Geography Books

The book -House Form and Culture - is a precious source of information on the cross cultural aspects of the house form. It is an exploration into the virtually unknown in the field of housing. The author was extremely successful (nothing new considering Amos Rapoport) in editing the availabe scattered sources to weave them into one extensive work that is priceless. The anthropologist, environmental behavior researcher, and the architect are only some of the ones who will appreciate this book. Especially interesting is the effect of the deteriminant of the house on shaping the house form. Rapoports own interpretation of the determinants of house form just brings it all together. The book is well written and very interesting even to the novice as it sheds light on the cultural diversities of the most insignificant tribe and the city dwellers.

This book ties together many ideas from the fields of anthropology and architecture. Rapoport methodically builds an argument for his hypothesis that "The different forms taken by dwellings are a complex phenomenon for which no single explanation will suffice." He supports his arguments with hundreds of examples drawn from the literature, as in the style of a review article. I was struck by parallelism between Rapoport's evidence that houses can vary tremendously, even given similar environmental or cultural factors, and the old structural linguistics adage that languages can vary in innumerable ways. Some of Rapoport's terminology is now outdated (e.g. "primitive societies,"), but these terms were standard at the time when the book was written so he shouldn't be singled out for using them. The ideas presented in the book are well worth studying and the book includes numerous reference citations for further investigation.

I've used the system in this book for several years, and I have found it very effective, including for time changes of 8 or 12 hours. I am able to sleep through the night and to work without feeling like a zombie. It does require some discipline and the willingness to look a bit silly by wearing dark glasses at odd times(which once led to an incident in the Moscow subway when someone obviously thought I was blind). But it really does work.

I've used the system in this book for several years, and I have found it very effective, including for time changes of 8 or 12 hours. I am able to sleep through the night and to work without feeling like a zombie. It does require some discipline and the willingness to look a bit silly by wearing dark glasses at odd times(which once led to an incident in the Moscow subway when someone obviously thought I was blind). But it really does work.

Yet another wonderfully photographed book by an original member of the Magnum family. Rodger's images circle the globe and tell wonderful stories from everywhere. Rather well printed, excellent b&w compositions that any photographer or artist must respect.

I bet you know some of his photographs. Startet as an stills photographer in the BBC George Rodger became famous with his pictures made for the LIFE magazine, was a co-founder of the Magnum Pictures agency and was later active in Africa and Asia. The book concentrates on his work while and after World War II, starting with his pictures of british people under the german Blitz, the air raids against british towns and civilists. Then the liberation of Europe, France, Italy ... the horrible pictures of the first Concentration Camp freed by american troops (Bergen Belsen), journeys through africa with the first pictures of the Nuba Tribe (there is a whole book available about this), often claimed to be much better then the later works of Leni Riefenstahl, Asia - the time range goes from the forties to pictures from Africa from 1979. George Rodger died in 1995. If you're interested in reportage photography then this is a must have.

The book doesn't go into too much detail regarding the "nature" of hurricanes, but it does cover the impacts on society in great detail. There is no better book for studying how hurricanes of the past have affected the east and Gulf coasts of the US. It also spends a lot of time on social preparedness and response to a landfall.

hello, my name is mark and i live in n.j. just 6 miles west of atlantic city and the threat of hurricanes is very real here and anyone that lives near the coast should read this informative book about hurricanes and there nature and impacts on society.mr. roger a. pielke does a fantastic job on covering all the ground work about hurricane life cycles and their affects on land and at sea and does so without being to techno. on people so they could understand what hurricanes and their effects can do to everyday people and commutities all along our coastlines.and if you were affected by hurricane andrew you must read the chapters on the storm itself and to see why these storms are so dangerous to life and property.a must own book, hands down, one of the best to come out in years!.

This is a great resource book for students third grade and up studying about the Cherokee Indians. Lots of information set in question/answer format. What would you eat?, What would you wear?, What would you do for fun?, etc. This book contains historical information, a timeline, a Cherokee syllabary and lots of illustrations. Well done!

A great book for kids who want to learn more about America's native cultures, or for children (like mine) who are of mixed race and want to learn more about their people and heritage. How would you have grown up in your tribe two hundred years ago? Fascinating view of early Cherokee dress, marriage customs, games, family relationships, religion and the heartbreak of The Place Where They Cried (Trail of Tears)

This book is presently the definitive work on cratering. It includes examples from throughout the solar system, however, terrestrial cratering in sufficiently covered to inform those seeking information in identifying earth impacts. This is the book often referred to in the Lunar and Planetary Institute's handbook on cratering, Traces of a Catastrophe, which condenses the material from Melosh's book. Impact Cratering looks at all aspects of cratering mechanics, ejecta deposits, modification, simple and complex craters, atmospheric interaction, and includes formulas, many photos and diagrams, is well indexed, and has a large bibliography. This book is for the serious investigator of impact cratering but is great reading for anyone who enjoys discovering the facts behind this very wide ranging occurrence. I particularly recommend this book to geologists as they would benefit from learning of other mechanisms which could explain terrestrial phenomenon otherwise incorrectly explained or unexplained by traditional geological processes.

