This study contains 20 specially commissioned essays which attempt to present a critical challenge to the philosophical positivism of the "New Geography". The work attempts to shed light on the relationship between human agency and social and spatial structures.

This book is a serious attempt to cover all of the relevant subdisciplines in the geographical economics framework. . . I would recommend the book to students of economic geography, regional economics, and related disciplines. Frans Boekema, Journal of Regional Science . . . this book is empirically and theoretically comprehensive in its scope. The nearly eighteen authors who have contributed to this book present a truly transatlantic perspective on NEG. . . this volume will be extremely useful to those dealing with rigorous modelling to examine spatial issues in economics, geography and planning. Rajiv Thakur, Regional Science Policy and Practice I recommend the book. . . The papers of a high quality, well written and organized; empirical analyses are based on the most advanced empirical techniques, and the reader enjoys their application. Roberta Capello, Growth and Change A very interesting volume indeed, recommended reading for everyone interested in theorizing space in economics or working in the empirical spatial-economic research arena. Economic Geography Research Group This important book explores original and alternative directions for economic geography following the revolution precipitated by the advent of so-called new economic geography (NEG). Whilst, to some extent, the volume could be regarded as part of the inevitable creative destruction of NEG theory, it does promote the continuing role of theoretical and empirical contributions within spatial economic analysis, in which the rationale of scientific analysis and economic logic maintain a central place. With contributions from leading experts in the field, the book presents a comprehensive analysis of the extent to which NEG theory is supported in the real world. By exploring whether NEG theory can be effectively applied to provide practical insights, the authors highlight novel approaches, emerging trends, and promising new lines of enquiry in the wake of advances made by NEG. Rigorous yet engaging, this book will be an essential tool for academics and researchers specialising in regional studies, urban and spatial economics and economic geography. It will also have widespread appeal amongst policymakers involved in planning and land use.

The essential introduction to the Middle Ages by the author of The Time Traveller's Guide series—“the most remarkable medieval historian of our time” (The Times, UK). We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time characterized by violence, ignorance and superstition. By contrast we believe progress arose from science and technological innovation, and that inventions of recent centuries created the modern world. But as Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating book, we couldn’t be more wrong. In this revelatory history, Mortimer shows how people's horizons—their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world—were utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, marking the transition from a warrior-led society to that of Shakespeare. Medieval Horizons sheds light on the enormous cultural changes that took place—from literacy to living standards, inequality and even the developing sense of self. Mortimer demonstrates why this was a revolutionary age of fundamental importance in the development of the Western world.

This book brings together a collection of the work of David Quinn, the preeminent authority on the early history of the discovery and colonization of America.

First published in 1951, The Spirit and Purpose of Geography offers an introduction to the scope and spirit of geography. This undertakes a no less ambitious task than that of discovering the spatial relationships of the manifold features, physical and human, which diversify the Earth's surface. The authors one of whom first approached the subject from physical science, and the other from social science, co-operate to define and to discuss the historical development of their subject, its fundamental physical basis, its cartographic methods, its human aspect and its many applications and problems. Above all they submit that geography, the study of country or landscape, as a link study between the natural sciences and the humanities, constitutes not only a worthy academic discipline but also a part of a liberal education. This introductory volume is a must read for any student of geography.

Drawing from the vast photography collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, American Geography charts a visual history of land use in the United States From the earliest photographic records of human habitation to the latest aerial and digital pictures, from almost uninhabited desert and isolated mountainous territories to suburban sprawl and densely populated cities, this compilation offers an increasingly nuanced perspective on the American landscape. Divided by region, these photographs address ways in which different histories and traditions of land use have given rise to different cultural transitions: from the Midwestern prairies and agricultural traditions of the South, to the riverine systems in the Northeast, and the environmental challenges and riches of the far West. American Geography also looks at the evidence of older habitation from the adobe dwellings and ancient cultures of the Southwest to the Midwestern mounds, many of them prehistoric. SFMOMA's last photography exhibition to consider land use, Crossing the Frontier (1996), examined only the American West. At the time, this focus offered a different way to think about landscape, and a useful way to reconsider pictures of the region. American Geography expands upon the groundwork laid by Crossing the Frontier, providing a complex, thought-provoking survey. Photographers include: Carleton E. Watkins, Barbara Bosworth, Lee Friedlander, Stephen Shore, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Mitch Epstein, An-My Lê, William Eggleston, Alec Soth, Mishka Henner, Trevor Paglen, Victoria Sambunaris, Emmet Gowin, Robert Adams, Terry Evans, Dorothea Lange and Mark Ruwedel, among others.