Surprising recommendation from one of my favorite TV writers, Jane Espenson.

Summary: Who Hates Whom is essentially a Cliff Notes guide to current events. Ever hear about some conflict on the news and can't remember which side is which, who's giving money and arms to whom, and what they're fighting over/about anyways? This is the book for you. Each of the world's current conflict hotspots gets a list of the main factions fighting; a map showing the area with factions, resources, bombings, religious tensions, pirates, and other relevant features clearly marked; and a short (5-10 page) write-up in which Harris gives the relevant history and explains the current state of each conflict.

Review: I am not a huge news-reader; it would not be an exaggeration to say that I get more of my current events knowledge from NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me than I probably should. (It used to be The Daily Show, but I no longer have cable TV.) So, while this is not my ordinary kind of book, I am perhaps one of its target audience. And Harris does a very good job of presenting global politics at a level that even the chronically-underinformed like me can appreciate. Not only is he clear, concise, and informative, but he's also funny as heck, and manages to inject some much-needed humor - and a surprising amount of hope - in amongst the death tolls and lists of atrocities. Even the maps manage to have a sense of black humor to them: in the chapter on Haiti, Haiti is in white, and the Dominican Republic and Cuba are in grey - colors which, as the legend informs us, indicate "areas where the Spanish never found giant assloads of gold" and "countries that still have trees", respectively.

This isn't exactly your average coffee-table book, but it would be an excellent reference, and I think it would work best as something that was dipped into on occasion. Reading it straight through in large chunks got pretty depressing, not to mention that the various rebel groups in all start to blend together (not a lot of creative naming power, there.) On that same tip, this book could really have used an index; as it is, if you see a news report about the Revolutionary United Front blowing something up somewhere and want more information, you're just going to have to thumb through until you see the right acronym. But, overall, while it wasn't the kind of book that had me dying to dive back in and read more, it did a very nice job at its stated purpose: providing an accessible and entertaining layman's guide to wars around the world. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: I can see a news buff really enjoying this, but even for those who aren't big into current events, it's a pretty painless and interesting way to get up-to-speed. ( )

Good overview of the recent history and the basics about armed conflicts throughout the world. Not comprehensive nor scholarly, but then Harris makes not pretense of either. Honest and straightforward attempt by an average college-educated person to comprehend the current state of the world. ( )

Subtitled “Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up: A Woefully Incomplete Guide,” this book gives short essays on the various “little wars” going on around the world.

Where is the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II? Try the Democratic Republic of the Congo, right in the middle of Africa, where nearly 4 million people have been killed in the last six years. Huge deposits of gold, diamonds and copper, all over the country, have not helped the situation. The term “blood diamonds” came from the simultaneous civil wars in the west African countries of Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone (also paid for with diamond mining).

Burma is full of various ethnic groups who have had a hard time getting along with each other. Currently, it is like a Third World Soviet Union, a group of diverse lands controlled by police state tactics. Did you know that the official calendar in North Korea says that time began with the birth of Kim Il-Sung? While it’s 2008 in the rest of the world, in North Korea, it’s the year 97.

In a way, America is financing both sides in the civil war in Colombia. On one side, the US Government sends millions of dollars in aid, usually military, to the right-wing government. On the other side, Colombia produces 80% of the world’s cocaine, of which America consumes more than half, so American drug users are financing the rebels.

The national motto of Scotland, translated into English, is “Nobody provokes me with impunity.” Seriously. The nationalist symbol of Wales is the leek, a type of large green onion. Nobody knows why.

Who Hates Whom? may be intended as a humor book, but it does a really good job at explaining the various wars and insurrections that sometimes reach the evening news. ( )

Who Hates Whom is a really convenient guide to many of the horrors humans are inflicting on one another in the 21st century. As such, it's a pretty unrelenting chronicle of cruelty and violence. The book covers in brief form such familiar atrocities as the Iraq war, the Palestinian conflict, North Korea, and the like. But the book also goes through much less familiar territory like the Congo, Nepal, Guatemala, and the like. It's amazing the bloodshed we in the West never hear about. Over 3 MILLION people dies in the Congolese Wars and nary a word was printed or said about it here in the US.

Bob Harris does a nice job navigating this dicey territory with humor (such as one can muster) and a surprising amount of optimism at the end. He reminds the readers that most of the world is in fact thankfully violence free (relatively speaking) and is in fact far more peaceful than it's ever been. One constant theme throughout the book is a running tally of important news items that we missed so that we could have round the clock coverage of Anna Nichole Smith's death. Who Hates Whom isn't a detailed account of these conflicts and Harris is the first to admit he's decidedly not an expert. But he is a great guide to these troubled times. ( )