consistently does what your junior high teacher probably didn't he makes geography amusing and riveting, From early concepts of whether the world was a disk floating in water Thales or pearshaped Columbus, Davis explains earthquakes, rain forests, Atlantis and whether there are canaries on the Canary Islands.
In short, he covers the scientific, physical, and political history of the Earth and does his level best to raise our collective geographic IQ while entertaining us, This book by Kenneth Davis is full of different types of facts, topics, and historical tidbits, What is a bit confusing is that a person opening the book for geographical will find taht the author on many occassions highjacks the book in order to attack biblical concepts.
He doesn't merely factually point out how perhaps some biblical information may compare or measure up to actual geographic or scientific facts but seems to personally be on a rampage against the bible.
This is confusing and simply doesn't belong in a book that claims to be about geography, Otherwise the book is jampacked full of the most bizare geographical and historical information that takes the reader through the ages and around the globe, This was just the book I was looking for, Geography is a science not just of place names and boundaries, but of politics and culture and environment and history, I learned tons about exploration and wars and colonization and weather and climate and more, all in bitesized chunks that somehow managed to be very accessible without talking down to the reader.
I never felt embarrassed by my lack of knowledge, and it opened my eyes to a number of subjects I never knew could be interesting, Definitely recommended as a solid introduction, An interesting but "dated" book at this time, But noteworthy for addressing a number of environmental issues that have become
prevalent since this book was published in, Global warming, acid rain, climate change, fossil fuels and pollution among others,
A number interesting anecdotes about many of the aspects of geography he touches upon, The appendix on U. S. States and their names/nicknames is somewhat candid, "The Puke State" read with my son for our geography course, it was a thorough trek thru history seen through the eyes of a real estate broker location, location, location.
where it was history we had already covered, it was great, but when it was more recent, and we didn't have the base knowledge, it was hard to grasp because let's face it geography without a framework is a boring list of neverheardof places.
the book was published in the early's and it's a product of it's time pushing an environmental agenda and raising all sorts of warning bells, actually it was quite a downer in that aspect, all the worries for the environmental age have gone nowhere acid rain, artic ice melting, the hole in the ozone layer, carbon emissions, . . I admit it. I am a geography nerd, I grew up reading National Geographic, I hoped that this CD, which I listened to in the car from/to/, would be full of fun and unusual facts, It was, frankly, a bit boringlisting dates and events, just reminding you of the explorers and their accomplishments, and much worse, inserting the writer's politics on global warming and other subjects into the mix.
A tad dry at some points but overall very informative, Perfect Jeopardy book. A kitchen sink book inspired by the idea of Geography, And also is already somewhat out of date or at least feels out of date, This book has a lot in it, And much of it has to do with Geography, I would have preferred something a lot tighter and maybe a stronger idea of what Geography was and was not, I can't say that this book would indicate that the series is worth reading,
The worst book I have read ofthus far, as i found myself unwilling to drudge through the remaining chapters, It's not that the information contained in the book is uninteresting, it is that it is presented in an uninteresting fashion, The most interesting part of the book were the old quotes from explorers, Everything else was dull. I know a lot more, now, Davis' books are perfect for all of us who were daydreaming or fell asleep in class, Clearly not everything, but very fun to listen to in the car, Not a book to read all in one sitting, Davis makes my least favorite school subject current, personal and intriguing, but there is a LOT to absorb! I would suggest chunking it up and savoring each chapter/section/division to get the full import and beauty.
This book I completed through an effort to improve my knowledge of geography, which is the subject in which I am deficient the most, I know because in answering trivia questions Im frequently frustrated that I simply dont know the answer to which lake, river, or desert is where,
This book covers much more than “where,” though, It traces geography from ancient times and our origins in prehistory the Australopithecus ancestors through the years of discovery and exploration, on into the first voyages into space, It also covers the weather, climate change, acid rain, and the importance of the geography of famous battlefields,
Since this book was written in the earlys, events like the unification of East and West Germany and the breakup of the former USSR are mentioned frequently, as obviously they affect the map by creating new countries and land boundaries.
Also, the author is critical of Dan Quayle and the rest of the George H, W. Bush administration in its shortsightedness relating to climate change, in favor of more shortterm political wins, I think the criticism is deserved, and politics and other factors hold sway over geography in any era, In its info I give it a four, I feel more prepared for trivia shows now! Written by a historian, this book is chock full of facts, trivia, and tidbits about history, geography, and science, It's an interesting read, especially if you enjoy learning about a wide range of social studies, While it's interesting, there is one major flaw: a lack of maps, Sure, there are a few maps thrown in, but they are historical maps like, the first maps that were made and not useful to a modern reader, This book is indexed comprehensively like it is designed to be a reference book, but without maps it cannot be a usable reference book, There really is no excuse for the lack of maps which I figure were not added either for budget concerns or because maps would have swollen the book to betweenandpages.
