Geography Today provides a thoughtful and thorough introduction to the study of geography—from maps and technology to the study of different cultures, political systems, and economies, and an investigation of plate tectonics and climate systems. Geography Today: An Encyclopedia of Concepts, Issues, and Technology approaches the study of geography by concept, in contrast to most other works, which are organized by world region. Geography curriculums have been moving away from teaching the topic on a regional basis and toward teaching it through broader concepts. This is modeled by the National Geography Standards, the National Council for Geographic Education's Roadmap for 21st Century Geography Education, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Resource System, and ABC-CLIO's own geography advisory board, comprised of high school geography teachers from across the United States. By introducing geography concepts, Geography Today sets the foundation for readers to understand why certain geographies may be the way they are. It further helps high school geography students to apply concepts to different contexts with 101 geography terms, themes, and concepts for quick-reference research and study.

The World Today is the number one bestselling brief World Regional Geography textbook. The seventh edition continues to bring readers geographic perspectives on a fast-changing world through the regional view. Restructured chapters provide a macro review of important physical, cultural, and political characteristics, drawing upon up-to-date significant world events and crises. The cartographically superior maps have been updated for the seventh edition to offer an accurate and vast picture of the world--multi-layer, interactive, GIA maps have been added to WileyPLUS Learning Space. To complement the extensive map program, the majority of the photos have been taken by our authors during their field research, allowing the student to experience an authentic geographical viewpoint of our world.

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.

This book offers a unique assessment of the current state and future directions of human geography, exploring the developments and themes that have put the discipline at the heart of a number of important debates. Human Geography - with its concern for space, place and nature - has over recent years moved to the center of much theoretical debate in the social sciences and humanities. Moreover, the exchange has been two-way - human geography has itself increasingly welcomed the importation of work from other areas of academe. This book takes up the promise and challenge of this new-found prominence and openness and explores the future for the discipline. Human Geography Today brings together a range of internationally recognized authors, all of whom have explored this new interface, and each of whom here proposes future directions for their part of the discipline. The book considers the increasingly challenged dichotomy between the social and the natural, the meaning and significance of the geographical imagination, the increasing prominence of debates over difference and identity and their relationship to spatiality, the imperative of recognizing the thoroughly mutual constitution of spatiality and power, and - after all - how we might in these changing times most productively re-imagine space and place themselves. This book will be invaluable for students and academics in human geography, social theory, cultural studies, and politics.

"This work was first published by Oxford University Press in 2005 as Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America."

In the 8th edition of this market-leading title, The World Today continues to break new ground in the interpretation and teaching of world regional geography. The text explains the contemporary world’s geographic realms in terms of their natural environments and human dimensions in a clear and concise fashion. The authors look at the ways people have organized their living space, adapted to changing social as well as environmental circumstances, and continue to confront forces largely beyond their control, ranging from globalization to climate change. This book offers an approach to Geography that meshes theoretical concepts with regional realities. The evolving regional content of the chapters in the 8th edition of The World Today reflects the dynamic nature of the world’s geography; the changing and growing number of concepts mirror the progress of the discipline; and the ongoing introduction of new digital features reflects the instructional possibilities of new technologies.