No, Molvania is not a country

February 6, 2008 8:08 PM

What books give an overview of the countries or some countries of the world - but are not boring fact spewers?

I'm interested in geography. I like to find out about different countries, languages and customs. When people say they come from Cabinda or Basque or Micronesia or Suriname, I like knowing a bit about the history, location and economy of the country. However, if you try to find out about most countries, what you see are just boring books that just tell the facts about these countries. Most books about countries read like the Lonely Planet.

What recommendations do you have for small (no huge books, too many countries to spend too much time on a single huge book) books that tell stories and anecdotes about a country or a group of countries? Things that will give me a geographical, historical and cultural overview of the country without being a boring abstract guidebook? You know - interesting books!

I'm more interested in the more obscure countries like Gabon, Turkmenistan, Cape Verde rather than well known countries like France or the United States.

posted by markovich to travel & transportation (16 comments total)

Guyana has a fairly complex history (which is why it's called the Land of Six Peoples), but it's not well documented outside of these books. It's a little more historical than you're probably seeking, but not much is written about the country these days.

de Barros, J. 2002. Order and Place in a Colonial City: Patterns of Struggle and Resistance in Georgetown, British Guiana. Montreal: McGill University Press.

Burnett, D.G. 2000. Masters of All They Surveyed: Exploration, Geography and the British El Dorado. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Herman, M. 2003. Searching for El Dorado. New York: Vintage Books.
posted by carabiner at 8:29 PM on February 6, 2008

An African in Greenland is a very interesting book on one particular part of the world at one particular point in time. I found it tremendously interesting - a view of a different culture from the ultimate outsider's perspective.
posted by luriete at 8:30 PM on February 6, 2008

Check out some James Michener novels. They are lessons in history and cultural politics, thinly disguised as works of fiction.
posted by bingo at 8:30 PM on February 6, 2008

I dunno, maybe this fine atlas?
posted by mhz at 8:58 PM on February 6, 2008

what about the CIA https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
posted by kanemano at 9:14 PM on February 6, 2008

The State of the World Atlas series was also pretty good, but it doesn't touch on culture all that much.

If you want to learn about Africa, read:

No Mercy, by Redmond O'Hanlon (also called Congo Journey, one of the most incredible books I have ever read)

Shadow of the Sun, by Ryszard Kapuscinski

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch

Europe in the 1990s (just after the collapse of the Communist system):

History of the Present: Essays, Sketches, and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s, by Timothy Garton Ash


I've learned a lot about European history from reading Bernard Cornwell's pulpy books:

- Sharpe series explains a lot about the history of the Iberian Peninsula, India at about 1800, and the birth of the South American republics

Patrick O'Brian's Aubreyad is great for learning about Napoleonic Europe

In Search of Modern China, by Jonathon D. Spence, is still one of the great Western books about that country.

Japan At War: an Oral History, is probably one of the best books about Japan's "Pacific War" that has ever been published.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:21 PM on February 6, 2008

Just had to say that Aubreyad is a fantastic word for the series.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:25 PM on February 6, 2008

I should have said that poring through back issues of Granta magazine should help in your quest to find intelligent writing about the lesser-known (at least for Western folks) regions of the world.

I just don't think that, if you're looking for a general survey of countries, even lesser-known ones, you can avoid dry lists of statistics.

Indeed, country stats tell an interesting story, as do the methodologies used to determine those statistics. Why not check out the wealth of information found online on the OECD website?
posted by KokuRyu at 9:33 PM on February 6, 2008

The Reader's Digest Guide To Places In The World is a surprisingly good book. It gives a page up to a few pages on each country, with smaller entries for cities, regions, and geographical features. Nice pictures. Culture, geography, etc. Published 1987, so kinda out of date now.
posted by DarkForest at 9:56 PM on February 6, 2008

I've a keen interest in China, and while there are a great many books written about it, most end up being huge tomes (including the above-mentioned, most excellent In search of Modern China). But there is one small book with a great knack for both surface comprehensiveness, and good writing - rare attributes indeed. It is called A traveler's history of China.

I see that Amazon reviewers liked it less than I did. To each his own, I suppose. From my experience, it's been the best one-shot surface text on a very complex subject. I see that there are other books in that series (e.g. A traveler's history of Japan) - you might look into those, too.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 10:00 PM on February 6, 2008

For really obscure and sometimes dangerous places, I'd recommend The World's Most Dangerous Places.

While it has a pretty hyperbolic title that makes it sound like one of those dumb Discovery Channel shows (and I have a feeling one of those was based on the guy who wrote the book), it's actually a cracking read, with an irreverent style that talks about factions in different wartorn countries in a clear and pretty blunt way. There's also long, on-the-ground reports from a number of different correspondents. Very good for quickly getting up to speed with regional/country tensions in interesting places. I lent my copy to a buddy who's serving in the British Army, and it's done the rounds of his fellow officers who describe it as 'spot-on, if a little over the top'.
posted by Happy Dave at 11:02 PM on February 6, 2008

An odd suggestion: "A quick and dirty guide to War" by Jim Dunnigan and Austin Bay.

The most recent revision is 1996, which makes it a bit out of date. It's divided into sections, covering all the different parts of the world, and what it concetrates on is all places where and reasons why people might start shooting at one another.

So, for instance, it spends a lot of time on aggrieved ethnic minorities (e.g. the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Indians in the Yucatan) who are or might become rebellious. Indirectly it covers a lot of the kinds of things you're talking about. And because Dunnigan and Bay are really good writers, it's easy to read.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:14 PM on February 6, 2008

Well, I usually go for Library of Congress Country Reports which are very well detailed but maybe dry for you. You may find that cuisine adventure travel writing maybe your thing with insghts from John Thorne or Harrison. It is a wide field and you can always watch Anthony Bourdain or read his works as well.
posted by jadepearl at 2:37 AM on February 7, 2008

While it is not a small book, The Great Game, is a great introduction to the story of Britain and Russia's competition to control Central Asia. It gives an overview of the history of the time and the geographical and cultural background of the area. At the same time, it is a great story of political intrigue and adventure and is never boring. It is also amazing how many parallels there are between our current imperial adventure in Afghanistan and the British one over a century ago.
posted by afu at 2:43 AM on February 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Wikipedia. It's not a book, but come on, get with it.
posted by Caper's Ghost at 6:47 AM on February 7, 2008

Maybe it's not exactly what you are looking for, but Hungry Planet gives insight in the (food) culture of 24 countries. (Pictures and some more pictures.)

The husband-and-wife team wanted to see how globalization, migration and rising affluence are affecting the diets of communities around the globe.
Each chapter of their book features a portrait of a family, photographed alongside a week's worth of groceries. There's also a detailed list of all the food and the total cost. (Source with pictures)
posted by lioness at 1:05 PM on February 8, 2008