Sparknotes why geography matters

Smith, Christian Science Monitor. The remarkable chapter on Africa is at once compelling and tragic, but also cautiously hopeful. If you think that geography makes your eyes glaze over, try this book and you'll discover insights you've never encountered before.

The United States State Department would be well served to make this book required reading for all newly recruited foreign service officers and diplomats--and it is strongly recommended for all citizens In its scope, analytical balance, power, originality, and readability, Why Geography Matters is a matchless book; the riveting chapter on Africa is the best summation of the continent's past and prospects I have ever read.

His tour of Islamic radicalism has the most immediate relevance and, buttressed by a profusion of maps, it covers Afghanistan, Iraq, the Islamic "front" in sub-Saharan Africa, and--Paraguay? Learning the significance of that outlier to the geography of Islamic terrorism as well as its unappeasable aims typifies many of de Blij's informational surprises, which are arranged clearly and spiced with the author's allusions to his career and travels.

But he succeeds in much more, raising thought-provoking issues on global warming, terrorism, China's ascendancy, Europe's future, Russia's role, and Africa's prospects, issues our legislative and executive branches of government as well as members of the media need to consider in geographic perspective.

Every person responsible for making public policy, as well as those who interpret these complex issues for the public, should read this book. De Blij, an accomplished academic and regular television geography analyst, writes that by gaining a greater working knowledge of geography, Americans will be better suited to deal with the problems facing the country and the world.

De Blij makes a good case for geography's importance. It provides a plethora of insights. As the NBC News "geography analyst" explains in his 30th book, "Why Geography Matters," geography is much more than memorizing mountain ranges and estuaries. The consequence, he writes, is that leaders lack insights to connections in a world facing climate change, overpopulation, and the continuing threat of terrorism.

This book is about why the subject of geography matters with long statistical discussions about teaching geography in schools. I am going to search for books on how the land, natural resources, and weather effect us now and in the past.

John Lockenvitz. I knew I would enjoy this book when I bought it. Good discussions on climate change, terrorism, and why Africa needs to be more than just a place in the news for outsiders. Emily Wilkerson. This book could be a two page article but instead it's a page book. I hate it. I enjoyed this book for the fast pace and interesting opinions. This book fails to live up to its name--it didn't explain his definition of geography and it didn't convince me why it matters. I care about geography, but not additionally because of this book.

I generally really like non-fiction, and was prepared to be swept away by gazillions of things I didn't know, a la Jared Diamond. Instead, I would characterize "Why Geography Matters" as "old man yells at clouds, geography edition.

As a caveat to this review, I quit pages in. The central claim of the book is that geography is critical to policy, and that most Americans are worse than ever at it. I agree with both points. But instead of laying out examples with meticulous research and multiple supporting arguments, the author makes editorial article level claims. The part of the book that I read felt like a prolonged editorial article, rather than a work of long non-fiction with structure and referenced arguments.

It felt insubstantial. The introduction, which means to define geography, does a poor job of it. The field is hard to define--I know a professor of geography and I confess that I got lost during her spiel too.

But de Blij includes things that I would argue are NOT geography--he details a little girl who saves a beachful of people after observing the ocean receding, and inferring that a tsunami would follow, based upon what she learned in class. I would consider that natural science or fluid dynamics, not geography.

He never names or defines any subcategories of the field engineering is quite the wide net but specialties like electrical engineering and civil engineering have well-defined emphases , so it's a bit hard to follow along with his conception of the field. I felt like if it was about the natural world, then he called it geography. My favorite portion of the book was a lengthy aside about climate change and how climate has changed over the multi-billion year history of the planet.

It was a good read, and information I didn't know, despite the fact that his argument about the chapter was a bit muddy. The section on the Vietnam War was brief and uninformative, and didn't even contain a map. He broadly asserts that a lack of geographical knowledge hurt the war effort, but I cannot recall a single specific example.

I recall only vague assertions such as that knowing the religious and cultural map of the inhabitants would have helped. Again, it's an argument I am predisposed to agree with; it was the lack of argument that was the issue.

And after that section he whinges about pass-fail grading and grade inflation as supposed consequences of the war, with as little concern as ever about evidence or numbers or citations. In short, I am shocked at the relatively high ratings for this book. Diamond lays out and cites his arguments, so at least he gives you a place to branch out from. Sydney Robertson. Completely enamored with this book. I want to be a history teacher, so these ideas are important when thinking about how to incorporate geography into my curriculum.

His section on terrorism is eye-opening, but don't let yourself be limited by what he thinks--it is important to think about all of the issues he raises through your own critical eye and world perspective. I appreciated everything he had to teach me because it helped me understand the world in a new way. I would definitely recommend this book to anybody who doesn't feel comfortable thinking geographically or who loves to do it--this is a valuable book to have read.

This was summer reading in preparation for an AP Human Geography class for my oldest. We read the book together. Overall, it was very interesting and comprehensive. However, the author can be a bit repetitive and wordy.

Using physical and cultural geography, de Blij explains the reasons for many of the planet's problems and offers solutions. Through his focused discussion of the three major threats, de Blij provides vital historical data about the geologic development of the planet, global warming, the development of the human race, the planet's soaring population, the rise and fall of significant empires, and the root and future of Islamic terrorism.

As Earth approaches a population of seven billion, the people of the planet face numerous challenges. For the United States, the three major challenges in the next fifty years will be climate change, the rise of China, and global terrorism. Although these challenges will be significant and will not be the only challenges the US faces, if the people of the US and its government are prepared to deal with them, they can be addressed.

In the past, from Vietnam to Islamic terrorism, the US has either demonstrated an inability to understand the situation, or has been poorly prepared to deal with such issues.

The threat of climate change is real but it is not new. For millions of years the Earth has experiencing warming and cooling periods and the current warming period is just another episode in that long series.

The Earth is currently in an ice age, but we have been experiencing the Holocene interglaciation a period of warming within an ice age for about the past 12, years.

Scientists expect that eventually the interglaciation will end and the ice will return to much of the planet's surface. No one knows for sure when this will happen, and once it happens, there is little human action that can reverse it. In the meantime, however, no one knows what the impact of human activities such as pollution and the greenhouse effect will be on the length of the interglaciation, so limiting human impact on the planet is advisable.

Once the Earth begins to cool, climates will change and shift. Many of the inhabited polar regions, especially in the northern hemisphere, will no longer be able to sustain human life and most of today's agricultural zones will become too cold to be agriculturally viable, so food production will shift to lower latitudes and may be severely limited.

What are the main themes of the book? The American public is the geographically most illiterate society of consequence on the planet, at a time when United States power can affect countries and peoples around the world. This has been a factor in U. In both environmental and social contexts, geographic perspectives are crucial as policy is formulated, but these are often missing in the discourse.