Description
To appreciate how our complex world works today, it is vital to have a solid grounding in the environmental, cultural, historic, economic, and geopolitical contexts of the world’s regions and nations. Fundamentals of World Regional Geography establishes that foundation and offers you an opportunity to explore the events, issues, and landscapes of the world in more detail. Chapters 1 through 3 provide the basic concepts, tools, and vocabulary of world regional geography. In the first chapter, geography’s uniquely spatial approach to the world is introduced along with some of the discipline’s milestone concepts and its considerable career possibilities—especially those growing from the “geospatial revolution.” The second chapter covers the essential characteristics of the world’s physical processes and how human activity has altered some of them. Climate change and the treaties to control it have a prominent role in that chapter. Chapter 3 traces the modification of landscapes by human actions, describes trends and projections of population growth, and considers agendas to slow destructive trends in resource use.
Then come eight chapters exploring the world’s regions through a consistent, thematic approach focusing in turn on five elements: Area and Population, Physical Geography and Human Adaptations, Cultural and Historical Geographies, Economic Geography, and Geopolitical Issues. The final section ofeach chapter, entitled “Regional Issues and Landscapes,” contains a selection of short studies of critical problems in global affairs and exemplary or important problems in human or physical geography,
The book is built for use in either a one- or two-semester course. If time is limited, the five thematic elements of each chapter may be a priority, with limited use of the case studies in the “Regional Issues and Landscapes” section. After the three introductory chapters, it does not matter what order the regional chapters are read in; no regional chapter presumes that any other regional chapter has been read. However, a unique cross-reference system allows a theme or issue introduced in one region to be tied immediately to other regions. MindTap for Fundamentals of World Regional Geography, 4e implements the cross-reference system through easy-to-use links so readers can instantly navigate to the related theme or issue. Read more about the powerful learning tools made available in MindTap in the Course Support section of the Preface.
New to the Fourth Edition
Both longtime and first-time users of Fundamentals of World Regional Geography should be pleased with this edition. Much of the critical content of the previous editions is retained, but this is the most extensive revision to date, and a number of new elements are introduced here.
• Almost all of the maps are new or newly designed. Cartographer Andrew Dolan and 1 have worked to tie the maps tightly to the content. xiv
• The climate and biome classification and mapping schemes have been revised to be consistent with the Koppen system and the World Wildlife Fund ecoregions data.
• Pie charts have replaced population cartograms.
• The language and religion maps in each regional chapter are revised using better and more consistent data.
• The book is more thematic and conceptual than in previous editions. Fritz Gritzner’s big geographic question, “What is where, why there, and why care?,” leads us to critical thinking about the concepts and themes that span the world’s regions.
• The new Geographic Spotlight feature depicts geographers’ methods of capturing, analyzing, and depicting geographic information.
• The definitive “18 Standards of Geography” authored by the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE),and presented in Chapter 1, served as a constant referencein writing the book. At the end of the course, the book’s reader will be able to claim confidently, “My geographic understanding has been informed by all the standards. I can match each standard with content in the book.”
• Extensive use of the NCGE Standards is one of many elements that recommend this book in preparing for the AP Human Geography test.
• Regional chapters have a new feature entitled “Life in …,” where a resident of that region discusses land and life in a particular country. The only exception is the chapter on the United States because most of the book’s readers know life in that country.
• In the introductory Chapter 3 and in each regional chapter, economic geography has been given more attention. Globalization has shifted wealth from more to less developed countries, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty while gutting middle class jobs in developed countries and widening inequalities in many societies. These issues, along with the crosscurrents of post-Great Recession economic growth and the impacts of China’s economic slowdown, are tied together throughout the book.
• The geographies of fresh and marine waters have more attention than in previous editions.
• Urban geography is much more prominent than in earlier editions.
• Geopolitical issues are more important than ever. Here the reader is brought up to date on geopolitical problems while also given a geographic foundation for understanding postpublication current events.
• Geopolitical instability and other climate change impacts on human systems are covered throughout.
• Think Critically questions are raised with many figure captions, challenging the student to use the text information in a thoughtful manner.
• Graphs have a new clean look and are more accessible.
• A thorough Study Guide useful for both instructors and students concludes each chapter.