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Summary: This is the best . . .
Review: This is the best sort of travel writing - a marvelously erudite synthesis of history, literature, geography, ethnology, political science, economic theory, and first hand observation, all in a lithe, compelling style. It is a remarkable and important piece of work.
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Summary: Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover!!!
Review: While the story itself is amazing and I would highly recommend it, the hard back version that it listed for sale is more than unfortunate!!! It is a homemade hardback! The "publisher" has cut the cover off, bound the book and then pasted the cover back on. If you don't like pirated CD's you will not like this hardback version. I recommend buying the paperback; that way you will not only enjoy the amazing story but also the book itself!!
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Summary: This is the end
Review: In The Ends of the Earth Kaplan shows how the world is falling apart. This is no ordinary travel book. Kaplan doesn't waste his time by travelling through France or Italy, pointing out nice Bed & Breakfasts. What he does is roam the Third World -- where most of the world's population lives -- and tells us what he observes. Kaplan says that the Third World will be forced into absolute chaos as resources become more scarce and populations increase. There are several instances in history where that combination had disastrous effects on First World nations -- the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Viking invasions, the Mongol invasions, and WWII in the Pacific. Kaplan paints a vivid and terrifying picture of the near-future.
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Summary: now I'm hooked.
Review: I read this on my flight to Turkey, as I experienced my first entry into a truly foreign country. Although I didn't take the risk of travelling outside of the "bubble" that Kaplan talks about, sections of this book definitely pertained to my trip. It altered the way I perceived the world around me. Instead of seeing some Istanbul neighborhoods as helplessly impoverished, I looked for signs of the middle-class ambition that Kaplan spoke of. I also realized that my standards of living are not available to most of the world, and The Ends of the Earth was a good introduction to this concept.I find particularly interesting the political context in Kaplan's travel writing. Not only do you get the direct visceral experience of travelling through so-called "third world" countries, but you get the political history. My friend said that the book itself is a journey through thought as it is a journey through countries. There is no final answer to why certain cultures develop in one way and others develop in other ways - but you'll certainly appreciate the process as Kaplan visits developing nations across the world and attempts to analyze the past's impact on the present. This book is highly readable. You simply do not get bored, and I can't think of another non-fiction book that I didn't want to put down at some point.
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Summary: This book will make you squirm
Review: This book is not your average travel memoir. It is an introspective analysis of the social and political conditions of developing countries from West Africa to Thailand. Typical travelogues can be titillating, but because the authors actually know so little about the cultures that they are visiting for a short time, readers learn more about the authors themselves than about the countries being described. However, this book is quite different in that respect--Kaplan obviously knows this region well, having worked as a journalist in the region for years. As a journalist, he knows which questions to ask and from whom. He describes conversations with high government officials (many of which wish to remain anonymous), as well as tidbits that he picks up from traveling companions and encounters with ordinary people. He backs up all of these personal anecdotes with hard facts and statistics footnoted to hundreds of resources listed in the bibliography. What he has to say can about the countries and cultures that he visits can be quite disturbing. One of Kaplan's goals for his trip is to try to discover why some regions of the developing world are bordering on anarchy, or have actually slipped over the edge, and others seem to be working well for the community. By observing societies and talking to leaders as well as ordinary people, he attempts to discover what works to build a civil world. He considers the varying influences that tradition, religion, education, government, and environment may have on a society. While he points out that education, particularly literacy, seems to be vital for maintaining civilization, he finds that there are no absolute factors that can predict which societies will succeed and which will devolve into barbarism. Many of Kaplan's observations are quite disturbing, such as when he points out entire regions where per capita income has fallen dramatically since the 1960s, yet population has risen, in contrast to other regions with similar levels of development in 1960 where exactly the opposite has happened. What's more, Kaplan points out that many of the reasons for these problems are internal to the societies themselves, such as corruption and traditional practices. The people are understandably frustrated, they have little or no education, and they have easy access to powerful weapons. Unscrupulous or ill-educated leaders can easily point the blame for these problems entirely at the 'West', redirecting the anger of the masses so that the society does not implode with its own violence. Some readers may find some of Kaplan's comments racist or bigoted, but having lived for 4 years in a place where the majority of the population comes from the countries that Kaplan describes, I find that every word rings true for me. Kaplan has put into words my own observations and speculations about what I see around me. The book is filled with hundreds of short remarks that capture so much of my experience here, such as when he quotes an Indian educator as saying 'Only when children are taught to categorize and to analyze, rather than merely to memorize, can they achieve anything in the modern world. Intercommunal and tribal hatreds'arise from too much faulty oral memory and too little self-motivated analysis.' But the one that will stick with me for years is his point that you can't give wealth, and you can't pump it out of the ground. You can only create wealth. This book will be of interest to anyone who is trying to understand the forces behind current world events. It should be read by all top-level policy makers.
