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.

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.

This volume in the celebrated Critical Introductions to Geography series introduces readers to the vibrant discipline of economic geography. The authors provide an original definition of the discipline, and they make a strong case for its vital importance in understanding the dynamic interconnections, movements, and emerging trends shaping our globalized world. Economic Geography addresses the key theories and methods that form the basis of the discipline, and describes its “communities of practice” and relations to related fields including economics and sociology. Numerous illustrative examples explore how economic geographers examine the world and how and why the discipline takes the forms it does, demonstrating the critical value of economic geography to making sense of globalization, uneven development, money and finance, urbanization, environmental change, and industrial and technological transformation. Engaging and thought-provoking, Economic Geography: A Critical Introduction is the ideal resource for students studying across a range of subject areas, as well as the general reader with an interest in world affairs and economics.

The transformation of the medieval European image of the world in the period following the Great Discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries is the subject of this volume. The first studies deal specifically with the emergence of the concept of the terraqueous globe. In the following pieces Dr Randles looks at the advances in Portuguese navigation and cartography that helped sailors overcome the obstacles to the circumnavigation of Africa and the crossing of the Atlantic, and at the impact of the Discoveries on European culture and science. Other articles are concerned with Portuguese naval artillery, and with attempts to classify the indigenous societies of the newly-discovered lands and to map the interior of Africa.