Title

The ends of the earth : a journey at the dawn of the 21st century

Description

In The Ends of the Earth, Robert D. Kaplan travels from the devastated countries of West Africa and the fundamentalist enclaves of Egypt and Iran to the culturally explosive lands of Central Asia, India, Pakistan, and Southeast Asia with hardly more than a notebook and a backpack. Kaplan's intention was to investigate firsthand the effect of population explosion and environmental degradation in these countries and to see how the various cultures he encountered responded to them. But as he traveled, talking to gun smugglers and government ministers, warlords and shantytown dwellers, he discovered that the real problem, in places as far afield as Sierra Leone and western China, was the reemergence of longstanding cultural rivalries and the dissolution of national boundaries as regions redefine themselves along ethnic and historic lines.Kaplan's ground-level experiences allow him to avoid grandiose generalizations about the clash of civilizations and to replace them with intimate portraits of the men and women he encounters: Rafighdoost, Khomeini's fiercely loyal chauffeur; Ali Abdel Razag, keeper of the Aswan High Dam; and Ayshe Tanrikulu, a squatter on Golden Mountain, a shantytown on the outskirts of Ankara, who hopes that her sons will one day be doctors or engineers. It is in the squalor of daily existence and in people's fears, frustrations, and dreams that Kaplan looks for the key to a country's future. The Ends of the Earth offers an intimate portrait of the devastated parts of the world, whose cultural disasters - like those in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Rwanda today - will dominate our attention and remake the world of tomorrow.

Identifier

887077

679431489

Creator

Kaplan, Robert D

Format

1st ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1996

Program air date: April 21, 1996

Publisher

Random House

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on verso of front endpaper: lived 7 years in Athens. Notes on front flysheet: 1. How much did the trip cost; 2. How much time did you spend without a guide; 3. How often did you see an American influence; 4. Did you find Russians in charge in the different countries of the CIS; 5. How often did officials try to shake you down; 6. How uneven is electricity in the world; 7. Where is the air the worst in the world--the best? 8. Religion--Islam--what role does it play; 9. Who are the minorities you discovered on your travels, Kurds, Copts; 10. Where is the largest graveyard in the world 20 miles south of Tehran. Underlinings/Notes: Underlinings: Lamb marks passages on Kaplan's goal for the book, what he skimped on, information about the continents/ countries visited, population statistics, description of places, politics, Marx, water, human rights, position of women in society, drugs, technology, and environmental abuse. Notes: "Iran," "naive," "wars--80 since WWII," "1994," "My theory," "one world," "Thomas Homer-Dixon--limo," "22 of 24 bottom countries from Africa," "blame democracy," "urinating," "Ivory Coast," "smell," "dreams," "malaria," "Bus, bush taxi, on foot," "Liberia," "forest culture," "$18," "Mubarak," "$2 billion," "Human Rights," "ZIA-Pak/LEE-Sing," "time traveler," "garbage," "city dweller," "Istanbul 10 mil," "Islam," "Ataturk," "Ozal Moslem," "Kurds," "Mr. Kashan," "largest graveyard in the world," "women," "lived in Athens," "funeral," "toilets," "Aral Sea," "hot water," "Big Oil," "Alma Ata in 5 years," "$7 a month," "all of China same time zone," "Delhi," "Patpong," "toilets," "Lee Kuan Yew," "Wealth," "world's wealth," "HIV," "photographed with limbs."

Subject

"Kaplan, Robert D., 1952---Travel--Asia."

"Kaplan, Robert D., 1952---Travel--Africa, West."

"Kaplan, Robert D., 1952---Travel--Middle East."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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