Ten pages into this book, I was smiling because it turns out Jennings and I had a very similar childhood fascination with maps. Finally, I thought, soTen pages into this book, I was smiling because it turns out Jennings and I had a very similar childhood fascination with maps. Finally, I thought, someone who GETS ME! I was so nerdy about maps and geography that in high school I took a dual-enrollment college course in cartography (I think I was the only student who actively wanted to be there rather than just breeze through to fulfill a credit requirement.) This is a book made for map geeks, mapheads, and geography wonks. I especially enjoyed the chapter on the Geography Bee (I entered one in middle school but was eliminated on the first question, about Lake Baikal), the illustrations of countries and states with very similar shapes, and the geography quiz in the back (I scored 22/40, gotta brush up on my trivia!).
Overall the book is engaging, but there are a few chapters and topics that I felt were too broad in scope; I'm not into geocaching, and the chapter about the Traveler's Century Club seemed like it was more focused on people who want to check countries off a list rather than actual geography nerds. I would have preferred a little more focus on the history of cartography, or more examples of how maps have influenced politics or culture, or interesting facts about geographical borders, etc. And more illustrations! But this is a fun book regardless and definitely worth a read if you are a maphead....more
Meh. Way too densely packed with detail about the SDS and other revolutionary groups. I was expecting this to be a broader history book; instead it's Meh. Way too densely packed with detail about the SDS and other revolutionary groups. I was expecting this to be a broader history book; instead it's a memoir that only a small group of people can probably appreciate. I suppose if you were a member of these organizations, you'd care to read hundreds of pages about the bickering and in-fighting between individual group members. What this has to do with the general decade of the 1960's I have little idea. I skimmed a lot of it and gave up.
Another minor annoyance was that Gitlin didn't ever seem able to quote any song lyrics or titles correctly. When I got bored with the book, I made a game out of seeing how many rock lyrics he could misquote. At least 2 out of 3 were always wrong. ...more
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