Country Studies

Here's what the Library of Congress has to say about the Country Studies...

The Country Studies Series presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world.

I guess that's true, but I have somewhat ambivelent feelings about them from a cultural perspective. The government has never made any bones about the fact that these documents were created for military personnel. Manuals for occupation, as it were.

This really bothers the Orientalist in me. It bothers me that native cultures are so easily subverted and condensed into a couple of hundred pages written at a third grade level. It bothers me that our terms/definitioms/place names/etc are used instead of theirs.

All that aside, they really are good reference resources. From a certain point of view.

Related websites -

Library of Congress
USA.gov
U.S. Department of Defense