Human
Geography
About the Website
The Human Geography: A Concise Introduction companion website includes a number of resources created by the author that you will find helpful in using this book.
For Students:
●●
●●
●●
●●
biographies of key authors in the field;
links to further learning resources;
student tutorial exercises;
bonus Zoom-in Boxes.
For Instructors:
●●
●●
●●
additional essay-style exam questions;
a multiple choice exam paper;
PowerPoint slide lectures for each chapter.
Human
Geography
Mark Boyle
A Concise Introduction
This edition first published 2015
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Registered Office
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,
West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
Editorial Offices
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about
how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our
website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.
The right of Mark Boyle to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears
in print may not be available in electronic books.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as
trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service
marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not
associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their
best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect
to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any
implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the
understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and
neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If
professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent
professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boyle, Mark.
Human geography : a concise introduction / Mark Boyle.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-45150-2 (pbk.)
1. Human geography. I. Title.
GF41.B69 2015
304.2–dc23
2014018390
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: Crowded street in a city in Java © Charles O’Rear/Corbis
Set in 10/12.5pt Plantin by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
1 2015
Take up the White Man’s burden
Send forth the best ye breed
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Rudyard Kipling (1899) The White Man’s Burden:
The United States and the Philippine Islands
O wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion.
Robert Burns (1786) To a Louse: On Seeing
One on a Lady’s Bonnet, at Church
Contents
List of Figures
List of Plates
List of Maps
List of Tables
Acknowledgements Preface 1 A Concise Introduction to Human Geography
xiii
xv
xvi
xvii
xviii
xxi
1
Chapter Learning Objectives
1
Introduction2
Becoming Conscious of Your Geographical Imagination
2
What is Human Geography?
4
The Rise, Reign, and Faltering of Western Civilization
from the Fifteenth Century in the Making of the Modern World
6
How to Read This Book
12
Conclusion15
Checklist of Key Ideas
16
Chapter Essay Questions
16
References16
Guidance for Further Reading
17
2 Human Geography: A Brief History
19
Chapter Learning Objectives
19
Introduction20
A Framework for Studying the History of Geography
20
Human Geography in the Premodern Era
22
Human Geography in the Modern Era
24
Early modern period
25
Modern period
26
Late modern period
29
viiiContents
Human Geography in the Postmodern Era
33
Postmodern Human Geography
33
Human Geography and Big Data
35
Conclusion37
Checklist of Key Ideas
37
Chapter Essay Questions
38
References39
Guidance for Further Reading
39
3 Watersheds in Human History:
Humanity’s Triumph over Nature?
41
Chapter Learning Objectives
41
Introduction42
First Watershed: The Origins of the Human Species
43
Second Watershed: First Migrations and the Peopling of the Planet
46
Third Watershed: The Development of Human Culture
and Invention of Settled Agriculture
49
Fourth Watershed: The Rise and Fall of Civilizations
55
Great civilizations in world history
55
Why do civilizations rise and fall?
57
Environmental History and the Rise of the West
from the Tenth Century bce
61
Conclusion64
Checklist of Key Ideas
65
Chapter Essay Questions
66
References66
Guidance for Further Reading
67
4 An Unequal but Changing World: Geographies
of the World Capitalist Economy
68
Chapter Learning Objectives
69
Introduction69
An Unequal but Changing World
70
The Old International Division of Labor (OIDL):
Wallerstein’s World-Systems Analysis
72
Crises in the Core: The 1970s as a Turning Point in World History?
78
Two Responses to Crises in the Core
81
The New International Division of Labor (NIDL)
81
The post-Fordist economy
82
Three Emerging Economic Spaces: Consolidating the Core or
Rebalancing in Favor of the Semi-periphery and Periphery?
84
World cities
84
High-technology clusters
87
The Tiger economies of Southeast Asia
88
The Future of the Ultra-periphery: The UNDP Millennium
Development Goals
91
Contents
ix
Conclusion94
Checklist of Key Ideas
95
Chapter Essay Questions
95
References96
Guidance for Further Reading
96
5 The Rise and Fall of Great Powers:
Nation States, Empires, and Geopolitics
98
Chapter Learning Objectives
98
Introduction99
The Political Geography of Rule
99
The ideas of the sovereign state, nations, and nation states
99
The demise of the nation state and rise of a new era of
multilevel governance
103
Geopolitics and International Relations
107
The rise and fall of European empires
107
The European colonial (mis)adventure in Africa
113
The Cold War
118
The clash of civilizations?
