Introduction to Geography 14th Edition

Book Preface

“If you build it, they will come” was the message that inspired the character played by Kevin Costner in the movie Field of Dreams to create a baseball fi eld in his Iowa cornfi eld. A similar hope encouraged us when we fi rst began to think about writing Introduction to Geography in 1975. At that time, very few departments of geography in the United States and Canada offered a general introductory course for students—that is, one that sought to acquaint students with the breadth of the entire fi eld. Instead, most departments offered separate courses in physical and human or cultural geography. Recognizing that most students will have only a single college course and textbook in geography, we wanted to develop a book that covers all of the systematic topics that geographers study. Our hope, of course, was that the book would so persuasively identify and satisfy a disciplinary instructional need that more departments would begin to offer a general introductory course to the discipline, a dream that has been realized.

Approach

Our purpose is to convey concisely and clearly the nature of thefield of geography, its intellectual challenges, and the logical interconnections of its parts. Even if students take no further work in geography, we are satisfi ed that they will have come into contact with the richness and breadth of our discipline and have at their command new insights and understandings for their present and future roles as informed adults. Other students may have the opportunity and interest to pursue further work in geography. For them, we believe, this text will make apparent the content and scope of the subfields of geography, emphasize its unifying themes, and provide the foundation for further work in their areas of interest. A useful textbook must be flexible enough in its organization to permit an instructor to adapt it to the time and subject matter constraints of a particular course. Although designed with a one-quarter or one-semester course in mind, this text may be used in a full-year introduction to geography when employed as a point of departure for special topics and amplifi cations introduced by the instructor or when supplemented by additional readings and class projects. Moreover, the chapters are reasonably self-contained and need not be assigned in the sequence presented here. The chapters may be rearranged to suit the emphases and sequences preferred by the instructor or found to be of greatest interest to the students. The format of the course should properly refl ect the joint contribution of instructor and book, rather than be dictated by the book alone.

BR I E F CON T E N T S
Preface x
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Techniques of Geographic Analysis 19
Chapter 3 Physical Geography: Landforms 45
Chapter 4 Physical Geography: Weather and Climate 74
Chapter 5 Population Geography 110
Chapter 6 Cultural Geography 141
Chapter 7 Human Interaction 185
Chapter 8 Political Geography 214
Chapter 9 Economic Geography: Agriculture and Primary Activities 249
Chapter 10 Economic Geography: Manufacturing and Services 277
Chapter 11 An Urban World 301
Chapter 12 The Geography of Natural Resources 337
Chapter 13 Human Impact on the Environment 377
Appendices A-1
Glossary G-1
Index I-1