A generation of geography students on both sides of the Atlantic were raised on Peter Haggett's classic text, Geography: A Modern Synthesis. First published in 1972, it went through three revisions and was translated into six languages. This new version, re-titled for a new century, Geography: A Global Synthesis retains many of the features which gave the original volume such worldwide appeal. It presents geography as an integrated and integrating discipline, seeing both environmental and human geography and systematic and regional geography as intrinsically linked. It argues the facts of geographic distributions, the techniques by which geographers study the world, and the philosophy which informs their analyses all a part of a global synthesis. This synthesis operates at a range of spatial scales from the local up to the planetary system itself. It ranges in time back to human origins and onward to human futures. The book sees geography as an essential discipline for students wishing to understand their changing world at the start of a new millennium.
Preface. To the Student. PROLOGUE: 1. On the Beach. THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT: 2. The Lonely Planet. 3. The Ever-Changing Planet. 4. The Global Biosphere. THE HUMAN POPULATION: 5. Human Origins. 6. Population Dynamics. 7. Culture. 8. An Urbanizing World. RESOURCES AND LANDSCAPE: 9. Pressures on the Ecosystem. 10. Resources and Conservation. 11. Our Role in Changing the Face of the Earth. 12. Mosaics of World Regions. LOCATIONAL ANALYSIS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: 13. Flows and Networks. 14. Nodes and Hierarchies. 15. Surfaces. 16. Spatial Diffusion. THE FRACTURED GLOBE: 17. Political Fragmentation. 18. Economic Fragmentation. 19. Globalization Stresses. 20. Globalization of Disease. 21. Maps and Mapping. 22. Environmental Remote Sensing. 23. Geographical Information Systems. EPILOGUE. 24. Ongoing Further in Geography. Appendix A - One Step Further - A Guide to Reading Appendix B - Geography on the World Wide Web Appendix C - Glossary - 500 Key Terms in Geography Index