124
Conclusion129
Checklist of Key Ideas
129
Chapter Essay Questions
130
References131
Guidance for Further Reading
131
6 The West in the Cultural Landscape: On Civilized
Spaces and Unruly Places
133
Chapter Learning Objectives
133
Introduction134
Culture in the Rise of the West
134
A brief introduction to Western culture
134
Ferguson’s “cultural” explanation for the rise of the West
136
Cultural Geography and the Study of Western Culture
139
New Cultural Geography and the myth that West is best
139
The West in the cultural landscape
142
Civilizing Missions and Culture Wars: Civilized Spaces
and Unruly Places
142
Spaces of utopia and dystopia in the Western imagination
142
One-dimensional space: the West’s identikit worlds
148
The Western frontier and places beyond the pale
149
Conclusion155
Checklist of Key Ideas
155
Chapter Essay Questions
156
References156
Guidance for Further Reading
157
xContents
7 The Modern Rise in World Population from 1750
158
Chapter Learning Objectives
158
Introduction159
Origins of the Demographic Transition Model
160
Stages in the Demographic Transition Model
162
Geography of Demographic Transitions
164
Demographic transitions in history
164
Demographic transitions yet to unfold
165
The Demographic Transition Model and Mortality Decline
168
Explaining mortality decline
168
Policies for improved global health
174
The Demographic Transition Model and Fertility Decline
175
Explaining fertility decline
175
Policies for lowering and increasing fertility levels
176
Demographic Transition: The Case of China from 1949
179
Conclusion184
Checklist of Key Ideas
185
Chapter Essay Questions
185
References186
Guidance for Further Reading
186
8 A Planet in Distress? Humanity’s War on the Earth
188
Chapter Learning Objectives
188
Introduction189
Population Pessimists: The Earth’s Carrying Capacity,
Overshoot, and Collapse
189
Population Optimists: Population, the Ultimate Resource
197
Population Neutralists: Political Ecology, Society, and Nature
198
Climate Change: The Battleground for the Twenty-First Century?
205
Conclusion211
Checklist of Key Ideas
211
Chapter Essay Questions
212
References212
Guidance for Further Reading
213
9 Homo Urbanus: Urbanization and Urban
Form from 1800
215
Chapter Learning Objectives
216
Introduction216
Capitalism and the Urbanization of the Surface of the Earth
217
Urbanization and Urban Form: The Nineteenth- and
Twentieth-Century Industrial City
218
This rise of homo urbanus in Europe from 1800
218
Capitalism and the emergence of the industrial city
219
Modeling the form of the industrial city
220
Voices of Decline: the death of the industrial city?
222
Contents
xi
Toward a New Era of Planetary Urbanization
225
Urbanization trends 1950–2050
226
Los Angeles: our postmetropolis future?
228
Megalopolis: the rise of urban galaxies?
230
Planet of slums: megacities in the Global South
232
The Chinese Experience of Urbanization
233
Conclusion236
Checklist of Key Ideas
237
Chapter Essay Questions
237
References238
Guidance for Further Reading
238
10 Global Migration: Moving, Settling, Staying
Connected240
Chapter Learning Objectives
240
Introduction241
Great Diasporas in Human History
241
International Migration Today
244
Global South to Global South
247
Global South to Global North
247
Global North to Global North
250
Global North to Global South
250
Assimilating and Integrating into Host Societies
251
The Impacts of Migration on Sending States and Host Countries
258
Conclusion262
Checklist of Key Ideas
263
Chapter Essay Questions
263
References264
Guidance for Further Reading
264
11 At Risk: Society and Natural Hazards
266
Chapter Learning Objectives
266
Introduction267
Gilbert White: Pioneering Human Geographical
Interest in Natural Hazards
268
There is Nothing Natural about Natural Disasters:
Risk = Exposure × Vulnerability (R = E × V)
270
Mapping the World at Risk
273
Toward a Safer Future: Resilience, Transition, and Transformation
276
Hazards and their impacts 1900–2011
276
The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005–2015
283
Conclusion289
Checklist of Key Ideas
289
Chapter Essay Questions
290
References290
Guidance for Further Reading
291
xiiContents
12 Toward a Postcolonial Human Geography
292
Chapter Learning Objectives
292
Introduction293
Explanation in Human Geography: Four Stories of the West
and the World
294
Toward a Postcolonial Human Geography
297
Conclusion299
Checklist of Key Ideas
300
Chapter Essay Questions
300
References300
Guidance for Further Reading
301
Glossary302
List of Abbreviations
312
Index314
List of Figures
Figure 1.1The story of the rise, reign, and faltering of Western
civilization and the making of the contemporary world.
