Why Geography Matters

Three Challenges Facing America: Climate Change, The Rise of China, and Global Terrorism
By Harm de Blij

I have always loved geography, so this title caught my eye.  Plus, I have been feeling a little guilty for all of the “fun” reading I have done lately.  This book is loaded with good information, although it’s a little like preaching to the choir.  People who really need to read it the most won’t.  But even though I took some geo in college, and can find my way around a map, I still learned a lot.  Banish the idea that geo is just about learning places names.  Geography can be worked into about every academic discipline there is.  De Blij spent a lot of time on political geography, which I find fascinating.

A few qualifiers:  The author is not above making a few cracks at religion, and the Bush administration.  He is definitely on the liberal side of the map (pun intended), but manages to sound reasonable about it.  Interestingly enough, although I could tell he has no love for Christianity, he is no Islamic apologist either.  The chapter on Islamic terrorism was sharp and insightful, with no attempts to sugar coat the danger it poses to the world.  Also, near the beginning, he spends some time on basic geography that I just skimmed over, being quite familiar with it.

So, read the book.  You’ll learn a lot in an enjoyable manner; it was actually a bit of a page-turner.