Geography: A Very Short Introduction VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: AFRICAN HISTORY CHAOS Leonard Smith John Parker and Richard Rathbone CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY CLASSICS Charles O. Jones Mary Beard and John Henderson ANARCHISM Colin Ward CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Helen Morales ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard ANCIENT WARFARE THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon Harry Sidebottom CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman CONTEMPORARY ART THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair Julian Stallabrass ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller Simon Critchley ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn COSMOLOGY Peter Coles ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes CRYPTOGRAPHY ART HISTORY Dana Arnold Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DADA AND SURREALISM THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY David Hopkins Michael Hoskin DARWIN Jonathan Howard ATHEISM Julian Baggini THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS Timothy Lim AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick BARTHES Jonathan Culler DESCARTES Tom Sorell BESTSELLERS John Sutherland DESIGN John Heskett THE BIBLE John Riches DINOSAURS David Norman THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea DOCUMENTARY FILM BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright Patricia Aufderheide BUDDHA Michael Carrithers DREAMING J. Allan Hobson BUDDHISM Damien Keown DRUGS Leslie Iversen BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown THE EARTH Martin Redfern CAPITALISM James Fulcher ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION Paul Langford Khalid Koser THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS EMOTION Dylan Evans Paul Wilkinson EMPIRE Stephen Howe ISLAM Malise Ruthven ENGELS Terrell Carver JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves ETHICS Simon Blackburn JUDAISM Norman Solomon THE EUROPEAN UNION JUNG Anthony Stevens John Pinder and Simon Usherwood KABBALAH Joseph Dan EVOLUTION KAFKA Ritchie Robertson Brian and Deborah Charlesworth KANT Roger Scruton EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner FASCISM Kevin Passmore THE KORAN Michael Cook FEMINISM Margaret Walters LAW Raymond Wacks THE FIRST WORLD WAR LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews Michael Howard LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler FOSSILS Keith Thomson LOCKE John Dunn FOUCAULT Gary Gutting LOGIC Graham Priest THE FRENCH REVOLUTION MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner William Doyle THE MARQUIS DE SADE John Phillips FREE WILL Thomas Pink MARX Peter Singer FREUD Anthony Storr MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven THE MEANING OF LIFE GALAXIES John Gribbin Terry Eagleton GALILEO Stillman Drake MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope GAME THEORY Ken Binmore MEDIEVAL BRITAIN John Gillingham GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh and Ralph A. Griffiths GEOGRAPHY John A. Matthews and MEMORY Jonathan Foster David T. Herbert MODERN ART David Cottington GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter GERMAN LITERATURE Nicholas Boyle MODERN IRELAND Senia Pašeta GLOBAL CATASTROPHES Bill McGuire MOLECULES Philip Ball GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger MORMONISM GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin Richard Lyman Bushman THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND MUSIC Nicholas Cook THE NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway MYTH Robert A. Segal HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson NATIONALISM Steven Grosby HEGEL Peter Singer THE NEW TESTAMENT AS HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood LITERATURE Kyle Keefer HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson NEWTON Robert Iliffe HINDUISM Kim Knott NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner HISTORY John H. Arnold NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside Christopher Harvie and HOBBES Richard Tuck H. C. G. Matthew HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood NORTHERN IRELAND HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham Marc Mulholland HUME A. J. Ayer NUCLEAR WEAPONS IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden Joseph M. Siracusa INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton THE OLD TESTAMENT INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary Michael D. Coogan PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION PAUL E. P. Sanders S. A. Smith PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig SCHIZOPHRENIA PHILOSOPHY OF LAW Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone Raymond Wacks SCHOPENHAUER PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Christopher Janaway Samir Okasha SCIENCE AND RELIGION PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards Thomas Dixon PLATO Julia Annas SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier POLITICS Kenneth Minogue SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt David Miller SOCIAL AND CULTURAL POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young ANTHROPOLOGY POSTMODERNISM John Monaghan and Peter Just Christopher Butler SOCIALISM Michael Newman POSTSTRUCTURALISM SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce Catherine Belsey SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor PREHISTORY Chris Gosden THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Helen Graham Catherine Osborne SPINOZA Roger Scruton PSYCHOLOGY STUART BRITAIN John Morrill Gillian Butler and Freda McManus TERRORISM Charles Townshend PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns THEOLOGY David F. Ford THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion THE HISTORY OF TIME QUANTUM THEORY Leofranc Holford-Strevens John Polkinghorne TRAGEDY Adrian Poole RACISM Ali Rattansi THE TUDORS John Guy THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN RENAISSANCE ART Kenneth O. Morgan Geraldine A. Johnson THE UNITED NATIONS ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway Jussi M. Hanhimäki THE ROMAN EMPIRE THE VIKINGS Julian Richards Christopher Kelly WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman RUSSELL A. C. Grayling THE WORLD TRADE RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly ORGANIZATION Amrita Narlikar Available soon: 1066 George Garnett NELSON MANDELA Elleke Boehmer EXPRESSIONISM Katerina Reed-Tsocha THE VIETNAM WAR HISTORY OF LIFE Michael Benton Mark Atwood Lawrence HISTORY OF MEDICINE William Bynum For more information visit our websites www.oup.com/uk/vsi www.oup.com/us John A. Matthews and David T. Herbert Geography A Very Short Introduction 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York John A. Matthews and David T. Herbert 2008 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Matthews, John A. (John Anthony), 1947– Geography: a very short introduction / John A. Matthews and David T. Herbert. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-19-921128-9 1. Geography. I. Herbert, David T. II. Title. G70.M376 2008 910–dc22 2008000176 ISBN 978-0-19-921128-9 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire For John’s mother-in-law, Annie D’Sa (M.F.M.I.L.) in Nairobi, Kenya; and David’s grandchildren, Sion and Ella in Cardiff, and Isabel and Rosie in Bristol. This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface xi List of illustrations xiii 1 Geography: the world is our stage 1 2 The physical dimension: our natural environments 21 3 The human dimension: people in their places 50 4 Geography as a whole: the common ground 82 5 How geographers work 105 6 Geography’s present and future 134 References 158 Further reading 163 Index 171
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