13
Figure 1.2Systematic branches of Human Geography engaged
in each chapter.
14
Figure 2.1 A brief history of Human Geography.
23
Figure 3.1 Timeline of world and human history.
45
Figure 4.1United Nations Development Programme HDI scores:
improvements in the Global South (1990–2012). 72
Figure 4.2Rostow’s model of development. 74
Figure 4.3The Global Cities Index, 2014. 86
Figure 4.4 In search of Silicon Valley: the Skolkovo business ecosystem.
90
Figure 6.1The Manuels’ seven constellations of utopian thought. 146
Figure 7.1 World population growth.
159
Figure 7.2 The Demographic Transition Model.
162
Figure 7.3Population projections to 2100 by estimate type. 166
Figure 7.4a Change in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) as measured
by DALY losses from 1990 to 2010 for the world. 170
Figure 7.4b Change in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) as measured
by DALY losses from 1990 to 2010 for the developing world. 171
Figure 7.4c Change in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) as measured
by DALY losses from 1990 to 2010 for the developed world. 172
Figure 7.5 Huw Jones on the determinants of fertility.
175
Figure 7.6 Population pyramids for the EU 27 (2010 and 2060).
178
Figure 7.7China’s passage through demographic transition
(1949 to present). 179
Figure 8.1The ecological footprint of countries by stage of development. 200
Figure 8.2 The waste management hierarchy.
204
Figure 8.3 The potential impacts of climate change.
206
Figure 8.4Greenhouse gas emissions for selective countries
(1990–2011).208
Figure 8.5 Trends in greenhouse gas emissions (1990–2001).
209
xiv
List of Figures
Figure 9.1 Burgess on land-use patterns in the city.
Figure 9.2Beauregard’s framing of postwar discourses of urban decline
in the United States. Figure 9.3Percentage of the population urban by world region. Figure 10.1Migration corridors (Global South/Global North). Figure 10.2Migration corridors by world region. Figure 10.3Key migration corridors by country. Figure 10.4 The migration/development nexus.
Figure 11.1 Factors in the World Risk Index.
Figure 11.2Natural disasters reported, 1901–2011. Figure 11.3Number of people reported affected by natural disasters,
1900–2011. Figure 11.4 Number of people reported killed by natural disasters,
1900–2011. Figure 12.1 Human Geography: today and in the future.
222
224
227
245
245
246
260
273
281
282
282
299
List of Plates
Plate 1.1Black marble: Europe, the Middle East, and Africa by night. Plate 1.2Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon, Portugal. Plate 3.1Teotihuacan, Mexico (In 450 ce perhaps the largest
city in the world). Plate 3.2Floodplains along the River Nile, Egypt. Plate 4.1Henry Ford with a Model T (1921). Plate 4.2San Jose, Silicon Valley, California.
Plate 5.1The Great Irish Famine (1847–1851) Memorial IFSC,
Dublin, Ireland. Plate 5.2The Israeli-Palestinian interface: peace wall or apartheid? Plate 6.1A Palladian landscape in Venice, Italy. Plate 6.2The Indians of All Tribes (AIT) occupation of Alcatraz Island,
San Francisco (1969–1971). Plate 7.1Mao Tse Tung and Deng Xiaoping. Plate 8.1Waste pickers at the Ghazipur landfill site, Delhi, India. Plate 8.2Solar farm in the Mojave Desert, California, USA. Plate 8.3Father and daughter walking near the Shanghai Bund, China. Plate 9.1In Search of Boswash, ChicPitts, and SanSan: USA by night.
