Geography Books

Professor Setha M. Low's book On The Plaza-The Politics of Public Space and Culture discusses the interrelationship of public space and culture. She primarily focuses on two plazas in San Jose, Costa Rica, the Parque Central and the Plaza de la Cultura, while also making references to other places such as Tenochtitlan in Mexico. Using ethnographic, ethnohistorical, microgeographical, and statistic sampling methods, Low argues that "these culturally and politically charged public spaces are essential to everyday civic life and the maintenance of a participatory democracy."

Low describes the background of Costa Rica, going into its population, ethnic, religious, and urban proportion distribution. She explains the rise and fall of consecutive monocultural economies, such as cacao, tobacco, bananas, and coffee, its tradition of democracy, and the economic nadir in the 1980's. She then goes into the history of San Jose from colonial times to the present, including the devastating effects of the economic downtown and the trade vacuum created by NAFTA.

She then explores the history of the two plazas. Parque Central dates back to 1761, and is the larger and more densely populated of the two. It became a center for merchants, grocers, lottery ticket sellers, and sundry vendors, as well as shoppers and customers. Also, the trend of regulars sitting in the same benches over time gives Parque Central an ambience of traditional social life and hence less contested space between various social groups.

The Plaza de la Cultura, constructed between 1976 and 1982, was built as a contrast to the closed nature of Parque Central, as a more open space for the middle and lower classes. Central to the plaza was the National Theatre with a museum housing the country's Precolumbian gold. Despite its cultural stance, the new plaza became a haven for underage prostitutes, gangs, and drug users.

Plazas also contain social and spatial boundaries as factors that symbolize differences such as nationalities, race, class, and gender between plaza populations within a capitalist system. Low again contrasted the two plazas in San Jose in the framework of social boundaries:

Parque Central: mostly older men, closed space, clique-oriented, has professional prostitutes, lottery ticket, newspaper, food vendors, less foreigners, older.

Plaza de la Cultura: mostly women and children, open space, not clique-oriented, prostitutes who give services for clothes, nurturing relationships, balloon, popcorn, tourist item vendors, more foreigners, younger.

Another more important function of the plaza is for public protest. Low categorizes them in terms of the kinds of protest and their outcomes. Manifest protests such as strikes and demonstrations usually result in the temporary closure of the public space, followed by a reopening where the space is policed to discourage undesirables. An example of that involved the chasing out of shoeshine men from Parque Central. Latent protests involve conflicts that become apparent in terms of design and surrounding buildings and can result in discussions in various media or a plebiscite. Ritual protests, such as parades, normally involve the temporary takeover of space by a protesting group before it is relinquished to the forces nominally in charge of that space.

Taken in the context of protest, Low sees public space as symbolizing political objectives by those, particularly national leaders, who created them--e.g. the Plaza de la Democracia is a legacy to Oscar Arias Sanchez's Nobel Peace Prize-winning efforts for Central American peace. Plazas that don't fulfill the objectives of their creators or are not deemed valuable are either redesigned or denied access to the public.

Constituting twenty-five years of research spanning from 1972 to 1997, Setha Low's exhaustively researched book depicts the essence of the function of the plaza.

I read this book mainly because as a Tico (Costa Rican) I was very surprised somebody would write a whole book about a couple of places that for me are part of my everyday life. Besides having been to the Plazas of Europe and seen on TV the huge plazas that some other Latin American countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, etc) have I was curious to find out the reason behind her choosing of the Parque Central and the Plaza de la Cultura for this work.
I really liked what I read, she has the benefit of having seen these two public spaces in the city of San Jose, Costa Rica evolve over the last 30 years, from the days we used to consider the Plaza de la Cultura not a nice place to go to, the days when we were outraged by foreign musicians and artist taking over a ground that was supposed to be for the display of our culture till nowadays that the Plaza has turned the city into a sort of fish-tank from where the tourists and US retirees can leisurely watch Costa Ricans as we go about our daily lives.
I truly recommend this book.

My daughter loves this book - Great Memorabilia from our trip to Washington D.C. This book has great photos!!!

Billy Wannyn

Terrific photographs. Ample coverage of the usual monuments and tourist must-stops. Refreshing attention is also paid to DC neighborhoods that make the city a great place to live as well as visit.

Page #54 is excellent.

No more explain about it!
See and Enjoy~

The Oxford Bible Atlas, edited by Herbert G. May, is a detailed, extremely useful book that will heighten anyone's general understanding of biblical geography. It contains more than maps as it delves into the history behind the maps, and the archaeology behind the history. It cites biblical sources but also cites apocryphal books unfamiliar to most Protestant readers. The end result is a colorful, informative work that helps place both Old and New testaments into perspective.

