The Other World: Issues and Politics of the Developing World” is a college textbook that appears to be put out by 
Pearson itself is a billion dollar company that owns everything from Penguin Books to Prentice Hall. When it comes to educational materials, they are the 800 pound gorilla of the marketplace buying up software educational publishers and the educational division of Simon and Schuster.
Pearson controls how a lot of educational funding is spent and has its tentacles in teacher certification as well. And this is the kind of content that you can expect to find in its textbooks.
How would you define al-Qaeda? Most would use the word “terrorists.”
But here is my professor’s stab at it: “The Al Qaeda movement of Osama bin Laden is one example of an attempt to free a country (in this case, Saudi Arabia) from a corrupt and repressive regime propped up by a neocolonial power (in this case, the United States).”
That’s word-for-word from his own textbook, “The Other World: Issues and Politics of the Developing World, Ninth Edition.” Here is the full quote in context:
“Much of the political instability endemic to Other World political systems stems from the fact that governments operated openly for private gain (or kleptocracies) have little legitimacy among, or acceptance by, a significant proportion of the population, in neo colonial times as in the past. The Al Qaeda movement of Osama bin Laden is one example of an attempt to free a country (in this case, Saudi Arabia) from a corrupt and repressive regime propped up by a neocolonial power (in this case, the United States).” *
Allow me to tell you about a quintessential course I just took which proves out that generally agreed-upon understanding about the modern college experience: World Food Systems at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It’s the class in which we used “The Other World” textbook, co-authored by the same scholar who taught the course: Emmit B. Evans, Jr.
There is little that can be expected from Emmit B. Evans, Jr. Academia is chock full of people like him. But Pearson Education’s willingness to publish hateful material of this sort supportive of the terrorists who murdered thousands of Americans is very troubling.
Pearson is a UK based company, but it does quite a bit of business in the United States. And Al Qaeda has also killed large numbers of Brits.
Questions about the content of “The Other World: Issues and Politics of the Developing World” are also questions about the integrity of Pearson Education’s content.
