| Material World: A Global Family Portrait |  | Authors: Peter Menzel, Charles C. Mann
Creator: Paul Kennedy
Publisher: Sierra Club Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy Used: $9.58
as of 7/30/2010 07:09 CDT details
You Save: $15.42 (62%)
New (29) Used (45) from $9.58
Seller: keen_northwest
Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 26,623
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st US Edition 1st Printing
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 11.9 x 9 x 0.8
ISBN: 0871564300
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.85
EAN: 9780871564306
ASIN: 0871564300
Publication Date: October 3, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780871564306 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
In honor of the United Nations-sponsored International Year of the Family in 1994, award-winning photojournalist Peter Menzel brought together 16 of the world's leading photographers to create a visual portrait of life in 30 nations. Material World tackles its wide subject by zooming in, allowing one household to represent an entire nation. Photographers spent one week living with a "statistically average" family in each country, learning about their work, their attitudes toward their possessions, and their hopes for the future. Then a "big picture" shot of the family was taken outside the dwelling, surrounded by all their (many or few) material goods. The book provides sidebars offering statistics and a brief history for each country, as well as personal notes from the photographers about their experiences. But it is the "big pictures" that tell most of the story. In one, a British family pauses before a meal of tea and crumpets under a cloudy sky. In another, wary Bosnians sit beside mattresses used as sniper barricades. A Malian family composed of a husband, his two wives, and their children rests before a few cooking and washing implements in golden afternoon light. Material World is a lesson in economics and geography, reminding us of the world's inequities, but also of humanity's common threads. An engrossing, enlightening book. --Maria Dolan
Product Description
Profiles thirty international and statistically average families, documenting their economic standings, needs, hopes, and beliefs about the future of the planet, in a study that reveals the environmental cost of materialism. Reprint. 45,000 first printing.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 60
See how the aveage family lives worldwide April 13, 2010
Concerned (Louisiana, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Material World: A Global Family Portrait
This is a colorful look into the homes of the average family throughout the world. It is something children can enjoy as well as older ones. It is an eye opener especially when we compare it with our personal living situations here in the USA. It is proof that one can be happy with less. It should impress upon us the blessings we enjoy daily, even if we may consider ourselves deprived somehow. It is a fine publication for anyone's library. It is well illustrated and well written. You will enjoy it.
bought it for a friend April 3, 2010
Miriam Dobrofsky (Hancock, MI USA)
Incredible book...Politicians should read it...everyone should read it. Your eyes will open to your place in the world.
invaluable and fascinating February 16, 2010
Laksmi (Washington, DC USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thought my six-year-old daughter might be interested in this book, as she liked What the World Eats (same authors, kids' version of Hungry Planet). It seemed like an accessible way to learn about daily life in other countries--especially important for understanding the earthquake in Haiti in human terms. But I wasn't prepared for how obsessed with it she would become. On first pass, she took inventory of each family (how many children, boys or girls, what ages); that in itself can be revealing. Then she started noticing more and more. She has spent hours pouring over the photographs, shown it to friends ("Toilets of the World" is especially worth sharing), brought it to bed with her, and even studied the table of demographical information in the back. I had no idea statistics on literacy and infant mortality would be so fascinating. It's beautiful, inviting, sobering, affirming, and raises all kinds of questions for discussion. This is the kind of book children could browse again and again over the years. Every family should have it around.
Great gift idea and great conversation piece! July 18, 2009
Janet Duarte (Miami, Fl.)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I saw this book on a living room table at a party years ago. I was so bored at the party, so I picked it up not knowing what was going to happen to me. I opened the book and was instantly transported to different worlds and cultures that I was surprised I didn't need my passport. The book is a treasure of information and statistics with the images staring back on me each page I turned. I have given this book as gifts and will continue to do so until Peter Menzel creates a update and new version. I am a fan of his concept and will always wonder how much work and frequent flyer miles it must of taken him to put it all together. This is a five star book and I highly recommend it!
 interesting read..... February 24, 2009
Lisa J. Wilson (Belleville, Il.)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
makes you take inventory of your priorities and what we REALLY need to live and be happy.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 60
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