Plate 9.2A favela in Rio de Janeiro. Plate 9.3Capital of the Pearl River Delta megalopolis: Guangzhou,
Guangdong, China. Plate 10.1 Za’atari Syrian refugee camp in Northern Jordan. Plate 10.2 Chinatown in San Francisco. Plate 11.1 Aftermath of the Haiti earthquake 2010. Plate 11.2 Vulnerable to natural hazards: slum housing in the outskirts
of Lima, Peru. 5
12
56
60
79
87
102
126
144
150
180
203
207
210
231
232
235
249
257
278
287
List of Maps
Map 3.1The first migrations: from Africa to the four corners
of the world.
Map 3.2Harlan’s mapping of the early agricultural centers
and non-centers. Map 3.3Bellwood’s mapping of the origins and diffusion of agriculture. Map 3.4Agricultural hearths and the first civilizations. Map 3.5Ancient Egypt and the Nile.
Map 4.1UNDP Human Development Index 2012. Map 5.1The European Union.
Map 5.2Autonomous regions in Spain and demands
for further separatism.
Map 5.3Halford J Mackinder’s Heartland Thesis. Map 5.4 Viceroyalties of Spain at the peak of the Spanish Empire.
Map 5.5Extent of the British Empire at its peak.
Map 5.6aPolitical geography of Africa before European colonization. Map 5.6bAfrica, 1914: political geography of Africa after the European
scramble for the continent. Map 5.7The decolonization of Africa. Map 5.8The political geography of Indochina circa 1956.
Map 5.9The political geography of the USSR and its satellite states.
Map 5.10Member states of the OECD.
Map 5.11The world’s principal religions. Map 9.1The Pearl River Delta megacity. Map 10.1The Atlantic slave trade.
Map 10.2The Syrian refugee crisis. Map 11.1aMapping the world at risk: exposure. Map 11.1bMapping the world at risk: vulnerability. Map 11.1c Mapping the world at risk: World Risk Index. Map 11.2The epicenter of the Haitian Earthquake 2010.
Map 11.3The epicenter of the Japanese Earthquake 2011.
Map 11.4The 1970 earthquake in Peru.
48
51
53
58
60
71
105
106
109
110
112
114
115
117
120
121
123
125
235
243
248
275
276
276
277
280
285
List of Tables
Table 7.1 Population projections by world region. Table 9.1 Urbanization levels (% population living in settlements
> 5,000 inhabitants) by country (1800–1910). Table 9.2 The 30 largest cities in the world, 1950 and 2025. 167
219
229
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Justin Vaughan from Wiley for commissioning this book, Annie
Rose and Karen Raith from Wiley for advice on writing style, Ben Thatcher from
Wiley for guidance on matters relating to the production of the book, and Giles
Flitney for copy-editing with patience, precision, and dedication above and beyond
the call of duty. I also wish to acknowledge the contributions made by the National
University of Ireland Publication Scheme and the National University of Ireland,
Maynooth Publication Scheme toward the purchasing of photographs chosen carefully to enliven the text herein. I also pay tribute to the National University of
Ireland, Maynooth, for providing a period of sabbatical leave during which many of
the chapters in this book were written. Moreover, I thank Deborah Boyle, Neasa
Hogan, Michael Bolger, Melissa Lawless, Rhona Bradshaw, and Orla Dunne for
providing technical and administration assistance. This manuscript has benefited
significantly from excellent, comprehensive, and detailed comments provided
throughout the process by eight anonymous referees. Credit is also due to seven first
year students from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, who provided
critical commentary on an early sample chapter. In addition, I would like to thank
Allan Findlay, Elspeth Graham, John Sweeney, Conor Murphy, Elaine Ho, Rain Cao,
and Neil Brenner for help with specific chapters. Of course, I assume sole responsibility for all errors that remain.
From conception to delivery this book took 20 months to complete. In reality it
bears the traces of a lifetime of living and learning.
