Rate this book

Szlaki Człowieka. Podróże Drogami świata (2011)

by Ted Conover(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

wydawnictwo Czarne

review 1: The title is presumably a play on Thomas Paine's 1791 book, 'The Rights of Man', or the old folk song with the same name. But rather than being about the world as it ought to be, or the policies cities or nations ought to pursue, Ted Conover deftly sketches the world as it is, through the vehicle of road trips in six very different places, with a number of smaller (and less effective) meditations as sidebars. The six locations lend themselves to different themes: in Peru, the tension between resource extraction and conservation; in rural northern India, between tradition and access to global culture; in Kenya, the impact of HIV/AIDS; in Israel and the West Bank, the nature of occupation; in China, the way the new rich repurpose American tropes (such as the freedom of the... more open road); in Nigeria, the tensions of a rapidly-urbanizing city. But even to describe the book that way (or as the subtitle does) is a bit misleading - Conover doesn't spend a lot of energy trying to reach closure on the big themes. His gift is offering access to lives and worldviews that most readers aren't ever likely to have otherwise. I don't know much more about transportation policy for having read the book, but I feel a little wiser, with a slightly better capacity to imagine what it would be like to live as the people Conover meets.
review 2: A really interesting perspective on moving from place A to place B. In a country where roads are part of the fibre of society, so much so that we have, for the most part, forgotten their histories, this book illuminates how life-changing the road is for so many in far-flung corners of the world. The account is fascinating, and most thought-provoking. The piece on the remote Pakistani area is riveting. less

Download links for: Szlaki człowieka. Podróże drogami świata

Advertising