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I really wanted to like this book. It has everything a geography buff should love: maps, charts, pages of statistics, and color images of flags. But unfortunately, it is also riddled with errors. Having read all of the 21 essays in Section I (Global Issues) and sampling over 50 entries of Section II (Countries of the World), my enthusiasm for the work slowly faded.
The first section, divided into six general categories (The Earth and Its Peoples, Society, Science and Technology, Ethics and Economy, International Relations, and International Organizations Directory), has several interesting topical essays, including: "Fundamentalisms: Politicized Religion;" "Slavery: The Traffic in Human Misery;" "Geopolitics of Dress: What the Veil Reveals;" "Climate Change: Carbon Fixing;" "Usury: The Morals of Money-lending;" and "Terrorism: A Brief Archeology of the Use of Terror." After reading many of them, one feels even more pessimistic about the future of the earth than ever. But it is the "countries" section that will perhaps bring out the most wincing from librarians.
I have grouped the litany of mistakes and missteps into five categories: major errors, annoying errors, sloppy editing, errors of omission, "but you're missing the point," and silliness. Granted, the difference between major and annoying errors may vary according to the reader and where one lives. For example, under the entry for the Netherlands Antilles, it states that the southern half of St. Martin "is a dependency of the French island of Guadeloupe" (415). Yet it is the northern half that is French and the southern half that is Dutch. Here are some other major gaffs. Under the US territory of Guam, it states that "Although Guamanians formally possess US citizenship they have no representation in the US Congress [...]" (273). Actually, they do have representation in Congress--but, like the delegate from the District of Columbia, he or she does not have voting rights outside of Committees. Oddly enough, under Northern Marianas (another US possession), they reveal "They have a representative in the US Congress [...]" (425). The Northern Marianas, for some bizarre reason, do not have any representative in Congress (unlike American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, DC and Guam).
It mentions that Libya and Syria were French Arab territories (249). I believe they really mean...