Saturday, March 04, 2006

Background Notes at the U.S. Department of State

FYI: You can visit the U.S. Department of State's website and find a section devoted to Background Notes on "the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty."

I've found it can be fairly handy from time to time, even if all you want to know is the official name of a country, or how you should refer to someone with that nationality, or what the flag looks like. Search tip: for a map, click on the "official name" link.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is very useful. Students especially will find it handy. Teaching facts about today's world is a priority.

As a sidenote, older readers will remember when The National Geographic Magazine performed a similar inestimable service. From an armchair one could could sample every region and country of the world, sightseeing and meeting the people. What a vast wealth of subjects were covered. Older National Geographics (1980's, certainly earlier) remain wonderful educational resources.

I ceased my own NG membership many years ago. Rather than focusing on knowledge, politics began to corrupt NG writing. Their enlightened and humane worldview had been junked for an an Academic multi culturalism. Propaganda replaced knowledge.