My other complaint about this book lies in its billing as a humorous book, when in fact the humor is almost unnoticeable, Yes, there are attempts at humor, but they are mostly so overdone that they fall flat "Who killed the Dead Sea", "Help me, Rwanda", etc, While this book is interesting because of the wealth of information in it, it's certainly not a mustread, I read this book, and found much of the information interesting and fascinating, However, I found numerous factual errors, including the following:
, Davis writes that Texas was annexed into the United States inThis actually occurred in December,, p.
. Davis writes that the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific was the site of the detonation of the first nuclear bomb inThe first nuclear bomb was actually detonated on July,in Almagordo, New Mexico.
p.
. In his list of the longest rivers in the world, Davis neglects to mention the Volga River in Russia, p.
. Davis wrote, "In its postquest for modern power, Japan did not make the mistake of turning inwards as so many other countries have done, " p.However, this statement ignores the fact that beginning in, Japan did just that, and isolated herself from the outside world for two and a half centuries,
. Davis writes that North and South Vietnam were reunited inThis actually happened in, following the fall of Saigon, p.
. Davis writes that on July,, Apollolanded on the moon, and Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon This event actually took place on July,.
p.
. Davis writes that In August,, Vikinglanded on Mars, and Vikinglanded on Mars in September,The actual dates for these two landings were July,for Vikingand August,for Viking.
p.
In addition, I found that Davis wrote with a fairly strong liberal bias throughout the entire book,
While I found the book quite readable and learned many fascinating facts, I was disappointed by the factual errors that I recognized in the book, If Davis was wrong about the facts I listed above, what other facts did he get wrong in this book I love history and geography and was hopeful that this book would add to my knowledge and encourage my passion.
Unfortunately I found the book too simplistic, If you do not have a basic knowledge of the world it might be for you, but I found myself distracted by its errors and longing for more depth.
I enjoyed learning certain aspects of the book weather patterns, deserts, planets, cyclones, etc, That was also its downfall: not enough geography and more about other history and astronomy, I also found that the author didn't go into enough detail e, g. the difference between an ocean and a sea and just randomly put things together without much thought behind it, DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT EDITING
Great idea, Good overview of a range of geography topics, But the execution was poor, There were so many mistakes and misleading statements I started keeping track, When I finished I saw other reviews listing many other mistakes that I hadn't seen because they were out of my area of knowledge, Add to that a very uneven toneat turns formal, humorous, and condescending, more often cynical and sometimes crass"Who the hell is a hoosier " for instance,
Etymological references regarding place names are similarly uneven, Sometimes a word is an "Iroquois"or an "Oto Indian" word, other times it is "an Indian word for, " Does that work in Europe A "European" word for
He dismisses all creationists as practitioners of "pseudoscience" without illustration and without definition of science, have I met pseudoscience in Creationism Yes, Are all Creationists pseudoscientists Sorry but you haven't convinced me of that!
Here is a list of some of the statements that jumped out at me as problematic:
Supposedly Lucian died cA.
D. describes "Pumpkin Island" where "pirates sailed out on boats carved from huge pumpkins" p, More astonishing to me would be the idea that Lucian knew about pumpkins a millenia before they were brought from the New World!
"Parts of Borneo joined Singapore when it became independent.
" pI think he means Indonesia, not Singapore,
Uses the word corn to refer to ancient Roman crops did he become suddenly British or did he forget that American corn was not native to Europe
According to Davis scouts reported large numbers of Indians gathering against Custer.
That's the first way I've heard it told that way, Every other indication is that Custer attacked a summer encampment of Indians,
He repeatedly makes confused, misleading statements about the relationship between mass and heat, For instance, "Land tends to be colder than water because of its density "p, and "Without an atmosphere to trap heat, Mercury is very cold" p, Yes, Mercury can be very cold, But it can be very hot as well!
If it has been extensively revised and edited, definitely choose a later version, I read theedition. If it has not been revised, you will be constantly factchecking not a bad practice on occasion when reading, but tiring to constantly question reliability,
My favorite quote: "The universe has a sneaky way of walking up to us and saying,'You think you're so smart, but you've got it all wrong'" p.
A geography book needs more maps ! A few maps are included but the reader needs more if they are to truly learn about geography, This is a historical trivia book loosely based around geography,
This book is quite dense and drones on as a textbook at times, More focus and maps would help make this book easier to read and understand, There are also a number of factual errors in this book, So be careful which edition you are reading,
The spoiler contains a few random thoughts amp factual errors in this book:
.
Avail Yourself Dont Know Much About Geography: Everything You Need To Know About The World But Never Learned Scripted By Kenneth C. Davis Displayed As Copy
Kenneth C. Davis