Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up A Woefully Incomplete Guide (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The geopolitical equivalent of scorecards that get hawked at ball games. Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

—Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac

“It takes deft touch to combine this much-needed research with a razor-sharp wit... You’ll laugh ‘til you cry, but at least you’ll be one step ahead of CNN.”

—Gus Russo, author of Supermob and The Outfit

“If you read one book this year, be like me and choose this one.”
—Emo Philips

“Bob Harris, perpetual Jeopardy underdog, now turns his polymathic curiosity to the subject of GLOBAL CONFLICT—the result: this handy history of violence that is at once surprising, fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”
— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

“The geopolitical equivalent of scorecards that get hawked at ball games. Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

—Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac

“It takes deft touch to combine this much-needed research with a razor-sharp wit... You’ll laugh ‘til you cry, but at least you’ll be one step ahead of CNN.”

—Gus Russo, author of Supermob and The Outfit

“If you read one book this year, be like me and choose this one.”
—Emo Philips

“Bob Harris, perpetual Jeopardy underdog, now turns his polymathic curiosity to the subject of GLOBAL CONFLICT—the result: this handy history of violence that is at once surprising, fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”
— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307394360
• ISBN-13: 978-0307394361
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #272,497 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, Someone Makes It Clear, September 28, 2007

By	Lucas Gerhart (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This is the kind of book that's been needed for a long time. It's a quick, surprisingly funny guide to all those things on the news that you know you ought to know about but don't. You get the history of the conflicts in a given area, who the main players are, and what they're fighting about. Suddenly, things get a lot clearer.

It's not a book you feel like you need to read cover-to-cover, either, although you might find yourself doing that anyway, getting pulled along by the humor. Instead, you can use it as a quick reference the next time you find yourself wondering about what the deal is in Burma, for example. You're going to want to keep it next to your television or newspaper.

The maps are great too. I found that a lot of times I got a sense of what the main thrust of a conflict was just by looking at the map. Harris has done a good job -- in the maps and in the text -- with boiling things down to the essential points, so you can see the situation for yourself.

The book is more than a painless way to educate yourself -- it's a funny way to educate yourself.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars just what you need, in the newsroom or on the toilet, September 28, 2007

By	a reader in brooklyn (brooklyn, ny) - See all my reviews

Bob explains everything, fairly and honestly, probably getting something wrong or not to your political taste, but not for lack of trying to get it right, considering, you know, he's a gameshow contestant. And he's funny. Which is saying something, considering most of the time he's describing genocide.

Even better, just like in his memoir Prisoner of Trebekistan (which you should read if you haven't), you get to the end, and somehow, this wise-guy know-it-all ends up sneaking past you and becoming very moving and wise. Go figure.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good for your brain and/or soul, October 6, 2007

By	Tim Johnson (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

Despite what we're constantly told, we don't live in the Age of Information. We live in the Age of Crappy, Useless Information. TV continuously shows us pictures of things blowing up all over the world. But they never provide any context, so you end up with the impression Planet Earth is simultaneously boring, confusing and extremely dangerous.

That's why "Who Hates Whom" is such a wonderful and useful book. Read it, and suddenly the uprising in Burma (now all over TV) isn't just a morass of random violence, but the next chapter in an ongoing drama that ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE. Suddenly the NY Times story today (October 7, 2007) about mass rape in Congo isn't just about hideous human depravity springing out at us from nowhere, but hideous human depravity that grows out of a 130 year-long history of extreme violence. Likewise with Iraq, Colombia, Kashmir, and 28 other chapters.

Of course, this much horrible information in one place would normally be unbearably depressing. But Bob Harris is such a clear, succinct, hilarious writer the whole thing is, amazingly enough, a genuine pleasure to read. You will never laugh more about worldwide human suffering. (Or rather, about the universal human behaviors that lead to worldwide suffering -- Harris' humanity and decency come through more clearly in 200 short pages than the World Bank can manage in 10,000 stultifying reports.) And he closes with a believable case for why everything you've just read should actually make you optimistic about human potential. Maybe.

So get this for yourself, and for anyone you know with the least interest in the outside world. Your brains and souls will thank you.