Citizenship | Literature
Select novels, short stories, and nonfiction on contemporary life.
What began as a bold experiment in grassroots service produced future ambassadors whose courage would guide U.S. diplomacy through seven decades of war, peace, and social change.
Read, Listen, Watch
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Afghan Finance Minister Ghani steeped Metrinko and Peace Corps Director Vasquez in nostalgia from his years learning English and basketball with PCVs in Kabul
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What Walter Kirn gets wrong about fascist protests: their cliches and tropes are all too easy to spot. Violence, racism, hate, tiki-torches, and insurrection.
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Limbert’s poise, broadcast in Iran and around the world, leveraged Khamenei’s own culture into a polite message discrediting those holding the Americans captive
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Even after 5 months as a hostage John Limbert retained his identity as a diplomat, engaging Iran’s future Supreme Leader in language and custom Khamenei couldn’t ignore
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An author and former diplomat reflects on his hometown, his earliest career failure, and how Peace Corps helped him overcome it to tell America’s story abroad
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A brief pivot from Peace Corps profiles to pressing matters of climate change and opinion journalism.
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Peace Corps Nepal in the 1960s could feel slow. Adapting to the boredom turned out to be good preparation for enduring 444 days of tedium as a hostage in Iran
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Four of the 52 Americans held hostage in Tehran for 444 days had served as Peace Corps Volunteers: Victor Tomseth, John Limbert, Michael Metrinko, and Barry Rosen
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No communist country had hosted a Peace Corps program until Peter Tomsen negotiated a role for Volunteers in China, an objective that would take over a decade to fulfill
Ben East Books 