The book is divided into three sections, the first introducing the ancient world, then the several maps, and concluding with an archaeological overview. Part one blends seemingly incompatible topics of biblical and geologic history. It includes biblical and secular accounts of ancient history. The atlas does not attempt to expound too greatly on the "Holy Land" as being somehow superior in importance. In fact the Holy Land occupies an important crossroads between east and west more so than it stands as a regional religious center of its own merit. Those who held power such as David, Herod, or even Pontius Pilate were rarely more than a regional or even local rulers who paled in stature when compared to Alexander or any of the Roman Emperors.

The map section covers most of the primary locations mentioned in the Bible, and illustrates the vastness of the biblical lands. Many maps retain ancient place names, though the primary focus is on the Near East. There are some areas not covered, such as the city of Tarshish, Jonah's destination when he attempted to flee from his responsibilities, and the route of the Exodus does not take them across either the Red Sea, or either the modern Gulf of Suez or Gulf of Aqaba. But these apparent omissions do little to detract from the overall effectiveness of the maps.

The final section is akin to a primer on biblical archaeology. It introduces Carbon 14 dating, how a site is developed, and a brief history of archaeological efforts in the region. It shows how cultures are understood by what has survived through the ages, and helps fill gaps when written records are not available.

The end result is a very informative atlas that readers of many different backgrounds will appreciate.

David Harvey, the famous social geographer, is not particularly known for his work on cultural matters, having spent most of his career working on issues of political economy, spatial organization and (some) philosophy of the same. Nonetheless, "Paris, Capital of Modernity" is a partially cultural, partially political-geographical history of the modernization of Paris undertaken under the famous leadership of Georges Haussmann (1809-1891), who created the monument, park and boulevard systems for which Paris is now justly renowned. As context, Harvey analyzes the works and attitudes of famous writers of that period in Paris, such as Flaubert and De Balzac, in addition to providing many nice photographs and maps charting the changes and developments in France's capital.

As one can expect with Harvey, most of the work is spent on tracing the geographical and spatial aspects of the modernization and industrialization of Paris and its political background in the persons of Napoleon III, Emperor of France between 1852 and 1870, and Georges Haussmann. He shows the constellation of class forces that allowed Napoleon III to play various classes against each other, shifting support from financial capital to landlord powers and back, and the position Haussmann's developments had in this political ensemble. Although the initial material is a little dry, things get better as Harvey digs into the meat of the matter, where Haussmann does not appear as much as the hated enemy of the workers and wrecker of ancient Paris as he is often depicted, but rather as an embodiment of the 'creative destruction' that capitalism is when it fully comes into its own, as it did in France around this time. The tensions and furies caused by the combination of capitalist industrialization on the one hand, and the spatial and economic restructuring of Paris as such by Haussmann and speculators both would finally erupt into the Paris Commune of 1871, which inaugurated the permanent end of the power of both reaction and a bloody repression of socialism in France.

The book is written with the usual subtlety, political understanding, and nuance of Harvey's best work. Whether the literary additions to the work are an improvement or a distraction perhaps depends on taste, all the more since the first chapter, entirely on De Balzac's oeuvre, is rather at variance with the topic of the rest of the work. But although the topic of Paris' furious ascent into modernity is not quite a new topic (addressed famously by Walter Benjamin, for example), Harvey's book is a worthy addition to Marx' own studies on the history of France: "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Napoleon Bonaparte" (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte) and "The Civil War in France" (The Civil War in France: The Paris Commune).

Implicitly taking his start from Benjamin's sketches of Paris as the "capitol" of the 19th century, Harvey analyses the elements that transformed Paris from medieval labrynth to modern bourgeois metropolis and the corresponding effect that this had on all levels of the class structure, men and women, and the spatial geography of the city itself. He starts with Balzac and Baudelaire, as all such studies must; but quickly moves out of literature and into history, looking at the changes in the city geography begun by Hausmann. Harvey uses his familiar metaphor of changes in geography as a symbol of the changes wrought by modernity. Excellent, pointed read for those interested in Paris and French history, urban development, and the effects of capital on capitols. Great bibliography too!

This book makes the polar areas very interesting. It can help you understand what a great loss these areas are going to be if we continue to do nothing about global warming. This books is about the joys of the polar regions however, not the loss. More fish prefer the polar regions than warmer regions. Penguins can't survive the bacteria and viruses found in warmer areas and get sick and die in zoos. Polar bears survive better in the cold areas. They love these places and are well suited to them. Musk Oxen and reindeer live in polar regions too. People live in the Arctic. To me, it's cold but it is an important ecosystem that we can't afford to lose. I appreciated learning more about the region and how well some living things are suited to it.

