Travel as a Political Act

America's favourite travel writer shows how international travel can foster cultural understanding, and help us tackle our own insecurities and fears. Travel can be many things. Some choose a sunny break on the beach for a change in weather without leaving their cultural comfort zone. Others choose a life-changing adventure that makes them a cultural hybrid, shakes their self-assuredness and rearranges their world view. The value of that experience is up to you and is determined by how you choose to travel. You can travel to relax, have fun...and learn almost nothing. Or you can travel to broaden your perspectives and learn. Time with a dervish in Turkey can be a cruise-ship entertainment option or a spiritual experience. This book is a guide for those with an appetite to learn. If you make your travels a political act, your holiday can be the most intensely educational time of your life. Rather than coming home fatter, you can come home smarter - with a better understanding of the interconnectedness of today's world, and just how we fit in. As we've learned in the first decade of the 21st century, the challenges facing us through the rest of this new century require a broader and more international approach. Those who make travel a political act come home inspired and better able to help confront these issues. And it can also make your life more meaningful, challenging and fun.