Several competing periodicals describe the current state of the word, country by country. What distinguishes this one is that, as the editors declare, it attempts to “highlight the view of the ‘Third World’ [or] […] the ‘Global South’: the excluded majorities, the victims of globalization, the unheard voices of the poor, of women, of indigenous peoples”. These words demonstrate that the writers of the Guide (which began life 20 years ago as the Third World Guide but later took in the first two as well) does not, as most such books do, maintain a posture of editorial impartiality. Its editors hold the belief that what Europeans and Americans usually think of as impartiality is actually Western bias. This stance, however, does not mean that they take an uncritical view of Third World governments, as for instance the articles on China and Indonesia show.
Even the choice of main entries turns out to be controversial. Two hundred and forty‐three territories are covered, including not only independent states and the few remaining colonies and dependencies, but also some territories which the editors believe ought to be independent, such as West Papua. In a few cases this philosophy appears to lead to inconsistencies; for example, Gibraltar (a British enclave claimed by Spain) is, true to anti‐colonialist principle, listed under Spain, but Ceuta and Melilla (nearby Spanish enclaves claimed by Morocco) are not under Morocco, but under Spain. Again, if the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has no sub‐section, on the grounds that it is not internationally recognised, why is there a sub‐section for the secessionist state of Somaliland, which is not internationally recognised either?
Each entry is usually provided with an entry of between one and four A4 pages in small type: even Pitcairn Island (population 67) gets a whole page. China, exceptionally, gets seven. A typical entry will include the history of the country from early times to mid‐2006 (the majority of space is devoted to this), and information on its environment, its peoples, languages, and religions (including especially indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities), its administrative divisions and political parties, and descriptions of the status of women, children, refuges and migrants. But unlike some of its competitors, the Guide has little to say about lists of government leaders or contact details of important organizations.
The book begins with several general articles on specific current issues, often written in a contentious style; for instance, one declares that overseas aid may have increased the gap between rich and poor, whilst another maintains that the “just war” theory is no more than an excuse to justify pre‐emptive wars by Western governments. At the end appear 30 pages of closely packed statistical tables listing for each country such figures as population and its density and rate of growth; life expectancy, birth and death rates; child mortality; malnutrition and poverty; literacy rates; GDP per capita; growth and inflation rates; imports and exports; and energy use. There is a rather haphazard and not very long bibliography, besides a world map and illustrations of national flags. The index, which is not placed at the end of the book, is mostly of persons and cannot be considered adequate for a volume so packed with detail. What kind of indexer would perpetrate a heading such as “The Bold Charles”?
In a book which must contain literally millions of facts (mixed with not a few assertions) the experienced reviewer is bound to find a few errors and omissions. Scottish readers, used to the confusion between England and Great Britain, will not be surprised to encounter such misrepresentations as the claim that the Tudors founded the British state (Scotland hardly figures at all; perhaps the result of the recent election will alter that). In the case of Northern Ireland, which receives more attention, the editors manage to offend both communities by stating that the provinces is a “dependency” of the UK and that the major nationalist party is “Sinn Fin” (sic). Sometimes it looks as if information has been condensed from earlier sources in too hasty a fashion; the history of Bulgaria makes no mention of the insurrection of 1875 which eventually led to the country's independence. The statement that the US Virgin Islands used to be Dutch, when in fact they were Danish, probably arises from bad handwriting. Such blemishes, however, are minor in comparison with the huge quantity of information found in this thought‐provoking and reasonably priced compendium.
