Provides an introduction to ancient Greece and how the Greek empire changed through time, giving fascinating insights into many different aspects of Greek life through its geography.

How did a volcanic eruption put an end to Minoan civilization? What crops did the Ancient Greeks grow? How did city-states form around the Greek empire? Geography Matters in Ancient Greece looks at how the Greek Empire changed through time and gives fascinating insights into many different aspects of Greek life through its geography. Read about how the hot climate affected the crops that Greeks could grow and the housing and clothing they needed, how the Mycenaeans were able to protect themselves from attackers by using the natural features of their landscape and their natural resources of stone and how its proximity to the Mediterranean Sea helped the Greek Empire in trading and in strengthening their military might.

Examines how studying the geographical area inhabited by the ancient Romans provides clues to how they lived, their farming techniques, and how they traveled from place to place.

When Richard Nisbett showed an animated underwater scene to his American students, they zeroed in on a big fish swimming among smaller fish. Japanese subjects, on the other hand, made observations about the background environment...and the different "seeings" are a clue to profound underlying cognitive differences between Westerners and East Asians. As Professor Nisbett shows in The Geography of Thought people actually think - and even see - the world differently, because of differing ecologies, social structures, philosophies, and educational systems that date back to ancient Greece and China, and that have survived into the modern world. As a result, East Asian thought is "holistic" - drawn to the perceptual field as a whole, and to relations among objects and events within that field. By comparison to Western modes of reasoning, East Asian thought relies far less on categories, or on formal logic; it is fundamentally dialectic, seeking a "middle way" between opposing thoughts. By contrast, Westerners focus on salient objects or people, use attributes to assign them to categories, and apply rules of formal logic to understand their behaviour.

Geography Matters in Ancient Rome looks at how the Roman Empire changed through time and gives fascinating insights into many different aspects of Roman life through its geography. Read about how the Romans invented new farming methods such as a harvesting machine called a vallus, how some women in the Roman Empire had more freedom than in other civilizations, even running their husbands' businesses for them when they were away, and how the Empire was strengthened by the fact that the different climates, soils and terrain produced a huge range of goods and resources.

How did the River Nile shape Egyptian life? What is a shaduf and what was it used for? How did the Ancient Egyptians make papyrus paper? Geography Matters in Ancient Egypt looks at how the Egyptian Empire changed through time and gives fascinating insights into many different aspects of Egyptian life through its geography. Read about how the Egyptians made use of desert oases, how they found and used resources such as limestone and granite for building pyramids in desert areas, and how early Egyptian settlers who had decided to build in areas around the River Nile prevented their houses from flooding.