I picked up this book in 1989 and reading it was one of the most pleasurable learning experiences of my life. In writing this book, Melosh has assembled in a pleasing and logical manner the fundamentals of the science of asteroid or comet impacts and basically laid the foundation for the study of impact structures on Earth and other planets. His writing style is excellent and so are the illustrations -- I only hope that the next edition will deal with the environmental impacts of impacts . . .

If you read one other Christian Book outside of the bible it needs to be this book. This book is excellent!!!!!It is a mix of standard bible commentary, some bible archeology, and a travel book all mixed up in one. The author also uses some references about the bible stories from ancient texts like Josephus and others. The book has a liberal amount of photo graphs of the bible sites as they are today. Reading this book will give you a feeling of actually visiting the Holy Land. (Actually visiting the site is also a must do thing for anyone) Looking at the faith stories from a modern perspective with a little commentary and history mixed gives you a new look. The truth of the gospel will stand out from reading this book like a sore thumb after you hit it with a hammer. Actually looking at the site as it is today makes you see the event as a real thing and not just literature. This book won't convert anyone but if you are a believer you will love the book.

Peter Walker takes the reader on both a historical and modern day tour of the Holy Land. This work is full of helpful maps and pictures of the land in which Jesus traveled, beginning in Bethlehem with the birth of Jesus and from there to Nazareth. There is a key days chart for each location discussed and the important all of the important events that have happened there throughout history. The focus is obviously on the time of Jesus, but each section has a section about today (e.g. Bethlehem Today). The author also give instructions and tips to anyone who is going to be taking a trip to Israel. Other locations that are included at the Jordan River, The Judean Desert, Galilee and its villages, Samaria, Caesarea Philippi, Jericho, Bethany, the Mount of Olives, the Temple, Jerusalem, Golgotha, and Emmaus. If you have read N. T. Wright's book "The Way of the Lord" and enjoyed it, then you will like this book as well. Walker seems to have been inspired, at least somewhat by Wright's work.

It is a great book for anyone interested in India and its culture! Easy to read with some nice snaps!

Richard Waterstone does an excellent job of making sense of the all the religions and customs of India. Excellents photos and text makes this a must have.

as i first opened the book and read the basis of where the data was aquired i was awestruck and knew that i was not only going to read this book but live it through the eyes of my parents and of their parents before them . you cannot help but feel the agony as diego recalls the events that he has witnessed throughout his life both those of curiousity for these strange men and the terror the and destruction they leave in their wake . but human beings from all races have in them an indomitable will to survive , and in this book you will witness that and say a prayer to whatever power you happen to believe in . Thank GOD .

Barreiro has done the History lover a favor by making this work possible for those of us who would like to look at the past in a more realistic sense. Of course, traditional History is important, but consider the untold stories that would be missed, like the Indian Chronicles, if all we concentrated on were eurocentric views of a non-euro world. Diego, a character as much modern as historical, finds himself caught between two worlds, the one of his Taino heritage, and the one of the new European world that came with Columbus. What is rather interesting about this book comes from the personalization of the disease, the evil, the corruptness, and the filth that came with civilization, referring to Europe's conquest of the "uncivilized" world. In our modern age, we may look at the past in a nostalgic yearning, but perhaps we should look back farther, as Diego said of his people, where the attitude of humanity was to see the seeds in rotten fruit, not just rotten fruit, or a view more nature oriented than gold oriented, or in our day and age, stocks and bonds oriented. In the Indian Chronicles, we see man's last effort, or one of them, at resistence towards mass assimilation and dehumanation through the eyes of Indian guerillas fighting a lost cause against the growing number of Castillas or incoming Spaniards, different kinds of animals, the type that would have slaves carry back-breaking quanitities of water to a sugar cane field and ignore the irrigation ditches that the natives, "uncivilized" natives, had built long ago, beating the slave for collapsing, while the answer is at his feet. Good book, good read, one of the best quite possibly.

Get the most of your family vacation by preparing the kids for the adventures the're about to have.Viewing this series of books before we leave for vacation familurizes everyone with the sites your about to see. And once you've returned home, this book is a wonderful addition to your photo albums to keep the memories alive!

Having seen Paris first hand, I would recommend this book for any child second grade and up as a way of preparing for a trip to Paris. It details the sights in Paris at a level that they can digest. It covers not only the well-known sights such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Arch du Triomphe, but also lists such attractions as the artists along the Seine and the bookstore Shakespeare and Company, which boasts the largest rare and secondhand english book selection in Europe in a charming old world setting. The illustrations are also well done.