I count myself fortunate to have been introduced to Human Geography by some
of the most inspirational instructors in the discipline. From the outset, at secondary
school in Motherwell in Scotland I learned much about matters pedagogical by
studying the infectious enthusiasm and towering personality of my Geography
teacher, Brian Keown. My passion for the subject was nurtured by staff who taught
on the BSc in Geography course at Glasgow University (1984–1988), including
Ian B Thomson, who provided me with an unrivalled introduction to the Human
Geography of France, John Jowett, a deep-thinking expert on India and China,
Ronan Paddison, a peerless lecturer in Political and Urban Geography, Allan
Acknowledgements
xix
Findlay, an inspirational instructor on the Arab world, and Arthur Morris, a Latin
Americanist in spirit as well as in scholarly prowess. I was to encounter a different
breed of human geographer at the University of Edinburgh, where I completed a
PhD between 1988 and 1992. What was then called “Postmodern Human
Geography” was all the rage and this particular intellectual tsunami had certainly
swept through the Geography Department at Edinburgh University. But inspired
by luminaries such as Susan Smith, George Hughes, Liz Bondi, Peter Sunley,
Charles Withers, and later Gillian Rose, there I also learned the importance of
understanding the history and philosophy of Human Geography and of thinking
critically about all sorts of traditions and schools of human geographical thought,
whether they be relics from the past or rival contenders in the present. I thank all
of these mentors.
As an educator of over 20 years myself, I have also learned much along the way
from both students of all abilities and, indeed, colleagues of all abilities! I have
taught semester-long Human Geography modules, first at the University of
Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, and more recently at the National University of
Ireland, Maynooth, in County Kildare. Alongside general “Introduction to Human
Geography” modules, I have also taught modules on the “History and Philosophy of
Human Geography,” “Research Methods in Human Geography,” “Society and
Space,” “Population Geography,” “Political Geography,” “Medical Geography,” the
“Geography of the World Economy,” “Urban Geography,” and the “Geography of
the Irish Diaspora.” This book could not have been written without these prior
teaching experiences. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of students who
have taken these modules; in digesting, engaging in, challenging, and reframing lecture and tutorial content they have helped me to sharpen my understanding of topics and clarify how best to communicate ideas. I would also like to thank inspirational
colleagues at Strathclyde University, including Robert Rogerson, Graham Hollier,
Mike Pacione, Guy Baeten, Nick Fyfe, Emma Stewart, and Wun Fung Chan, and at
the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, including Patrick J Duffy, Jim Walsh,
Denis Pringle, Brendan Gleeson, Paul Gibson, Proinnsias Breathnach, Ronan Foley,
Adrian P Kavanagh, Alistair Fraser, Cian O’Callaghan, Martina Roche, Mary
Gilmartin, Sinead Kelly, John Sweeney, Dennis Pringle, Ro Charlton, Stephen
McCarron, Shelagh Waddington, Conor Murphy, Karen Till, Gerry Kearns, Chris
Van Egeraat, Jan Rigby, Sean O’Riain, Martin Charlton, Chris Brunsdon, and
especially Rob Kitchin.
Finally, of course, I wish to thank my family. They have undoubtedly put up with
much to allow this book to be brought to a conclusion in a relatively (by my standards at least!) short period of time. Without their love and support undoubtedly I
could never have completed the work. I thank my late father and my mother for
permitting and supporting my indulgence in the subject. In all sorts of ways, Human
Geography was an omnipresent backdrop in our family home. One should never
underestimate where the purchase and display of historical maps, the presence of
coffee table atlases, adventurous family holidays, annual subscriptions to geographical magazines, and spherical light-up globes might eventually lead! I also thank
Anne Marie and Jim Cairns, Bryan and Eileen Boyle, Brendan and Antoinette Boyle,
and Mary and Eric Kerr for their ongoing support. Above all else, however, I thank
xxAcknowledgements
my wife Deborah and sons Patrick and Joseph. In so many ways, their contribution
to my personal and professional well-being is inestimable. They have yet to catch the
Human Geography bug, or at least the virulent strain to which I have fallen prey.
