The Geography Book

"Imagine designing a single university course to help students understand the world in which they live and prepare them to engage its most pressing issues. We are convinced that the introductory geography course for which this book was written would make an excellent approach"--

Reprint of the original, first published in 1857.

Introductory but not simplified, What Is Geography? provides students with the ability to understand the history and context of the subject without any prior knowledge. Designed as a key text for beginning students, this book will be of interest to all readers interested in and intrigued by the “geographical imagination.”

This book examines the reciprocal relationships between geography and the policies of states. The text begins with a theoretical analysis which sets the study in the context of geography and related fields, and an analysis of certain global strategies advocated by geographers and others. The remainder of the book deals with policies of defence, development and administration.

It can be argued that the differences in content and approach between physical and human geography, and also within its sub-disciplines, are often overemphasised. The result is that geography is often seen as a diverse and dynamic subject, but also as a disorganised and fragmenting one, without a focus. Unifying Geography focuses on the plural and competing versions of unity that characterise the discipline, which give it cohesion and differentiate it from related fields of knowledge. Each of the chapters is co-authored by both a leading physical and a human geographer. Themes identified include those of the traditional core as well as new and developing topics that are based on subject matter, concepts, methodology, theory, techniques and applications. Through its identification of unifying themes, the book will provide students with a meaningful framework through which to understand the nature of the geographical discipline. Unifying Geography will give the discipline renewed strength and direction, thus improving its status both within and outside geography.

Geography and Geographers continues to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of human geography available. It provides a survey of the major debates, key thinkers and schools of thought in the English-speaking world, setting them within the context of economic, social, cultural, political and intellectual changes. It is essential reading for all undergraduate geography students. It draws on a wide reading of the geographical literature and addresses the ways geography and its history are understood and the debates among geographers regarding what the discipline should study and how. This extensively updated seventh edition offers a thoroughly contemporary perspective on human geography for new and more experienced students alike.