num_pages: 368
description: In recent years our world has seen transformations of all kinds: intense climate change accompanied by significant weather extremes; deadly tsunamis caused by submarine earthquakes; unprecedented terrorist attacks; costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; a terrible and overlooked conflict in Equatorial Africa costing millions of lives; an economic crisis threatening the stability of the international system. Is there some way we can get our minds around these disparate global upheavals to grasp these events and their interconnections and place our turbulent world in a more understandable light? Acclaimed author Harm de Blij answers this question with one word: geography.In this revised edition of the immensely popular and influential Why Geography Matters de Blij tackles topics from the burgeoning presence of China to the troubling disarray of the European Union from the dangerous nuclear ambitions of North Korea to the revolutionary Arab Spring. By improving our understanding of the world's geography de Blij shows we can better respond to the events around us and better prepare ourselves to face the global challenges ahead. Peppering his writing with anecdotes from his own professional travels de Blij expands upon his original argument offering an updated work that is as engaging as it is eye-opening. Casual students of geography and professional policy-makers alike will benefit from this stimulating and crucial perspective on geography and the way it shapes our world's events.America de Blij warns has become the world's most geographically illiterate society of consequence. Indeed despite increasing global interconnectivity and rapid change Americans seem to be less informed and less knowledgeable about the rest of the world than ever. In this compelling volume de Blij shows why this dispiriting picture must change and change now.
language: English
title: Why Geography Matters More Than Ever
publisher: Oxford University Press