Penguins are in right now, whether they are marching or giving polar bear cubs soft drinks, so the one on the cover of "Penguins Swim But Don't Get Wet and Other Amazing Facts About Polar Animals" should catch a lot of eyes. This book by Melvin and Gilda Berger for the Speedy Facts series looks at the two coldest places on earth, the Arctic and the Antarctic. As this book explains, there are animals that live on the polar ice and the icy cold water where you can find birds that swim but do not fly, bears that spend more time in water than on land, fish with white blood, whales as long as three buses, and a bunch of other polar animals. The fact that bears can swim 62 miles (99.8 kilometers) without stopping is quite fascinating, but the book does not explain why they stop so close to the 100 km mark. Then again, curiosity is a good thing in young students and the hallmark of this series is that it makes subjects like ocean creatures, the human body, and wild weather seem absolutely fascinating.

The first chapter of the book is devoted to the Polar Lands, explaining about the icy cold, glaciers and icebergs. Then the Bergers look at the Arctic and Antarctic in turn, comparing the weather and the people that can be found in both (Inuits up north and scientists in the south). Then there are chapters devoted to penguins, polar bears, caribou and reindeer, musk oxen, arctic wolves, small arctic land animals (lemmings, arctic foxes, arctic hares, and ermines), whales, seals, walruses, Arctic birds, and Antarctic birds. Each chapter devotes each page to a separate topic. For example, the one on penguins looks at where penguins live, family life, getting along on land, and swimming champs. Each page has a couple of paragraphs of basic information and then up to five Speedy Facts (although you will find that most of the Speedy Facts about the emperor penguin you already know from "March of the Penguins," which just speaks to the educational value of that documentary).

There are also charts that will show the relative size of the various types of penguins, bears and seals (oh my), although often the Bergers will couch things in terms that young students can better understand (e.g., the emperor penguin is about as tall as second grader but weighs as much as a sixth grader). The table of contents only talks about the general category of animals and you will not find an index in the back of the book so that finding specific information is going to require you to flip through the book and look at the titles and facts here assembled. The last chapter talks about how polar animals are in danger because of human beings and ends with a plea to help protect these animals (although there is not a specific solution advanced). It would be nice to see Speedy Facts books about animals in other parts of the world, but of course the polar regions are ideally suited for this series because of the relatively few animals that live there (imagine trying to cover all of the animals you would find in just the basin of the Amazon River).

If you ever want to know anything about the rainforest, this is the series to buy. The author thoroughly discusses people, environment, and hope for rainforests. Beautiful colored pictures throughout the book supports the easy written text. I highly recommend this series to any student who needs to do a report on the rainforest. This series is a must have in any children's library collection.

If you ever want to know anything about the rainforest, this is the series to buy. The author thoroughly discusses people, environment, and hope for rainforests. Beautiful colored pictures throughout the book supports the easy written text. I highly recommend this series to any student who needs to do a report on the rainforest. This series is a must have in any children's library collection.

The author offers a fantastic view of the Japanese monarchy that is well worth the read. A wonderful historical take on the subject.

Kenneth J. Ruoff is an Associate Professor of Japanese History at Portland State University. Dr. Ruoff is the Director of the Center for Japanese Studies at the university.

Professor Ruoff received the 2004 Jiro Osaragi Commentary Prize for the Japanese translation of his book THE PEOPLE'S EMPEROR. The prize was given at a ceremony at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo January 27, 2005. The prize include an award of two million yen. Dr. Ruoff is the first foreigner to receive the Osaragi Prize.

Petrogenesis of metamorphic rocks is probable the best textbook available for students of metamorphic petrology. In a short, concise form it introduces the reader to the principles of metamorphic petrology as well as to the evolution of different rock types under changing metamorphic conditions.

This book is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the basic princiles of metamorphism, including composition of source rocks, types, processes and condidtions of metamorphism. A very detailed description on the construction of metamorphic projections is also included. Part two covers the metamorphism of different rock compositions including ultramafic, mafic, carbonate, pelitic, and granitoid rocks. This section is very detailed, without bogging down with specific examples of metamorphism.

PETROLIA recently was awarded the Giddens Prize as the best new writing on oil history, 1996-2000.

Never before have I read such an eloquent and informative journey through the oil boom of Pennsylvania. The photographic images that Dr. Black has chosen for his book are as captivating and clear as his text. An outstanding and brilliantly written book.

i was very please with the product that i bought. it not only was in prestine condition, it was delievered to me straight away - actually coming a week early.
i would definatly recommend buy from this seller.

A MIGHTY FINE BOOK WITH GOOD NARRATIVE AND FANTASTIC PHOTOS. I TRAVEL OFTEN IN THE PHILIPPINES, AND THIS BOOK ACCURATELY CAPTURED THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND. IT IS A NICE COMFORTABLE READ, ESEPCIALLY WHEN YOU'RE PLANNING YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE AND WHAT TO DO AND SEE NEXT. SALAMAT PO AND MABUHAY FROM AMERICA!