Material World: A Global Family Portrait | 
 enlarge | Authors: Peter Menzel, Charles C. Mann
Creator: Paul Kennedy
Publisher: Sierra Club Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy Used: $8.14
You Save: $16.86 (67%)
New (33) Used (49) Collectible (2) from $8.14
Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 6785
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 11.9 x 8.8 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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Condition: Standard used condition.
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Amazon.com
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
In an unprecedented effort, sixteen of the world’s foremost photographers traveled to thirty nations around the globe to live for a week with families that were statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family members outside their home, surrounded by all of their possessions—a few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others. Vividly portraying the look and feel of the human condition everywhere on Earth, this internationally acclaimed bestseller puts a human face on the issues of population, environment, social justice, and consumption as it illuminates the crucial question facing our species today: Can all six billion of us have all the things we want?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
this was an eye opener May 11, 2008
hasta la pasta
I thoroughly have enjoyed this book, looking at the people from around the world and their possessions and realizing how different I live from another. It was amazing to see each family so proud, of either how little they have or how much they have, and to have all that they own on display (from in the dead of winter to floating on a boat!).
A must see! April 17, 2008
Roberta F. Correia (CA, USA)
This book is absolutely a wake-up call for many people out there who think they don't have enough! Beautifully put together. Outstanding.
Material World March 10, 2008
Ursula Michelson
Material World by Peter Menzel is one of the most exciting and informative books I have come across in a long time . No other book I have ever read has given me such in depth knowledge of the lives and circumstances of people living in other countries around the globe. The photographs are breathtakingly beautiful and the statistics are fascinating. Ursula Michelson, author of Alzheimers Patients in the Nursing Home: How Well Do Caregivers Meet Their Needs?
Beautiful book! November 15, 2007
Amanda L. Baker (South Central Virginia, US)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a fascinating look at materialism, or the lack of it, around the world. Oddly enough, the American family was not the most obviously materialistic; there was a Saudi family with a 42 foot long couch! I have put this gorgeously photographed book in my classroom for independant reading time for my 9th graders. It is filled with statistics, information about the countries and the families and the stories of the photographers themselves. Also check out The Hungry Planet, a visual look at what people around the world eat, photographed and written by the same authors of Material World.
A beautiful achievement August 30, 2007
kelsie (Plainview, Texas United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Material World," written during the 1990 U.N. International Year of the Family, is a major achievement and, although it can seem dated in areas, is still timely and relevant for our world today.
Profiling 30 families from across a wide spectrum of the 183 U.N. member states, "Material World" depicts these families' struggles and triumphs in words, pictures, and statistics. Many of these vignettes are uplifting--the Cuban family holding on to each other as their nation suffers through communism--and many are very saddening--the three Carballo children sleeping in fear of being robbed each night. It is highly useful in perspective building and also a good way to see how others live elsewhere in the world. It is not going to make one "proud to be an American," but it is also not an "America-bashing" book. "Material World" demonstrates very powerfully the old proverb: 'It's not getting what you want, it's wanting what you've got.'
The Albanian family, with its minute amount of belongings; the Brazilian family, struggling to survive the slums; the Mexican sisters, window shopping before getting the very special treat of an ice cream bar--all exemplify this ideal. The children are in particular very inspiring, rising as they do above the conditions many sadly live in. This is their life, their daily bread--and in a powerful example, they make the most of it.
"Material World" is inspiring, beautiful, and still timely, even over ten years after its publication.
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