Anyone interested in learning about geographic concepts will appreciate this concise text, that highlights the most important concepts. The fifth edition presents authoritative content, currency, and outstanding cartography. It continues to build on its strength for understanding maps with the help of additional question types. New coauthor Jan Nijman also helps provide a current view of the field. With its up-to-date information and accessible introduction, this text is engaging for any student.
Harm J. de Blij (see IJ (digraph); closest pronunciation: "duh blay") is a geographer. He is a former geography editor on ABC's Good Morning America. He is a former editor of National Geographic magazine and the author of several books, including Why Geography Matters.
Dr. de Blij is a Distinguished Professor of Geography at Michigan State University. He has held the George Landegger Chair in Georgetown University's school of Foreign Service and the John Deaver Drinko chair of geography at Marshall University and has also taught at the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Miami.
This textbook is sold unbound (just loose pages) to prevent students from buying used copies or from reselling it, taking part in a practice that makes education more expensive. This is the ultimate reason for my low rating of the textbook.
I found this textbook to be Eurocentric and biased in favor of Chicago-school economics. This is especially prevalent in the sections on South America and Africa, where the authors offer the simplistic solution to almost all impoverished countries that they should just embrace the “free market" (without exploring how they may have been exploited by the free market in the first place). Although this is a Geography textbook which is meant to explore each region of the world on its own terms, I found the discussions of political economy to be ideological rather than relativistic.
This is an informative introduction to Regional Geography but it should be read with the recognition that these biases are present and being applied to regions where it may not be appropriate.
This book was an excellent text to accompany GEO 204: World Regional Geography. The author, H.J. de Blij, was one of the creators of the class and it follows the text and lectures to a "t" ... obviously. The text was easy to follow and take notes from and the additional maps and figures were interesting and relevant. I looked forward to reading the assigned readings and completed all of them. This is an excellent book for someone who is interested in learning more about the world from a geographical aspect.
Written by a very patriotic American liberal. His biased political views are visible throughout the whole book. Notwithstanding the sides he took, the book is still a knowledgable resource for beginners who haven't known much about the outside world.
Its a bit dry, but often textbooks are. The information is presented in a nice clear manner and the material is given in an easily understood way. Not really much else to say about it.