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Armchair Diplomat
I'd really like to get my hands on a copy of The Armchair Diplomat on Europe, which pegs itself as The Ultimate Slackers' Guide to Our Continental Cousins. As I started digging around for more info, I discovered that this is the first of two books being released this year by travel writer Melissa Rossi. The UK book about Europe (complete with profiles of 25 EU nations) was released in late August. A related US title, What Every American Should Know about Who's Really Running the World, will hit US bookstores in December. This is a follow-up to Rossi's 2003 release, What Every American Should Know about the Rest of the World.
The Gadling group is more active that slacker, I know, but we all have to be lazy sometimes. I wouldn't mind relaxing on the couch with these books to get Rossi's skinny on what she suggests Americans and Brits should be aware of regarding history, culture and politics before heading out into this big bad world of ours. Want to know more? Follow along at Rossi's blog, poke around on the Armchair Diplomat website and read this Rolf Potts interview with the author.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Blogs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Erik Olsen Dec 18th 2005 5:34PM
I read What Every American Should Know about the Rest of the World, but I hvae to confess I thought it was boring and rather useless. Too simple. But I suppose if you don't read the paper everyday you might find it of use.
Melissa Rossi Dec 18th 2005 5:34PM
Hello,
I do hope you check out the Armchair Diplomat on Europe (Penguin UK, Aug 2005): you can get from amazon.co.uk. I wrote it because it became obvious that even Europeans are having difficulty keeping up with what Europe is and is becoming these days -- and few can even name the 25 members of the European Union. This book includes quite a bit of history and culture as well -- Plume/Penguin US is releasing a shorter version in 2006.
What Every American Should Know (WEASK) about the Rest of the World, I would contend, is not "useless" (as suggested above by Erik Olsen): it was written as a "first course" to US foreign policy in the aftermath of 9/11. It's difficult to assess what the "average American" knows and I was trying to reach a broad swatch of people who kept on asking me to write an E-Z overview, telling me "Help -- I am clueless!" I included information from international sources that at least at the time was not widely known, and I would bet most Americans still dont know about such figures as Hassan al-Turabi (who helped cobble together al-Qaida) or the importance of the Hashemite family or the who FARC or ETA are, even if they read the dailies each day. It's written in an eqsily-digestible format, but there is valuable information embedded througout.
The book coming out in December 2005, WEASK about Who is Really Running the World is a) far more critical and b)assumes the reader has more of a handle on world events. I do hope you read it: I am seriously concerned about the state of affairs in US and the world, and this lays out quite a few of the problems and trouble makers...For instance, look up and look out: the US Dept of Defense is seriously trying to weaponize and dominate outer space -- for starters. And how would thou like the Ten Commandments for thy Constitution? Seriously alarming issues and power mongers are trying to steal the show, and I hope that we quit snoring through this!
Best,
Melissa Rossi