The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization's Rough Landscape - Hardcover

De Blij, Harm

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195367707 ISBN 13: 9780195367706

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

Synopsis

The world is not as mobile or as interconnected as we like to think. As Harm de Blij argues in The Power of Place, in crucial ways--from the uneven distribution of natural resources to the unequal availability of opportunity--geography continues to hold billions of people in its grip. We are all born into natural and cultural environments that shape what we become, individually and collectively. From our "mother tongue" to our father's faith, from medical risks to natural hazards, where we start our journey has much to do with our destiny. Hundreds of millions of farmers in the river basins of Asia and Africa, and tens of millions of shepherds in isolated mountain valleys from the Andes to Kashmir, all live their lives much as their distant ancestors did, remote from the forces of globalization. Incorporating a series of persuasive maps, De Blij describes the tremendously varied environments across the planet and shows how migrations between them are comparatively rare. De Blij also looks at the ways we are redefining place so as to make its power even more potent than it has been, with troubling implications.

About this title

About the Author

Harm de Blij is the John A. Hannah Professor of Geography at Michigan State University. The author of 30 books, including Why Geography Matters, he is an honorary life member of the National Geographic Society and was previously the Geography Editor on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Reviews

De Blij is the author of a variety of influential works on geography, including a best-selling college textbook on the subject, as well as a celebrated exploration of wine (Wine: A Geographic Appreciation, 1983). With this selection, de Blij adds a geographer’s voice to the growing chorus of those objecting to Thomas Friedman’s flat earth. Globalization may indeed level the global playing field for the “fortunate minority in control of, in the path of, or with access to the mainstreams of modernization,” concedes de Blij, but the great majority of the earth’s six billion people face obstacles that are steeper than ever. Not the first book to decry the dramatic contrasts between the “globals,” the locals, and the “mobals” (migrants), this selection is nevertheless unique in cataloging the myriad ways in which such contrasts are informed by geographic factors, including language, natural resources, urbanization, and environmental risks. De Blij is as engaging as ever, and his fear for our collective future is evident on every page. --Brendan Driscoll

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195367707
• ISBN 13: 9780195367706
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280