Improving basic geography and cultural knowledge
December 17, 2007 6:54 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for books that will help me improve my basic knowledge of geography, other countries and cultures.
Ideally what I would like would be a book, or a series of books, with some information about the countries of the world: basic things such as a country's capital, location, population, religions, languages, and so on, but also an overview of its current politics, history, cuisine, important places, culture, etc. So, not an overwhelming amount of information on each country, but a basic, neutral overview containing such information for many countries. I'd like to get it out from the library, so an encyclopedia or something I can't borrow isn't what I'm looking for. Can anyone recommend any specific books or series?
Ideally what I would like would be a book, or a series of books, with some information about the countries of the world: basic things such as a country's capital, location, population, religions, languages, and so on, but also an overview of its current politics, history, cuisine, important places, culture, etc. So, not an overwhelming amount of information on each country, but a basic, neutral overview containing such information for many countries. I'd like to get it out from the library, so an encyclopedia or something I can't borrow isn't what I'm looking for. Can anyone recommend any specific books or series?
Best answer: A book that I really found great and comes recommended by my Cultural Geography professor is 'Diversity Amid Globalization'. She preferred the 2nd edition over the 3rd edition, but I see from Amazon that a 4th edition is due out in January 2008.
Here's the link.
posted by mcarthey at 7:29 AM on December 17, 2007
Here's the link.
posted by mcarthey at 7:29 AM on December 17, 2007
If you want an actual book, something like a geography bee study guide might help—those sorts of basic questions come up all the time. A good atlas goes a long way, too.
I can vouch for Diversity Amid Globalization too, as one of my old profs at GW is an author, and I used the book for her class. A little spendy, though.
posted by timetoevolve at 8:14 AM on December 17, 2007
I can vouch for Diversity Amid Globalization too, as one of my old profs at GW is an author, and I used the book for her class. A little spendy, though.
posted by timetoevolve at 8:14 AM on December 17, 2007
Best answer: If you're willing to consider online sources, have you tried the ever popular Wikipedia and/or WikiTravel?
posted by fings at 10:22 AM on December 17, 2007
posted by fings at 10:22 AM on December 17, 2007
Response by poster: I'm marking Fings' answer as best very belatedly; I thought of Wikipedia too, but as I already spend far too much time looking at a computer screen, I really hoped for something I could read offline. Wikipedia works pretty well for the kinds of things I wanted, though! And I'll check out Diversity Amid Globalization, thanks mcarthey!
posted by shirobara at 6:33 PM on May 26, 2008
posted by shirobara at 6:33 PM on May 26, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by seawallrunner at 7:13 AM on December 17, 2007