Reviews for The Global Grapevine: Why Rumors of Terrorism, Immigration, and Trade Matter

The average rating for The Global Grapevine: Why Rumors of Terrorism, Immigration, and Trade Matter based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-07-23 00:00:00 chika okwesa The book is written by a French anthropologist, who has been living in the USA. Thus, the chapters abound with wonderful examples illustrating various kinds of misunderstanding between the French and the Americans: the differences in constructing conversations, in how one understands friendship, family life, how people interpret the process of getting information, etc. are discussed. Cultural analysis is a tool with which the author scrutinizes the meaning of these situations, which, of course, happened either in France or in the USA. The author analyzes these stories from the perspectives of both a French and an American and masterfully shows where misinterpretation of cultural behavior can occur (the author proves that the meaning of the same actions does not coincide in these cultures). The book never gets too theoretical. On the contrary, it is an entertaining reading, providing us all with food for thought (and sometimes a chuckle). The book might be interesting for "all intercultural", for those who like to read about how things are done in other cultures: the author provides her readers with patterns for understanding someone from a different culture and affords us, as she points out, interesting discoveries both about ourselves and "the other."

Review # 2 was written on 2013-03-29 00:00:00 Bryan Kirkpatrick This review requires a preface: I am thoroughly aware that a lot of my perception of this book is, ironically, shaped by cultural premises. For one thing, American standards of scholarship are different - it would be unusual to see an American scholarly book with no list of references or index. A text lacking these acknowledgements of other research reads, to me, more like an opinion piece than true nonfiction. With that said… fundamentally, I found there to be a kind of irony here. On the one hand, I'm fairly convinced that Carroll wrote this in good faith; that she believes in the power of cultural analysis to resolve misunderstandings; and that she's earnest in her desire to understand different perspectives. On the other hand, there's very little indication in this book that she actually sought out American viewpoints, and her analysis ended up feeling one-sided and shallow. (Full review on Kogi Reviews)