In this incisive critique, geographer Martin W Lewis and historian Karen E Wigen reexamine the basic geographical divisions we take for granted. Arguing that notions of East versus West, First World versus Third World, and even the sevenfold continental system are simplistic and misconceived, Lewis and Wigen trace the history of such misconceptions on the global scale and in relation to the specific continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
`An important and long overdue housecleaning of old geographical concepts, based upon an impressively wide reading of regional literatures.' Edmund Burke III, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz