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.com Review ----------- In honor of the United Nations-sponsored International Year of the Family in 1994, award-winning photojournalist Peter Menzel ( /exec/obidos/author=Menzel%2c%20Peter/${0} ) brought together 16 of the world's leading photographers to create a visual portrait of life in 30 nations. Material World tackles its wide subject by zooming in, allowing one household to represent an entire nation. Photographers spent one week living with a "statistically average" family in each country, learning about their work, their attitudes toward their possessions, and their hopes for the future. Then a "big picture" of the family was taken outside the dwelling, surrounded by all their (many or few) material goods. The book provides sidebars offering statistics and a brief history for each country, as well as personal notes from the photographers about their experiences. But it is the "big pictures" that tell most of the story. In one, a British family pauses before a meal of tea and crumpets under a cloudy sky. In another, wary Bosnians sit beside mattresses used as sniper barricades. A Malian family composed of a husband, his two wives, and their children rests before a few cooking and washing implements in golden afternoon light. Material World is a lesson in economics and geography, reminding us of the world's inequities, but also of humanity's common threads. An engrossing, enlightening book. --Maria Dolan Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) About the Author ---------------- Peter Menzel has photographed stories for National Geographic, Paris Match, Stern, The New York Times Magazine, and Time. He lives in Napa, California. Charles C. Mann is a contributing editor of Atlantic Monthly. He has covered scientific and environmental issues for The New York Times Magazine and other publications. He lives in New York City. Read more ( javascript:void(0) )