Undoubtedly, my overbearing enthusiasm to share my reading of the surrounding
landscape with them during family holidays has furnished them with an impregnable immune system. Perhaps this might be the book to bring the fever on! In the
meantime I say to them simply Go raibh maith agaibh.
Mark Boyle
Maynooth, June 2014
Preface
For Whom This Book Is Written and Why
The aim of this book is to provide undergraduate students who are embarking upon
Geography programs in universities throughout the world with a concise introduction to Human Geography.
It is my view that all students completing a three- or four-year program of study
in Human Geography should emerge with an understanding of the fundamental
ideas, debates, concepts, and theories in the discipline, informed both by an appreciation of seminal texts and thinkers, and by current thinking and research. They
should present themselves as imbued with and practiced in the basic intellectual
skills of analysis, synthesis, reflection, and critical thinking. They should be intellectually responsible, adaptable, curious, and creative, and ready to begin the job of
taking responsibility for their own learning. They should show an appreciation of the
contribution of Human Geography to the formation of informed citizens, display an
interest in ethics, and be prepared to formulate views on social, economic, cultural,
technological, and environmental actions which both threaten and support the public good. Ideally, they should also emerge with a well-rounded appreciation of the
breadth and richness of human knowledge and a recognition that Human Geography
has much to gain by engaging with perspectives, theories, concepts, and methods in
cognate disciplines.
A tall order indeed! Evidently much responsibility falls upon the shoulders of the
Human Geography instructor. The question that presents itself here is how far an
introduction to Human Geography should go toward preparing students for the
journey that lies ahead. The response of this book is significantly far and perhaps
farther than some existing introductory texts and introductory modules might imply.
For over 10 years now, I have taught semester-long “Introduction to Human
Geography” modules to first year students at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow,
Scotland (circa 150 students a year) and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth
in County Kildare (circa 430 students per year). In so doing I have come to realize that
there already exists a historically unprecedented range of high quality introductory
xxiiPreface
textbooks in the field of Human Geography. But still I have felt compelled to write this
book. Why so? Part of the answer resides in my belief that there is scope for introductory books to do better in three main areas:
a) Content should always be prioritized over aesthetics and spectacle. Some
textbooks provide students only or mainly with a tsunami of colorful illustrations, facts, figures, and case studies and suffer from what might be termed
“bells and whistles” syndrome. Whilst short, this book will not patronize
students. Alongside case study illustrations, it will address concepts, ideas,
and debates that are often avoided in introductory courses because they are
difficult to summarize in a basic and digestible form. It will introduce students to seminal thinkers and influential texts. This will be a short book with
sophisticated ideas communicated clearly and concisely.
b) Students learn best when a book has a strong organizing framework. It is
said of some books that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. But
in some textbooks it is the parts themselves that are greater than the whole.
This is perhaps because few introductory courses are taught by a single
scholar and few introductory textbooks are written by a single author.
Clearly, multi-contributory textbooks have a number of advantages. But
there can be difficulties too; writing styles are often disparate and jar, concepts are sometimes used differently in different chapters, and chapters
aren’t always knitted together well enough. The result is that less confident
students become disoriented. Penned by a single author, this book will be
written with a clear organizing framework in mind. At the heart of this
framework is the argument that history makes Geography. Central to this
book is the claim that Human Geography is best introduced in and through
the story of the rise, reign, and faltering of Western civilization from the
fifteenth century. In an important way, to study the principal demographic,
social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental processes which are
unfolding in any region of the world today is to study how that region has
figured and does figure in the story of the emergence, reign, and dethroning
of the West. Each of the chapters will put flesh on the skeleton that this
organizing framework provides
c) Some of the best human geographical writing can be found in related subjects such as Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, International
Relations, Economics, Regional Studies, Archaeology, Cultural Studies,
Environmental Science, and so on. Human Geographers address the core
social, political, economic, cultural, technological, and environmental challenges that will confront humankind in the twenty-first century. In so doing
they draw from and contribute to cognate subjects in the social sciences,
humanities, and even the sciences. Any introduction to Human Geography
will fail in its mission if it refuses to cast its net wider than literature that is
narrowly defined as “Human Geography.” Indeed, to limit coverage thus
would be to fail to report on some of the most exciting directions human
geographical research is taking today.