3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Deep realities of the Mid East Struggles, January 9, 2010
This slim but definitive book was an absolute breakthrough in understanding what is really happening in the Mid East where our corporate media completely obscures and atomizes the material realities of what drives perpetual war in our times. Here, module by module, are the facts about water, transporation, ethnic histories, demographics, politics, ecological influences, financial competitions and the structure of the oil industry on the ground over which mayhem is strategiclally fomented. What is particularly wonderful is being able to focus on specific pieces of the mosaic of agendas and issues that are beautifully formatted for real ease of access and a sense of being able to master, at a rudimentary operational level, how to understand and simply share with others information that demystifies imperial politics and propaganda. Whatever one seeks to get basically informed, this piece of scholarly and essentialized research and exposition is in my opinion a must to simply feel oriented and possess a rational fraemework and vocabulary to have some stability and stance about the central dynamic of 20th and 21st Century human affairs. William Bronston, MD
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Inferior to previous works by this author, October 29, 2007
This review is from: The State of the Middle East: An Atlas of Conflict and Resolution (Paperback)
Unfortunately, the care and attention to the maps that went into previous works by this author (I think here especially of his 1982 collaboration with Michael Kidron, "The War Atlas",) does not seem to have gone into this one. The maps have some glaring errors in them -- but apart from that, instead of letting the maps tell the story (as is done in "The War Atlas" and "The State of the World Atlas",) the author instead relies mostly on text to tell the story -- text that does not seem to have been extensively researched. I even noticed a few typographical errors in my copy.
This is probably useful as a starting point (and ONLY a starting point) for someone with absolutely no knowledge of the Middle East, but I wouldn't take any of the numbers offered here to the bank.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Essential Window into the World's Most Challenging Geography, October 2, 2008
FIRST: A very important note! As I file this review today, I see 2 other reviews on Amazon, both written in 2007. Those comments -- one praise and one criticism -- are NOT referring to this new edition released in late 2008.
With this new edition in print, I say:
Bravo to Dan Smith and the atlas gurus at the University of California Press. As a journalist specializing in covering religion and culture for leading U.S. newspapers for more than 30 years, I can tell you: It's volumes like this one that people should keep on their personal quick-reference shelves. That's especially true for preachers, teachers, small-group leaders, students -- and, really, anyone who cares about accurately understanding our turbulent world.
One sign of how much Smith and the University of California Press care about the accuracy of their work is the fact that this is a new Revised and Updated Second Edition of the book, coming quickly on the heels of the first. Smith is head of a UK-based peacemaking group International Alert. He has created other important reference works, including "
The Atlas of War and Peace." The Press is publishing an entire series of innovative atlases. Among my own favorites are "
The Atlas of Religion" and "
The Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why."
Americans have the illusion in the early years of this new century that we carry the world in our pockets 24-7 with our ultra-connected electronic devices. But the truth is that "foreign news" is the most rapidly shrinking area of U.S. news coverage, overall, according to Pew data. What we see, hear and read is really a tiny slice of global news mostly about consumer products and popular culture, occasionally spiced with disconnected splashes of coverage from global hot spots. We wind up with bizarrely skewed impressions of the world -- and most of us sadly fail the basic geography tests that are popularly distributed each year. For example, most of us in America can't correctly place Iran on a global map.
In stark contrast to that challenge, this book is not only a source of useful wisdom -- but it's also downright fun! It's colorful. It's intriguing. You can build clever quizzes from this book to engage students.
Go on -- get it. And contribute to peacemaking simply by knowing a little more about our world.
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