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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.
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Subjects
Description and travel, Travel, Journeys, Middle East, Descripción y viajes, Asia, description and travel, Africa, west, description and travel, Developing countries, economic conditions, Middle east, description and travel, Developing countries, social conditionsPeople
Robert D. Kaplan (1952-)Places
Asia, West Africa, Middle East, East AfricaShowing 5 featured editions. View all 5 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia--A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy
June 2001, Peter Smith Pub Inc
Hardcover
in English
084467124X 9780844671246
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2
Shi jie de jin tou: zhong zu yu wen hua de bian jing zhi lü
2000, Make Beiluo wen hua
in Chinese
- Chu ban
9867890124 9789867890122
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3
The ends of the earth: from Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia-- a journey to the frontiers af anarchy
1997, Vintage Departures/Vintage Books
in English
- 1st Vintage Departures ed.
0679751238 9780679751236
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4
The ends of the earth: from Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia : a journey to the frontiers of anarchy
1997, Vintage Books
in English
- 1st Vintage Departures ed.
0679751238 9780679751236
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zzzz
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5
The ends of the earth: a journey at the dawn of the 21st century
1996, Random House
Hardcover
in English
- 1st ed.
0679431489 9780679431480
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [443]-460) and index.
Originally published: New York : Random House, c1996.
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First Sentence
""THE THIEVES ARE very violent here."
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- Created April 1, 2008
- 12 revisions
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July 29, 2014 | Edited by ImportBot | import new book |
August 12, 2011 | Edited by ImportBot | add ia_box_id to scanned books |
July 9, 2011 | Edited by ImportBot | import new book |
May 4, 2011 | Edited by ImportBot | Added new cover |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record |