Jared Diamond once said, “Globalization makes it impossible for modern societies to collapse in isolation...” The idea of globalization, the process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, appeals to many. In order to accomplish this feat, Americans desperately need to develop a greater understanding of the world around them. Readers acquire this knowledge from nonfiction books, which also allows them to gain insight from an actual person’s wisdom and experience. This in turn could help the reader understand more about him or herself. The nonfiction book Ahmad’s War Ahmad’s Peace details, American journalist Michael Goldfarb’s journey to Iraq to follow the war through an Iraqi citizen’s eyes. Goldfarb along…show more content… A few months after Goldfarb leaves Iraq, an unknown man shoots Shawkat to death because of what he wrote in his newspaper. Nevertheless, Ahmad Shawkat left an impact on everybody he’s met and helped them understand his culture more. In his book, Ahmad War's Ahmad's Peace, Michael Goldfarb effectively illustrates preconceptions that Americans and Iraqis have of each other due to lack of knowledge of both cultures. Michael Goldfarb overturns numerous myths that Americans believe about the Iraqis. One of the first myths Goldfarb overturns occurred when he visited Ahmad's house for lunch to meet Shawkat's family. Upon entering Shawkat's house Goldfarb realizes, "Preconception one: Iraq is not really a nation but simply borders drawn up after World War I. Inside these borders three different, irreconcilable groups are forced to be part of the same country...These groups could only be held together by a dictator." (Loc. 809) Shawkat's family challenges this idea of how people of different cultures find it difficult to live together, because Shawkat was a Kurd while his wife, Afrah, is an Arab. They were deeply in love with each other, despite their different nationalities and lack of government