This study contains 20 specially commissioned essays which attempt to present a critical challenge to the philosophical positivism of the "New Geography". The work attempts to shed light on the relationship between human agency and social and spatial structures.

'The authority of the contributors, the quality of production, and the bibliographic notes are first-rate. It is essential for basic earth science collections, and for any college library that supports geography or geology.'

This book is a serious attempt to cover all of the relevant subdisciplines in the geographical economics framework. . . I would recommend the book to students of economic geography, regional economics, and related disciplines. Frans Boekema, Journal of Regional Science . . . this book is empirically and theoretically comprehensive in its scope. The nearly eighteen authors who have contributed to this book present a truly transatlantic perspective on NEG. . . this volume will be extremely useful to those dealing with rigorous modelling to examine spatial issues in economics, geography and planning. Rajiv Thakur, Regional Science Policy and Practice I recommend the book. . . The papers of a high quality, well written and organized; empirical analyses are based on the most advanced empirical techniques, and the reader enjoys their application. Roberta Capello, Growth and Change A very interesting volume indeed, recommended reading for everyone interested in theorizing space in economics or working in the empirical spatial-economic research arena. Economic Geography Research Group This important book explores original and alternative directions for economic geography following the revolution precipitated by the advent of so-called new economic geography (NEG). Whilst, to some extent, the volume could be regarded as part of the inevitable creative destruction of NEG theory, it does promote the continuing role of theoretical and empirical contributions within spatial economic analysis, in which the rationale of scientific analysis and economic logic maintain a central place. With contributions from leading experts in the field, the book presents a comprehensive analysis of the extent to which NEG theory is supported in the real world. By exploring whether NEG theory can be effectively applied to provide practical insights, the authors highlight novel approaches, emerging trends, and promising new lines of enquiry in the wake of advances made by NEG. Rigorous yet engaging, this book will be an essential tool for academics and researchers specialising in regional studies, urban and spatial economics and economic geography. It will also have widespread appeal amongst policymakers involved in planning and land use.

The essential introduction to the Middle Ages by the author of The Time Traveller's Guide series—“the most remarkable medieval historian of our time” (The Times, UK). We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time characterized by violence, ignorance and superstition. By contrast we believe progress arose from science and technological innovation, and that inventions of recent centuries created the modern world. But as Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating book, we couldn’t be more wrong. In this revelatory history, Mortimer shows how people's horizons—their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world—were utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, marking the transition from a warrior-led society to that of Shakespeare. Medieval Horizons sheds light on the enormous cultural changes that took place—from literacy to living standards, inequality and even the developing sense of self. Mortimer demonstrates why this was a revolutionary age of fundamental importance in the development of the Western world.

Drawing from the vast photography collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, American Geography charts a visual history of land use in the United States From the earliest photographic records of human habitation to the latest aerial and digital pictures, from almost uninhabited desert and isolated mountainous territories to suburban sprawl and densely populated cities, this compilation offers an increasingly nuanced perspective on the American landscape. Divided by region, these photographs address ways in which different histories and traditions of land use have given rise to different cultural transitions: from the Midwestern prairies and agricultural traditions of the South, to the riverine systems in the Northeast, and the environmental challenges and riches of the far West. American Geography also looks at the evidence of older habitation from the adobe dwellings and ancient cultures of the Southwest to the Midwestern mounds, many of them prehistoric. SFMOMA's last photography exhibition to consider land use, Crossing the Frontier (1996), examined only the American West. At the time, this focus offered a different way to think about landscape, and a useful way to reconsider pictures of the region. American Geography expands upon the groundwork laid by Crossing the Frontier, providing a complex, thought-provoking survey. Photographers include: Carleton E. Watkins, Barbara Bosworth, Lee Friedlander, Stephen Shore, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Mitch Epstein, An-My Lê, William Eggleston, Alec Soth, Mishka Henner, Trevor Paglen, Victoria Sambunaris, Emmet Gowin, Robert Adams, Terry Evans, Dorothea Lange and Mark Ruwedel, among others.

As he spends hours studying his father's world map, a young boy escapes the hunger and misery of refugee life. Based on the author's childhood in Kazakhstan, where he lived as a Polish refugee during World War II.

Ever since humans sketched primitive maps in the dirt, the quest to understand our surroundings has been fundamental to our survival. Studying geography revealed that the earth was round, showed our ancestors where to plant crops, and helped them appreciate the diversity of the planet. Today, the world is changing at an unprecedented pace, as a result of rising sea levels, deforestation, species extinction, rapid urbanization, and mass migration. Modern technologies have brought people from across the globe into contact with each other, with enormous political and cultural consequences. As a subject concerned with how people, environments, and places are organized and interconnected, geography provides a critical window into where things happen, why they happen where they do, and how geographical context influences environmental processes and human affairs. These perspectives make the study of geography more relevant than ever, yet it remains little understood. In this engrossing book, Alexander B. Murphy explains why geography is so important to the current moment.

A refreshingly innovative approach to charting geographical knowledge. A wide range of authors trace the social construction and contestation of geographical ideas through the sites of their production and their relational geographies of engagement. This creative and comprehensive book offers an extremely valuable tool to professionals and students alike. - Victoria Lawson, University of Washington "A Handbook that recasts geograph′s history in original, thought-provoking ways. Eschewing the usual chronological march through leading figures and big ideas, it looks at geography against the backdrop of the places and institutional contexts where it has been produced, and the social-cum-intellectual currents underlying some of its most important concepts." - Alexander B. Murphy, University of Oregon The SAGE Handbook of Geographical Knowledge is a critical inquiry into how geography as a field of knowledge has been produced, re-produced, and re-imagined. It comprises three sections on geographical orientations, geography′s venues, and critical geographical concepts and controversies. The first provides an overview of the genealogy of "geography". The second highlights the types of spatial settings and locations in which geographical knowledge has been produced. The third focuses on venues of primary importance in the historical geography of geographical thought. Orientations includes chapters on: Geography - the Genealogy of a Term; Geography′s Narratives and Intellectual History Geography′s Venues includes chapters on: Field; Laboratory; Observatory; Archive; Centre of Calculation; Mission Station; Battlefield; Museum; Public Sphere; Subaltern Space; Financial Space; Art Studio; Botanical/Zoological Gardens; Learned Societies Critical concepts and controversies - includes chapters on: Environmental Determinism; Region; Place; Nature and Culture; Development; Conservation; Geopolitics; Landscape; Time; Cycle of Erosion; Time; Gender; Race/Ethnicity; Social Class; Spatial Analysis; Glaciation; Ice Ages; Map; Climate Change; Urban/Rural. Comprehensive without claiming to be encyclopedic, textured and nuanced, this Handbook will be a key resource for all researchers with an interest in the pasts, presents and futures of geography.