanistan’s culture trying to recover from 25 years of war. Bearded men in baggy trousers play football in Kabul, while a shot of the main street in the Afghan capital shows an endless series of ruins. An essay from a young Muslim in England describing an extended stay in Saudi Arabia reveals that that country’s government is attempting to rewrite the history of its own territory as it has in Bosnia and Afghanistan. The Saudi government is erasing the Ottoman Turkish architectural heritage of Mecca and Medina in favour of what it regards as a more authentic ‘Arab’ style – its as if the Turks were never there. A last essay looks at madrasas in Pakistan, which continue to provide a rudimentary education to the poorest levels of society. This Pakistani problem has not been solved, as last year’s elections show, and a generation is now being educated in a way that bears little relation to the great traditions of Islamic education.

What we think of America looks at what has become the central issue of world politics from the most personal perspectives. Rather than looking at what Robert Kagan has to say about the split between Europe and the US, look at what real people have to say about America, and what are the problems that Europe and America must face in the next decade.

The issue also addresses issues that in early 2002 were urgent and ever-present, but have since been forgotten as the United States has shifted its attention to Iraq. A photoessay shows the demise of the Taliban, and the rump of Afghanistan's culture trying to recover from 25 years of war. Bearded men in baggy trousers play football in Kabul, while a shot of the main street in the Afghan capital shows an endless series of ruins. An essay from a young Muslim in England describing an extended stay in Saudi Arabia reveals that that country's government is attempting to rewrite the history of its own territory as it has in Bosnia and Afghanistan. The Saudi government is erasing the Ottoman Turkish architectural heritage of Mecca and Medina in favour of what it regards as a more authentic 'Arab' style - its as if the Turks were never there. A last essay looks at madrasas in Pakistan, which continue to provide a rudimentary education to the poorest levels of society. This Pakistani problem has not been solved, as last year's elections show, and a generation is now being educated in a way that bears little relation to the great traditions of Islamic education.

What we think of America looks at what has become the central issue of world politics from the most personal perspectives. Rather than looking at what Robert Kagan has to say about the split between Europe and the US, look at what real people have to say about America, and what are the problems that Europe and America must face in the next decade.