Rating: 
Summary: he doesn't quite get it
Review: i enjoyed this book on many levels. it provided looks into parts of the third world summarily ignored by the mainstream media. i also found Kaplan's extensive histories of the places he visited very interesting. my problem with the book: it is completely about countries with brown people in them, but the point of view is steadfastly White American. he sees many of these countries' problems as their failure to modernize without questioning the need to modernize in spite of the enormous failures that have taken place in the lands he visits. he acknowledges that traditional colonialism affected the third world, but now he feels it's time to blame the victim, ignore obvious neo-colonialism, and begin to understand why all these people are "failing." his views are vaguely racist and limited: Africans are hopeless, Asians are getting better, and Middle Eastern countries with the most Western values are sure to succeed. Kaplan never bothers to step outside of mainstream thought, even after being confronted with incredible human suffering and environmental destruction (his method of judging a country's modernity: how many computers and fax machines he sees in the cities). this is the part i found shocking. somebody who has the privilege to see the third world and its horrors and doesn't really stop to think fundamentally for a second. he never questions capitalism or technology for one second. it frightens me that this mindset is so powerful that it can't even be budged with a glimpse of its reality.
Rating: 
Summary: It feels like your traveling along with Kaplan.
Review: A great book, Kaplan is good at using words and expressions that appeal to your senses and makes you feel like you were there with him. He fuses those writing skills with outstanding ploitical analysis and gives a dark ominous picture of what is to come to the developed world.
Rating:
Summary: A complex, yet highly readable and pertient book
Review: This is not an ordinary "travel book", the author explores the culture, politics, history of parts of the world few westerners know exist. I was particulary interested in his travels through central asia (post soviet union countries) which I knew little about. His themes about population growth, dimishing resources, migrating populations, and their impact on the world were powerful and illuminating. We (in the west) may believe we are immune to the problems of the "third" world, Mr. Kaplan presents a very different picture. I read this book over six months ago and I'm still reflecting on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting travel tales of the developing world.
Review: I learned so much about life and current issues in the countries Kaplan covers by reading this book. I came away with a good understanding of the major issues of the regions as identified by an American journalist. Kaplan writes compassionately and with a desire to uncover truth and not just confirm popular myths. He has researched the book heavily, but is not himself an expert at any of the topics he discusses. This helped to make the book more readable and enjoyable for me, but it also inspired me to learn more about certain topics he brings up from the people who are experts. If you enjoy reading about far away places from a focus of development and sustainability as opposed to a focus on hot tourist spots, this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative, nice tidbits inside
Review: I think this is nicely done travelogue. His itinerary was a little haphazard toward the end, but one doesn't always have control over such things. Several accounts in the book have inspired me toward further reading. My main criticism is his writing style- he tends to end every section with a series of provocative questions to which he seems to know at least some of the answers, which he does not give. There is sometimes a sense of incompleteness in his accounts, perhaps not unlike the hurried pace at which he traveled from the Congo through Egypt (skippingly actually), Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, skipping through India and China, then finally to SE Asia. One nice piece was about an Iranian through whose camera lens much of the West saw the Islamic revolution and about some of his exploits to get photos without getting killed. I was especially amazed to read about Rishi Valley in India (Chapter 23). It was one of the few bright spots he visited, and read as if it were lifted out of Aldous Huxley's _Island_ (1961). It makes sense as we learn that Huxley had known Jiddu Krishnamurti, the philosopher whose ideas seemed partly set in motion in this part of India that has successfully followed a non-Western model of development. His earlier book _Balkan Ghosts_ garnered widespread praise for his prescience of the Balkan Wars. If any of what he foreshadows in this book comes to pass, we'll be in for some quite 'interesting times' indeed.
Rating:
Summary: A Journey through Anarchy
Review: A thought provoking book. As we live our lives in relative security and concern ourselves with our careers and society, the author takes us through regions which border on anarchy (or are already there) where the common man has nothing to look forward to. A highly recommended book which relates to the reader the problems each of these regions face, the reasons and possible solutions. Also one thing I liked about the book was the author explores the problems facing each region and how it effects the common man, by talking to the common man. In a lot of cases the author is involved in the problems that plague the region. Kudos to the author who has brought out one more major contribution to the journalistic/literary world after BALKAN GHOSTS
Rating:
Summary: Anarchy or Hope?
Review: Kaplan takes risks that few ivory tower academics
would dare both physical and intellectual. While
many readers focus in on the negative anecdotes and statistics in the narrative there are some excellent descriptions of people trying to build a better world.
Rating:
Summary: Worse Than Tijuana
Review: And I thought taking my kids to Tijuana was an eye-opener. I don't know why I am glad Kaplan did the traveling and not me. I am truly amazed that anyone can have enough courage to travel in such hostile environments. Well the grass is not always greener on the other side. It reminded me a lot of the Dr. Seuss book where the people who butter their toast on one side hate the people who butter their toast on both sides. It seems no matter where you go people define themselves by who they hate. I truly learned a lot from this book. I like the anecdotes but it bogged down in a lot of statistics and academic foot noting. Leave that to the college papers, I want real life stories. Fascinating, maybe pessimistic but then I am one of those sheletered Americans who finds Tijuana strangely trying
Rating:
Summary: Reality Check for U.S. Readers and Other Westerners
Review: Robert D. Kaplan investigates places that others fear to look at too closely -- the Third World shantytowns, urban centers, and countrysides where "borders" lose meaning and cultural divides reign supreme. Expect your world to get more complicated and full of violent revolution -- not less -- as scarce resources, competing cultures, natural human ambition, religious conflict, and authoritarian governments observing artificial frontiers explode into anarchy, confounding NATO nations and the media. ENDS OF THE EARTH is a ground-level view of how the other 99% lives. -- Ed Stackler
Rating: 
Summary: a journalistic fraud
Review: I bought this book for its rave reviews and thought I would learn something from it. When reading his chapters about Iran, I was quite disappointed to see that Kaplan does little more than to be taken around by his handlers to those they wished him to see and talk to. Furthermore, he does even less than a newcomer to the field would do; he does not even provide context or background. One of his primary interview subject is Mohsen Rafighdoost who stole so much that even his own backers could not tolerate him. Kaplan is also historically inaccurate and downright deceptive. He characterizes the Zoroastrian religion as pagan. He either does not know or he does this maliciously. This oldest monotheistic religion has been studied and discussed about so much that ignorance would not be a good enough excuse for its mischaracterization. Last, but not least, Kaplan borrows long paragraphs and essays from other authors about Iran where he thinks his stereotyping of the people needs backing. He does that without context and is patently fraudulent. For one, I have read "the garden of the brave in war" and where he borrows from that book, is arguably opposite to the intent of the author.
If this had been a "pay for purpose" work I would understand its content, but as a proposed "independent work of authorship" I believe it is no more than a waste of time and money.
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