Customer Reviews

The Ends of the Earth: A Journey at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century

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I want to express my deeper admiration to this work, that I consider extremely clarifying on the situation of the Third World. Perhaps the theory will be excessively "malthusian" and, as such, pessimistic, but when procures be released of that prophetic determinism, Kaplan provides explanations that can not be rejected beforehand . Joaquín Collado (Spain)

Robert Kaplan writes about his experiences traveling abroad from africa to cambodia discussing things like the region's historys and economies. The book provides an interesting comparision among different improvished regions of the world. Reading this book provides a better understanding of the third world.

Kaplan leads us along civilizations' San Andreas fault. Here are the places where upheavals, fissures, explosions and social destruction are likley to occur. Kaplan is a travel writer in the same way that Dr. Stranglove is a physics teacher. He sets out to write a travel document that serves as "shock therapy" and succeeds admirably. His analysis of the ethnic stew that is Central Asia is helful to the general reader who wants to understand the political implications of the break-up of the Soviet Union

Another solid book by Kaplan. I'm not trying to push additional Amazon.com business to you but I really think it will be illuminating to read this book together with Jim Rogers' Investment Biker and V. S. Naipaul's India: a Million Mutinies Now. Kaplan's point that increasing parts of the world will gradually devolve into non-nation statehood as maps get redrawn and tribal and/or racial antagonisms suppressed by the nation state reappears, is a distubring but nevertheless real one. I recommend Investment Biker because Kaplan's journey takes place several years after Rogers', and the reader can check for himself that the devolution has progressed rather than arrested during the ensuing time. Naipaul's India, on the other hand, with its parallels to Kaplan's portrayal of Pakistan provides a more on-the-spot and intimate survey of such a devolution happening. The devolution in India, of course, is much more controlled than that in parts of the world that Kaplan has written in this book. I have to say though that towards the end of the book, Kaplan does seem to run out of steam -- travel fatigue?

I love Kaplan's writing and sense of adventure. He makes travel seem so unappealing. The surprise for me was his sunny portrait of Iran. Reading this book when a did, a few weeks ago, prepared me for the recent Iranian elections in which moderates gained power. I now am able to look below the veil of the Iranian women and understand that, even though their public lives may seem constrained, their private lives may be quite rich. Kaplan's my favorite travel writer: I read him after finishing Jan Morris's tedious "Hong Kong", and the difference is stark

The book tells the author's travels from west africa to east asia in early 90's. The already lost states and newly established states after USSR are told in detail. These areas' geography, culture, economy, sociology and politics completely flow in pages. The book is not contemporary yet deserves good reading.

Robert Kaplan writes in a style that drives the reader's eyes to rip the words from the page. This book was not only extremely relevant to current events(strange that it was written several years ago), it gives the reader a real view of life in a part of the world which almost any westerner would not survive two seconds in. Read this and open your frickin eyes to the shaky world we are living in.

After Balkan Ghosts, expectations where high for Mr. Kaplan. Unfortunately, he fell victim to the debunked theories of Malthus and depends on as best very questionable and at worse totally false "scientific facts" from sources such as Cheryl Simon Silver. This work cries out that the human race is too ignorant to learn, adapt, and survive. History has proven otherwise and will continue to do so.

Kaplan is a good writer and creates a strong sense of fear and concern for the reader. He is an intrepid travel who can weave a fantastic story and enthrall the reader. But his talent for writing can also distract the reader. Between the lines one can see that he is taking liberties with facts and inflating single incidents into general conclusions. For example, he will take comments from street vendors in Cairo and make a vast, general conclusion about the state of the country. He also has a terrible habit of generalizing societies and reverting to now much-maligned 'orientalist'writers to support his case. One of the more embarassing moments in this book is when he discusses 'oriental despotism' and uses texts to talk about the unique nature of 'oriental' totalitarianism and its particularly abusing ways of managing society and oppressing people. This from a man who comes from a culture that slaugheter over 22 million humans in world wars, and a country that dropped atomic bombs on civilian populations, murdered millions in Indochina and other unmentionable acts. Is oriental despotism really that unique? Have we forgotten the colonial empires in Latin America, Congo and the rest of Africa, the slave trade etc. etc.. Can anyone really sit and claim that oriental despotism was more/less despotic that what the Occident demonstrated? Amusing to hear him talk about the unique nature of oriental oppression and totalitarianism. These are old racist ideas in not even new guises. A sensitive read will quickly find these tendencies annoying, but I think that most general readers will actually think that they are benefiting from such writers and books. That is sad, because people like Kaplan, who continue to focus on the small differences rather than the larger commonalities between societies and peoples, will continue to create dialogues in their societies that mislead and scare rather than inform and explain