Young Adult Book Reviews

** Student Review** by Tommy Blank

Genre:  Non-fiction, History

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is a book that examines the cultures, viewpoints, and interactions between all cultures and religion in the world. It is a look at the world post cold war and post communism. The book examines prior relationships between cultures and makes predictions for relations in the future.  The author looks a lot at the interaction between Western Cultures and Muslim Eastern cultures.  He says cultures and religious differences will be the new source of conflict.  This book helped me understand more about world conflicts and how different cultures can cause conflict.   He breaks up the entire world into eight different civilizations and looks at how they interact. Samuel P. Huntington wrote this book in 1996 and he attended both the University of Harvard and Columbia.  The book is divided into five parts and the intended audience is those who possess a higher understanding of world politics and cultures.

Overall I found the book to be both boring and interesting. At times it was difficult to understand and comprehend. At times though the book was very interesting and informational.  I feel I have a broader and better understanding of world politics and how civilizations react.  However, this book was written almost 15 years ago before the War on Terror or 9/11 ever happened.  I think the book would have been very different if the author had written it now instead of 1996.  Huntington does do a very good job of explaining his thesis and providing facts to go along with it.  Unless you are looking for a detailed report on the world and cultures interacting, I would not recommend this book.  If you want a good book on world politics and world relations then I encourage you to read this book.  At times this book will be a hard read but if you stick with it, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is a very interesting and captivating book.