George Packer

A world renowned journalist and novelist, George Packer has written about some of the most riveting and controversial international events in the past decade.

A staff writer for The New Yorker and Mother Jones, his work has also appeared in The Nation, Harper’s, and The New York Times. His latest book, The Assassins Game: America in Iraq, dives into the dramatic international policy change orchestrated by the Bush administration after 9/11. In an effort to explore the history behind the 2003 Iraq War and expose the truths, he included interviews with ordinary Iraqi people in his book. His previous book, Blood of the Liberals, which won the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, serves as a glimpse into his own family history and seeks to explain why some people become liberals despite the fact that their efforts are extremely futile. It inquires as to why the word “liberalism,” once an honorable tradition, has recently become synonymous with notions of drug advocacy, flag burning, and government skepticism.

In addition to his coverage of the 2003 Iraq War, Packer has covered the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone, civil unrest in the Ivory Coast, and Al-Jazeera, the media powerhouse of the Middle East. His reporting on civil war in Sierra Leone and the Iraq War earned him two overseas Press Club awards.

His latest book, The Assassins Game: America in Iraq, dives into the dramatic international policy change orchestrated by the Bush administration after 9/11. By interviewing ordinary Iraqi people, Packer explores the history behind the 2003 Iraq War.

In addition to his coverage of the 2003 Iraq War, Packer has covered the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone, civil unrest in the Ivory Coast, and Al-Jazeera, the media powerhouse of the Middle East. His reporting on civil war in Sierra Leone and the Iraq War earned him two overseas Press Club awards.

Packer was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. After graduating from Yale, he served in the Peace Corps in Togo, Africa.