Rating: 
Summary: This Is Not Just Facts - But OPINION
Review: This book should change it's title to: "WHAT EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD IF YOU ARE SCREAMING HYSTERICAL LIBERAL WHO WANTS REASON TO HATE AMERICA (AND BRITAIN TOO!)".I purchased this book, with the hopes that I could arm myself with some facts. And yes this book provides facts, but if provides more opinions than facts. Essentially, the facts are sandwhiched inbetween nasty, judgemental language, much of the anti-American variety. Here is an example: p. 87 "Without the hungry car - and American demands for gas to feed it - pumps wouldn't creak in the desert, tankers wouldn't leak off Jidada, warships wouldn't be parked in the Gulf, American soldiers wouldn't be stationed desert bases...In other words, Saudia Arabia would have remained precisely as the religious half of the kingdom had wanted it to back in 1933 when King Ibn Saud welcomed the first team of geologists to his new land in the sand." There was also a statement warning the reader, that should America continue on its path as a self-appointed world power, it will soon follow in the foot steps of the Roman Empire. Ms. Rossi, not only is that an inappropriate remark for a book that promotes itself as fact based, it is a terribly unoriginal argument. Dear readers, if you wish to learn the facts about other countries, buy an Almanac, and a subscription to the Economist. If you enjoy being told what to think by an author who is incapable of objectivity and obviously hates her own country, than buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: helpful to help you scratch the surface
Review: This book was great to get a "cliff's notes" version of the rest of the world. So many of us (Americans, including myself) have a very limited scope of understanding about the rest of the world. I like how this book was set up--giving the consistent info like population, economics, % of literacy, etc. for each place mentioned, and the background of the current political situation and the US's involvement. The information is very surface, however. Of the places/countries that I did know some more about, I found that the information given was not adequate to truly explain the current affairs. For example, one of the quotes on the front of the book is about Rwanda, and asks something like "What little box caused the genocide in Rwanda?". The author was referring to the radio, but saying that the radio was the *cause* of the genocide is a dramatic oversimpflication of what happened in Rwanda in the 90s, and gives the wrong impression of Rwandans as so culturally backwards that they would be so impressed by words magically coming out of a box that they'd do whatever it said. That said, I do think the book was valuable, and gave me a good jumping off point for what to look into more deeply.
Rating:
Summary: helpful to help you scratch the surface
Review: This book was great to get a "cliff's notes" version of the rest of the world. So many of us (Americans, including myself) have a very limited scope of understanding about the rest of the world. I like how this book was set up--giving the consistent info like population, economics, % of literacy, etc. for each place mentioned, and the background of the current political situation and the US's involvement. The information is very surface, however. Of the places/countries that I did know some more about, I found that the information given was not adequate to truly explain the current affairs. For example, one of the quotes on the front of the book is about Rwanda, and asks something like "What little box caused the genocide in Rwanda?". The author was referring to the radio, but saying that the radio was the *cause* of the genocide is a dramatic oversimpflication of what happened in Rwanda in the 90s, and gives the wrong impression of Rwandans as so culturally backwards that they would be so impressed by words magically coming out of a box that they'd do whatever it said. That said, I do think the book was valuable, and gave me a good jumping off point for what to look into more deeply.
Rating: 
Summary: Fails the litmus test
Review: This book's a great idea on paper. I remember shortly after 9/11 "The Onion" ran a satirical blurb on how to explain the terrorist attacks to schoolchildren. Well, they did it just by telling the history behind Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, point for point. It was satire, because that's exactly what WON'T be taught to schoolchildren... but it was also true! When presented with a copy of "What Every American Should Know..." I turned straight to the Israel/Palestine chapter. Here's a complicated, controversial subject, to which the author devoted 13 pages. So, a fair-sized representative sample chapter. If the author got this bit right, then presumably everything else in the book would deserve similarly high marks. Instead, I found a fast, tongue-in-cheek agglomeration of inflammatory phrases like "illegal settlements" and "land grabs". Missing from the discussion are such important names as Abu Mazen, Ehud Barak, the 2000-2003 (and counting) Intifada, and the peace proposal rejected by the PA just before that bloody uprising began. It's hard to take seriously the description of the 1967 war as an Israeli "land grab", especially in a world in which Michael Oren's "Six Days of War" has already been published. The Saudi Arabian peace proposal (involving a reversion of both countries to the pre-1967 borders) is given what appears to be an endorsement... as if the author believes there was peace in the region before 1967 borders. The assertion that the US "almost always" supports Israel isn't ludicrous, but it's not far from ludicrous either. At any rate, the Middle East conflict is misunderstood by many people on all sides, left, right, pro- and anti-. It doesn't deserve this kind of rushed treatment, even in a book that's supposed to be a flash-card intro primer, with eye-pleasing maps, sidebars, factoids, and a little glossary. If the author couldn't sell me on believing the facts in this chapter (and I just don't), I'm certainly not going to invest several days in the rest of the book. Which is a shame.
Rating: 
Summary: shd be 'What EVERYONE should know about rest of the world'
Review: This is an excellent book that I would recommend to every person I know. It's well written, informative, easy to understand, and entertaining too. A must read book for everyone (american as well as non-american) looking to form an informed opinion of the world amidst confusing or seemingly contradictory media reports.
...particularly impressed with the accuracy of the information provided...
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing and dangerous book
Review: While the concept of this book is a good one, I was very disappointed, even a bit angered, to discover that it was not an objective analysis or particularly well-informed conveyance of fact. The author, in the introduction, states that she tries to be objective but sometimes let's opinion creep in (and delineates it as opinion). However, either the author is attempting to use the cloak of the supposed objectivity to push her viewpoints, or she just doesn't know enough about all the subjects to give a thorough and balanced overview (I suspect it is a bit of both). The result is dangerous because while readers may think they are getting a good overview of world issues, they are in fact getting less-than-informed, unbalanced versions. If you are not intimately familiar with the history of a particular issue that she covers, the analysis may appear balanced and objective. If you have a reasonably thorough understanding of a particular situation, you realize that it is not balanced, not objective and not sufficiently thorough for one to be able to derive an informed opinion. Perhaps the problem is that it is just too difficult to cover so many issues in such an abbreviated format, but whatever the cause, it is a dangerous way to learn about world issues.
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