Geography Books

This book is an excellent resource for students at teachers alike. It has a great balance of different map types and the level of detail is beyond anything I have ever seen in any other atlas. If you're taking Geography or any class about Regions and Nations in the world, this is the book for you.

I purchased this as a gift. She is a huge fan of maps and searched for a good world atlas. "This book could not be more wonderful" were her words. Simply perfect.

Having used many other atlases in years of teaching geography, this new NGS product has an excellent balance of thematic maps, regional maps, and data. While my other favorite, Goode's, has better thematic maps for teaching human geography, the National Geographic College Atlas excels in its clear and complete explanations of physical geography. de Blij does it again!

I am using this book as a source of information for some railroad travel guides I am putting together, and it is very helpful, in that it is not merely a "list of place names," like so many other similar books I have seen are. This book actually has historical information and useful material which I can incorporate into my guides, which will make train travel passing through the places listed in the book much more enjoyable and interesting. It is an excellent resource!!!

This book is not for the serious researcher, but is tremendously interesting for those curious about the sometimes zany history of California's place names. Most entries include an interesting tangle of history and culture and the usual mispronunciation of Native American names by early white settlers. Its a fun book that would make a great stocking stuffer and should brought along on any California road trip. Two thumbs on this one.

This is very good book on 3D seismic interpretation written in a very simple language.

I bought this book, amongst others, in order to update myself on the essentials of 3-D interpretation whilst learning to use a 3D software package. I chose it as a reference text, before returning to work as a Geophysicist after a seven year break. It was just what I needed to refresh my memory! The book is easy to read, concise and well organized. It also has plenty of current and essential references on each topic which saved me a lot of research time.

With "Abolitionists Abroad," Lamin Sanneh has produced another great piece of scholarship, one of the best books on West Africa ever written. Sanneh examines antislavery not as an intellectual exercise by Western elites but as a movement of former slaves and former captives who went to West Africa to fight slavery and the slave trade. Crucial to Sanneh's book is the concept of "antistructure," which is the framework used by Sanneh to signal the opposition to chieftain authority structures that became the foundation of antislavery in Sierra Leone. These former slaves and former captives sought to undermine the chieftain values of birth, rank, and patronage and replace them with enlightened values--informed by American Christianity and republicanism--such as freedom and inclusiveness. The proliferation of evangelical Christianity taught ex-slaves the idea that everyone is equal in God's eyes, and these blacks soon began to find its "earthly counterpart in liberty without prejudice." Former American slaves and recaptives alike insisted on equal rights under the law, and opposed official British attempts to meddle with their religious practices. They found prosperity in the growth of legitimate trading enterprises, which served as an alternative model to the economic system of the chiefs, which was closely tied to the slave trade. The final result was the creation of a new kind of society in which chiefly authority was contested, Christanity was tranformed, and former slaves were able to use their "second chance" to pursue dignified and productive lives.

I have now read more than 5 of Lamin Sanneh's books and many of his published article's. Being a student of his at Yale, I was fortunate enough to learn side by side with a legend in the field of African history. Abolitionists Abroad is one that everyone must read. Sanneh writes in a clear and easy to comprehend manner that every book lover will appreciate. I highly recommend this book and others written by Lamin Sanneh including Translating the message and West African Christianity. I was fortunate enough to learn in the classroom with this brilliant mind, here is your chance to learn in your home. Five stars.

I'm not just saying that because I know the author. He's an amazing writer, and this is an amazing book.

This tale of Christopher Columbus provides a vivid story of his expedition to the Caribbean, providing a fictionalized account of his earliest explorations and including a healthy dose of poetic description. A unique "you are there" approach brings the experience to life: "It is not disappointment, but surprise to find so little of what he had been thinking of, ghosting in on the making tide to a broad and shining bay. The bosun sounds the still water. At every fall the lead marks its own centre; ripples widening outward link with those before and after, the ship's course marked by this light chain."

Brilent book for geomorphology study that allows you to see land scapes in 3d look by using stereoscope, great seller.. Thanx

This was the book that I used to learn aerial photo interpretation almost 30 years ago- and it still appears to be the best book on the market. We used it in Geology (specifically, geomorphology- the study of landforms) but it also has applications in geography, conservation, forestry, and surveying.

The best part of the book is its organization by type of landform: wind action (dunes), ground water (Karst topography), mass movements (landslides, slumping, and flows), glaciers, effects of glaciation (U-shaped valleys, moraines, kettles, drumlines, cirques, etc.), lakes, marshes, and abondoned shorelines, desert land forms, marine coastlines, stream deposits (meanders, oxbow lakes, braided channels, and deltas), stream erosion and erosion cycles, volcanic features, and meteor crators. There is also a section on lithology (descriminating of rock types.) In addition there are sections on vegitation types, soils, and cultural features and urban areas. All of these subject areas are illustrated by multiple examples.

You will of course need a stereoscope to use this book, but the inexpensive student model will work just fine. In fact, the vertical exageration really makes the features "pop" out- even to the untrained eye. You will be able to spot most types of landforms from the air after studying this book, as well as, outcrops of strata and structures. This is a big help in preliminary mapping- and prospecting- surveys.

