In this Book
- Living in Romantic Baghdad: An American Memoir of Teaching and Travel in Iraq, 1924-1947
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Syracuse University Press
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 were 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 enlightening 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.
Table of Contents
- Illustrations
- pp. ix-x
- Editor’s Foreword
- pp. xi-xx
- Editor’s Acknowledgments
- pp. xxi-xxii
- 1. Arriving in Baghdad, 1924
- pp. 1-13
- 2. An Educational Adventure
- pp. 14-26
- 3. School of Life
- pp. 27-31
- 4. Significant Occasions
- pp. 32-41
- 5. Yesterday and Today in Baghdad
- pp. 42-53
- 6. Gardens, Houses, and Feasts
- pp. 54-67
- 7. Weddings
- pp. 68-80
- 8. Little Journeys about the City
- pp. 81-95
- 9. Baghdad from the Tigris
- pp. 96-106
- 10. To Basrah on the Tigris
- pp. 107-120
- 11. Visiting the Shiah Holy Cities
- pp. 121-132
- 12. In the Land of the Kurds
- pp. 133-147
- 13. Exploring Scenic Iraq
- pp. 148-156
- 14. The Bedouin Tribes
- pp. 157-168
- 15. The Uprooted Assyrians
- pp. 169-173
- 16. Iraq’s Great Statesman
- pp. 174-181
- 17. And So They Passed
- pp. 182-194
- 18. The Magic Horse and the Magic Carpet
- pp. 195-206
- 19. The Story of Oil
- pp. 207-217
- 20. A Nazi-Inspired Revolt, 1941
- pp. 218-229
- 21. Changing and Changeless Baghdad
- pp. 230-242
- Works Cited
- pp. 247-248