[.ca] What Every American Should Know About The Rest Of The World (ISBN 0452284058)

shd be 'What EVERYONE should know about rest of the world':
This is an excellent book that I would recommend to every person I know. It's well written, informative, easy to understand, and entertaining too. A must read book for everyone (american as well as non-american) looking to form an informed opinion of the world amidst confusing or seemingly contradictory media reports. ...particularly impressed with the accuracy of the information provided...

Very informative but very opinionated.:
This book has tons of useful information, but you will have to wade through the authors opinions to get it. I liked the book's layout and use it often, but the little "snide" comments made about Bush and others should have been left out.

Informative, but full of tiresome political commentary:
This book is highly informative. I learned a lot about geography, other cultures, history, and especially current world events. As a result, I'm more interested in the world headlines that I see in the newspaper every day. That said, I did not enjoy the way the author relentlessly pounds her political views into the reader's head. As another reviewer remarked, she does seem to hate her country, and indeed, does not live here. Her constant United States-bashing detracts from the book.

Informative But Opinionated:
I must give credit where credit is due - the author has put a lot of hard work with the gathering of the facts, however, the book is quite opinionated at times.

Fair and Balanced:
Ironically, the TV News channel which uses the above slogan is anything but. I travel all over the world, particularly Europe, Middle East and South East Asia, and I am acutely aware of how commercial media is sensitive to what the people want to hear and see. Newspapers and TV channels are very good at filtering the news items they want the public to know about, because in the end, it is all about making money. No where in the world is this more extreme than it is in the US. For example, when President Bush visited the UK last year, there were huge protests against him because of the war in Iraq. The crowds were so big, that even Bush had to make a remark about them in the Parliament. The highlight of the event was a huge effigy of Bush, which was toppled to the the ground (much the same way as the Statue of Saddam Hussain) right outside the parliament house. However, not a single American News Channel (including CNN and Fox), nor Newspapers covered it. I only saw it on the BBC. The American media was busy covering the Michael Jackson trial. Similarly, in the present Israeli/palestinian conflict, the American media has made the wall issue merely that of Israels right to defend itself. However, why is no American journalist questioning as to why this wall is being built THROUGH Palestinian territory. If the Israelis want to build a wall to defend themselves, then they should build it on their side of the border. What Rossi has done is that she has shown us many different sides of the story. True they may be opinionated, but sometimes that is necessary to make people think. The reader is not supposed to take everything in the book for granted. It is only a starting point. It is only supposed to make you think and to make you make a deeper enquiry into the world around you. Americans have tremendous influence on the world. As Arundhati Roy said, that the only thing more powerful than the American Government is the American Civil society. It is extremely important that americans make informed decisions about who they put into power.