"Africa" is the companion volume to the recent PBS series of the same name, and like the series, is organized into eight parts, each one focusing on a particular geographical region of the continent. In clear, concise language, John Reader gives us the historical and geographical background of each area, the current economic and social structure, and the problems affecting the particular region. The photographs are mind-blowing; they are so gorgeous that they almost dominate the excellent text. The one disappointment, for one who has also seen the PBS series, is that the book doesn't follow the individual stories of people in depth as the PBS production did; however, no one who hasn't seen the TV production will miss it, and it in no way detracts from the overall value of the book. This is one book about the "dark continent" that does the continent, and its people, proud.

This is an excellent book for anyone who might find Reader's earlier book "A Biography of the Continent" too much of a good thing. "Africa" explores many of the same themes and issues, but the information is arranged differently and there are more illustrations; this book is aimed at the educated lay-reader. Still it is an important and outstanding book. Reader is a good writer and his research and grasp of a myriad of disciplines related to his subject is impressive.

The story is told by geography: Savanna, Desert, Rain Forest, Mountains, Sahel, Great Lakes, Coast, Southern Africa. Being a "companion" to the PBS/NGS TV series there is some (but not much) focus on the people who appeared in the television documentaries. Mostly Reader tells the stories behind the story; his history of Africa is as much about the environmental, geographical, and physiological as merely chronological. For example, Reader tells why bananas and plantains are so important in African history; what makes camels so invaluable in the Sahara, how sickle cells and malaria are related, even the advantages and disadvantages of walking upright. Of course there is some in-this-year-such-and-such happened, but that is kept to a minimum. This "Africa" is not only an outstanding introduction to Africa, it should also be of interest to any Africanist.

The photographs by Michael Lewis are good enough to be a book of their own; they combine with Reader's well organized and informative text to make "Africa" an excellent portrait of the continent. Reader's "Biography of the Continent" is also highly recommended.

The book provides a reader with a very complete introduction to physico-chemical methods of datation. The book contains clear and complete explanations of terminology and methodological basis (geology, as well as physics) allowing the beginning reader to understand the essence of described methods and their limitations. Many additional information make it also an excellent handbook to specialists. One can find here practical advice, common traps, datation possibilities vs. archaeological and geological materials and enlarged references. It is a really good example of German precision and exactitude.
I strongly recommend this book to all archaeologists and naturalists. It could be also a very educative piece of reading for students and non-specialists interested in the subject.

Within this book's content,several qualities are united which make it not only the best aviable introductory textbook into such crucial topic for archaeology and anthropology,but a truly unique contribution that transcendes the compromistic exposure of subject which could be found within more formal textbook.

First,author provided brief but quintessential introduction into the very fundaments of physical and chemical properties which are relevant in those phenomenons which enable exegesis of temporal relations in the form of absolute chronology.

Second,a highly critical disscusion is given for selected materials and their specific characteristic,with conclusions about dating methods which are most appropriate,plus refference to other part of the book which deals with dating methods per se,and this was a very wise choise in semantical organisation,since it enables easy refference to particular issue.

While one could think of style as something not important with regard to books that are dealing with hard science,this is not case here,because author truly suceeded in making his presentation inteligable to readers who are not experts in nuclear physics,but are obliged to know fundaments,methods,and logic of age determination process in quaternary geology-geologists,anthropologists,paleontologists,archaeologists.

Students of these sciencies have often difficulties in finding materials of explanatory,introductory,practical and bibliographical kind,since it is often too fragmentated to be easily obtained.Up to this day,this book is absolutely the best for that purpose.

Finnaly,one must mention that within entire content,one persistant quality is wide diapazon of perspectives on subject-ranging from theoretical and empirical foundation,to such practical aspects as proper taking of samples.Richly illustrated,with strong bibliographic back-up,this is book that is definitely the most accurate scrutinisation of quarternary age determination,and one needs to follow progress in the field from other,more proptly informative sources-corections in calibration,development and refinement of method etc.-but no more to seek for book that synthetises this area of science in a fashion that is both approachable and also professional.

This book is a must for everyone interested in gerontology, and research into ageing. It provides robust arguments, supported by good evidence, on ageing in all societies, from the less developed through to western industrialised societies.

Dr. Sarah Harper's book "Ageing Societies" is probably one of the very best text-books in the market; as an introduction into "Population Ageing" as a demographic study. As she introduces at the very beginning, demographic ageing; whether at a global or international, communal or societal, familial or minimalist and individualistic level is a reality, and with:

1. falling fertility,
2. falling infant and adult mortality,
3. falling crude marriage rates (CMR),
4. falling total first marriage rates (TFMR) for men as well as women,
5. falling remarriage rates, and
6. increasing migration; our future generations have to cope with longer lifespan and better longevity for all future generations to come; thereby viewing global ageing of population in all countries across the world. If you are an undergraduate student in Sociology/Anthropology (or any other related stream from the Social Sciences, in general) and looking for an excellent introduction into all the topics related to demographic ageing, with lots of tables, charts and diagrams; then this is it! Also, advanced topics like: intergenerational contracts, retirement policies, Social Security models and Ageism as a crime are introduced and extrapolated.

This is an excellent introduction into the subject of "Population Ageing". 5 stars overall!!!

Subhasish Ghosh

St. Cross College,
University of Oxford

I used this book as a part of an Alaskan unit for second graders. They loved it! The poetry drew them in, they laughed and learned from the "Cheechako tips." Brilliant photographs and clear text make this a wonderful read. The book lends itself to a multitude of reading and writing lessons. It is great an introductory or summarizing text.

If you want to teach your child about Alaska,this is a fun way to do it!