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Pulitzer Center grantee Jeffrey E. Stern discusses his first book, The Last Thousand: One School's Promise in a Nation at War, on Tuesday, February 2, 2016, in Washington, DC. The talk comes a week after the book's publication by St. Martin's Press.
The book centers on the Marefat school, founded in 2002 in the Western slums of Kabul, Afghanistan, and built by one of the country's most vulnerable minority groups, the Hazara. It was known for being liberal, in comparison to the strict Islamic country around it. The school had co-ed classes and taught students to think critically and to question their leaders. Because of this, the school has been a beacon of hope for those who would like to see a more liberated Afghanistan, and a lightning rod for more conservative Muslims.
Stern's book considers the problems the school and its community members faced while they tried to maintain their way of life as American troops pulled out of Afghanistan.
"The Last Thousand tells the story of what we leave behind when our foreign wars end, presenting the promise, as well as the peril, of our military adventure abroad," Amazon writes on its The Last Thousand page. "Stern presents a nuanced and fascinating portrait of the complex history of Afghanistan, American occupation, and the ways in which one community rallies together in compelling, heartbreaking, and inspiring detail."
Jeffrey E. Strong
The Last Thousand: One School's Promise in a Nation at War
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
6:30 PM
Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe
1517 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20036