Errors in – “World Geography” 2008

 by Prentice Hall

1.  The front and back covers have commercial business announcements.  On the front cover is “DK”.  On page ii is this description:  “Dorling Kindersley” is an international publishing company specializing in the creation of high-quality reference content for books, CD-ROMS, online, and video.”  On the back cover are announcements for “PHSchool.com” and “StudentAid.ed.gov”.  Reviewers of this textbook have no way of knowing what are contained on these websites, or their relevance to World Geography.

2.    On pages xiii, 17, and 26 are maps of Russia which erroneously show that the southern part of Sakhalin Island (north of Japan) is part of Russia.  In fact Southern Sakhalin Island (south of 50 degrees north) was part of Japan at the end of World War II.  It was ceded in the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco to the 45 signatory governments.  The Soviet Union was not among them, having boycotted the treaty meeting.  However, the Soviet military invaded and occupied southern Sakhalin in August 1945.  The U. S. government does not recognize southern Sakhalin as part of sovereign Russia.

3.  P. 7 states, “It is vital to vote in elections.  When people vote, they tell public officials how to run the government.  Not every proposal is carried out; however, politicians do their best to listen to what the majority of people want.  Therefore, every vote is important.”  This is not reality.

4.  P. 11 states, “Every place on earth has a unique position on this [latitude-longitude] grid, like a street address in a big city.”  Street addresses do not designate exact locations, whether they are in big cities, small cities, or rural areas.  A street address could relate to hundreds of acres.  In many places the numbering is very erratic (such as New York City), hardly like latitude and longitude.

5.  P. 13 has a paragraph “Mercator Projection” does not explain how Mercator Projection depicts a globe.  It has parallel vertical lines for the meridians.

6.  P. 126 refers to Canada from the 1700s forward, such as “Both Canada and the United States expanded westward to the Pacific.  In 1803…”  There was no such thing as “Canada” until 1867 as created under the British North America Act.

7.  P. 126 states, “In the 1900s, the United States and Canada assumed leading roles in the world.”  Canada has never had a significant leading role in world economics or politics.  Note that the population of Canada is about 1/10 the U.S.

8.  P. 175 states, “Even Anchorage, a city with more than 250,000 residents, has only two roads leading out of town.”  This is totally misleading.  Anchorage lies on the coast with significant mountains close by to the south.  No wonder it has only one major highway leading north and west.  It has nothing to do with the size of the population.

9.  P. 175 states, “With the development of communications satellites and the Internet, Hawaiian no longer have to rely on radios for news from the mainland and around the world.”  Gee, only radios.  No newspapers, TV, magazines, etc.