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saidtheraina's review
5.0
We've had a copy of this on our the shelf at my childhood home since... yeah, about 1994. It really has played a part in shaping how I see the world.
Amazing, groundbreaking work.
Amazing, groundbreaking work.
da1066's review
5.0
I remember coming across this book on the shelf in my 6th grade math teacher's math class and I was so taken in with all the images and different experiences covered in this. I never forgot it. As an adult I found it again and was able to order my own copy and it's just as engaging and thought provoking as I remember.
dsinton's review against another edition
4.0
Images are very powerful and contribute to the empathy that we need in the world.
mjfmjfmjf's review
3.0
Interesting but odd snapshot in time and in many places. Not particularly readable. And given the age of the book, I wish this had been repeatable - say every 10 or 20 years. And the idea of putting everything out for a photograph just didn't feel believable. I guess I wanted both more and less. But it was still a cool idea.
ohmygodlinda's review
5.0
Another brilliant and fascinating book, where they go to different families the world over and turn out their houses. Just the differences between what people own is amazing. I used to work at Ten Thousand Villages and would leave a copy of this at the front counter to reread it in between customers.
liralen's review
4.0
This book is almost twenty years old, but I would expect the contrasts it illustrates to be just as stark today. (I'd actually love -- knowing that this is unrealistic -- to see the same project done today; it would be interesting to see where the greatest/fewest changes are.) The point is not exactly what each family has, but more how big the difference is between, say, the standard of living / statistical average of the family in Japan compared to the family in Mali compared to the family in India compared to the family in Kuwait. Given the amount of time that has elapsed since the book's publication, the numbers are not as useful as they once were, but at the same time in some ways very little seems to have changed.
I don't know if the photo quality or the printing was off -- something seems to have been -- but the book suffered slightly from an occasionally awkward layout of photos and text. That said, again, the value is really in the contrasts.
I don't know if the photo quality or the printing was off -- something seems to have been -- but the book suffered slightly from an occasionally awkward layout of photos and text. That said, again, the value is really in the contrasts.
libscote's review
3.0
I'm giving this only three stars because it's dated, but otherwise it's a really excellent look at what material goods people own around the world, using the average family in each country to calculate. I can see why a teacher would use this as a basis for country reports.
uisge_beatha's review
5.0
A book that will open the eyes of most anyone to the disparities and impact of material wealth across the planet. An inspired idea that makes for a very powerful book.