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Summary: A New Approach to Dealing with Complex World Issues
Review: Robert Kaplan has made a name for himslef by combining the page turning, easy-reading style of many (unfortunatley factless) journlists into authoritive accounts of humanity's struggles in the developing world.
As he points out throughout "To the Ends of the Earth," the authorities that we in the developed world have come to depend and rely upon to inform us and thus provide assistacne to ailing peoples and economies in the world seem to have lost sight of the reasons for their being in places such as Sierra Leone, Iran and Cambodia. From my own travels in the developing world, I have seen that, even more than in the United States or anywhere else in the developed world, foriegn elites can live a rich and privelaged life away from the general populace. This is exactly what has happened among residents of embassies, development projects and expatriate businesses.
The result of this distance is the complete inability to understand the complexity of world issues. Our expatriate elite publish well - manicured reports about wrongly subsidized bread prices, backward cultures, governmental authorities reaching totalitarian existences and lazy local workers. Yet, these issues are all analyzed and dealt with as unrealted issues. Kaplan's strength is the insights he gains by travelling on the ground in bush taxis and dusty pensions; he recognizes that these economic, political, cutlural and geogrpahical issues are inextriacbly inked and must be dealth with as such.
Kaplan paints an amazingly grim picture of the world's future. From my travels through some of these countries I agree with many of his observations, but despite his efforts to be objective, I find many of his comments to be very quick-handed and made in a very judgemental manner as if he just arrived at the local bus station, fresh after reading his first travel book about the country. Nevertheless, I greatly recommend this book as it reveals the discrepancy in the way the news is covered today and how we must begin to consider third world issues seriously connected to our very being as connected human beings.
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Summary: Excellent background on modern war,terrorism,Islamic culture
Review: I read this wonderful book 2 years ago, after reading the initial article in the Atlantic Monthly. I now plan to purchase another copy today to reread and share. Kaplan's insight is excellent regarding myths of viable centralized governments, the impact of environment and post colonial history on current conflicts, and the resulting change in wartime paradigms. This book is very important background material for understanding current events, including terrorism, in most of this world.
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Summary: The Ends of the Earth
Review: Excellent, with very timely information.
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Summary: Now more than ever, read this book!
Review: With the recent events in Afghanistan and America, no more than ever is the time for people to start educating themselves on the world around them. This book shows, in part, the vaccuum created by the end of the Cold War, and the power struggles that can be blames on more than economics. This includes a very informative section on the Turkic cultures that inhabit Central Asia, as well as information on Iran. Do not rely on everything you see on TV - sit down and read this book!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre at best
Review: Perhaps this is an interesting book if you have never heard of, thought about or been to the developing world. If you have spent significant time in Africa, Central Asia or Southeast Asia, however, you'll find Kaplan to be exactly the kind of expat that made you cringe when they visited you abroad: twenty seconds off the plane, and he's already making sweeping generalizations based on the bathroom in the airport or the time it took him to get through customs...
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