Why in the World,adventures in Geography, 1st, First Edition

by George J. Demko

Written by the former director of the U.S. Office of The Geographer, Why in the World takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the world of the new geography. Highly accessible, filled with maps, cartoons, and photographs, and offering such valuable information as original biographies of each of the world's 170 nations. Illustrated.

Genres: Geography, Nonfiction, Travel, History

Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

Reviews

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always like to read geography, so I took this one even it's not a new book. It's indeed dated, but some chapters were still quite interesting.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world changes so quickly that some of the information in this book is already outdated. That did not detract me at all from my enjoyment of this book. It is a fun, light introduction to the social, economic and political aspects of geography and its place in the world as well as the more traditional idea of geography as a physical map.

Of course, things change. Wars and conflicts make borders change and even countries change. The statistics are only as fresh as the last printing of the book. But it is still fun to read about how things evolve.

I am a list person so I liked all the charts and graphs. I can appreciate that while they might be out of date as of the books printing, they still provide a jumping off point to go and look up more current information and to see how some of the concepts and ideas have progressed (or even regressed) over time.

It is always fun to look at what was written in the past and see how they envisioned the future and compare how those speculations played out or didn't. I think we have lost something in the education system by not including geography in the curricula. It is worth noting that other places in the world still offer geography as a major area of university study with options to pursue not only physical geography but economic and social geography.

The latter part of the book provides snapshots of countries all around the world. While some of it is now outdated, it is still informative as an historical piece and worth the investment of your time. This book was read as a light, pick up and put down book between novels and when I had some time to kill. It would be a little dry cover to cover but if you are a fact hound, it is a lot of fun.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far I notice two things: now in 2012, much of the info I've read so far about political divisions is outdated, and I love the F. Scott Fitzgerald quote. "My head is a Department of Terrific Trivia. If I just knew anything, I'd be sensational."

8-16-2012: I've pretty much given up on this book. I thought it was going to be an interesting collection of anecdotes on various countries, but it reads more like a (very dry) geography textbook. One positive aspect - the back quarter of the book is a group of short "biographies" of a lot of different countries; some of the information is your basic encyclopedia entry stuff - literacy rate, size comparable to the US, etc - but many of them have a little "extra", like how Romania sided with the Axis powers during WWII but saved the majority of its Jewish population, etc. I'll probably continue reading this section, but not the main book.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is uneven, but the subject matter is so interesting, and Demko's passion for his subject undeniable, that I still enjoyed the book. Certainly information is out of date. It was written the year I graduated college, and I liked seeing what had changed in the world since then.

[Tori]

2010- Sorely outdated, disjointed at times, and overall fairly boring.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's actually quite a lot of great information. I just couldn't commit to it enough to get past the boringness.