Understanding USA: Amazon.ca: Richard Saul Wurman: Books

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From Amazon

If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, then Understanding USA is one of the most comprehensive reference books ever written. Every page is packed with clear, simple graphics designed to break down massive amounts of information into easily digestible bits--but while the text is certainly informative, it tends to be a bit superficial. Nearly any topic that relates to the U.S. in a broad scale is covered here: financial, social, and political statistics are presented in reasonably clear-cut chapters. As each chapter is color-coded in the top right corner, it's easy to flip to the section of interest. General subjects include war, crime, education, environmental issues, and federal income and expenses. Within each of those areas, you can dive into the numbers of pretty specific queries, such as "How many nuclear weapons have been detonated since 1945?" or "How solvent is the social security program?" The format for all these statistics is reminiscent of USA Today's front page--pretty colors, a large variation in the type of chart use, cute graphics, and an occasional photo of real people. It's easy to understand, and full of interesting--although not always useful--information. Certainly, an understanding of the electoral process is good to have. (And there's a great explanation in the second chapter, but does it matter much that "in 1997, over 8 million people reported difficulty in lifting and carrying"?). As a basic family reference book, or a sourcebook for trivia buffs, this is a fine choice, but you'll need a deeper level of information than this to achieve true understanding. --Jill Lightner

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

3.4 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful & Interesting, Jan 4 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding USA (Paperback)

Do you like boring garphics? Or, do you prefer to see only labels in a chart cause you have difficulty understanding that a picture of a young teenager probably means "young teenagers" and that a picture of an old person means "old people"? If your answer is yes, this book isn't for you. Please understand that this book isn't either "good" or "bad," everything will depend of what you like.

I bave been in many countries and I have never seen a book so well done: it is beautiful, creative and makes "data" to become alive and interesting. As far as having difficulty in understanding the graphics, I found that there were only two chapters (out of 13) that were a little more difficult to understand. These chapters, in my opinion, were not important ones (but the graphics look amazing). It will be great if there could have a little preview of this book at amazon.com so people could have a better idea how it looks inside. I am sure that many people would be deligthed to have this book at home as it is one of the best book done about this subject worldwide!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Making the invisible completely visible, Dec 16 2002

By

Jon W. Davis (Albuquerque, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Understanding USA (Paperback)

I have kept this book close by ever since I first came across it in 1999. I have been surprised to see the mediocre reviews on it because I consider it to be one of the best efforts at making enormous amounts of information about everything in our society and world accessible and understandable. You have to realize that the information is complex and the graphic interface which reveals the information has depth and takes more than a cursory look to really see the entire picture. I gave this book to all my sons, friends and others who want to see and understand the huge amounts of information that swirl around our lives. Each page stands on its own and it is the kind of book I never get tired of. I learn something new every time I pick it up. This is a wonderful and fun book about very complex information. A tour de force in my opinion.

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1.0 out of 5 stars terrible, July 25 2002

By

tom (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understanding USA (Paperback)

This book contains many fascinating statistics about the USA, and presents the work of an array of information designers. Unfortunately, much of it is overblown, visually chaotic, and more concerned with "looking cool" than with conveying data to the reader. I hope no employer sees this as "what information design is", since it does nothing short of degrade the profession.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars OK, but...
This is a very "pretty" book, and there's a lot of interesting information presented in it. Read more

Published on Aug 31 2001 by T. Miller

1.0 out of 5 stars An exercise in self-delusion
If you need to witness intellectual Onanism by a group of graphic designers, many of whom seem to have unhealthily high opinions of themselves, this anthology is for you. Read more

Published on Jun 19 2001 by Jeremy D. Weinstein