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Title: Don't Know Much About Geography : Everything You Need to Know About the World but Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis ISBN: 0-380-71379-9 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 07 September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.52 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: a great read
Comment: One of the more memorable times in my school life was in college when a professor actually made history fun to learn. I learned more in that class than I think I did in all the rest of my history classes throughout my life. Mr. Davis is able to do the same with geography in this wonderful book. I recommend this to anyone wishing to learn more about the world we live in.
Rating: 2
Summary: Don't Know Much ABout(TM) Kenneth Davis
Comment: It's been said that the difference between a mediocre author and a good one is a good editor, and the same goes for the difference between good and great and great and outstanding. In all cases, the editor has to be the better of the two. In Kenneth C. Davis' case, a mediocre author had a mediocre editor. He's good at collecting facts, but not so good at verifying them. One that really bugged me was on page 314: "Invisible to the naked eye, Uranus was not discovered until 1781, the first planet to be observed by telescope." Yet, in the period 1609-1613, Galileo observed the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn (though he could not recognize the rings for what they were). Davis' editor should have had him say that Uranus was the first planet to be DISCOVERED (not OBSERVED) by telescope. This is but one of many similar annoyances. The author seems to be better at copyrighting a title and carving a niche than carefully choosing his words and checking his facts.
Rating: 3
Summary: The joke's on you, Kenneth Davis
Comment: This book was written in 1992, so one can forgive Kenneth Davis a few inaccuracies - geography just doesn't stay the same and scientists learn new things about the Earth all the time.
What I can't forgive, however, is when an author who is supposedly trying to teach you something injects his partisan politics into the book. Davis did this in Don't Know Much About History by taking an undeserved shot at Reagan. And he takes a shot at Bush (Daddy-O, not Jr, obviously) in Don't Know Much About Geography.
Davis is trying to pretend that Bush made the world situation worse by liberating Kuwait during the Gulf War. I wonder if he feels like a fool having those words in print, given what we know now about Saddam Hussein? He practically screams "No blood for oil!" on pg. 240. It's embarrassing.
So, considering Davis is prone to injecting his own political interpretations in his writing, I wonder how much credence I can give anything he writes?
That said, if you truly don't know much about geography, this is a decent start. But read with a grain of salt and know where Davis is coming from when he writes about geopolitical "history".
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