Best Human Geography Books
Here you will get Best Human Geography Books For you.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
Author: by Elizabeth Kolbert
Crown (February 9, 2021)
English
256 pages
NATIONAL BESTSELLER The Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity’s transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? 5 ideas for summer readingBill Gates, GatesNotes Important, necessary, urgent and phenomenally interesting.
Helen Macdonald, The New York Times That man should have dominion over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it’s said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene.
In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world’s rarest fish, which lives in a single tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a super coral that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth.
2. Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
Author: by Michael Shellenberger
Harper
English
432 pages
The inspiration for Chlo Zhao’s celebrated film starring Frances McDormand, winner of the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress March and April pick for the PBS Newshour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book ClubNew York Times bestseller “People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time ago need to meet the people Jessica Bruder got to know in this scorching, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing (and occasionally wryly funny) book.” Rebecca Solnit From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans.
Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads.
On frequently traveled routes between seasonal jobs, Jessica Bruder meets people from all walks of life: a former professor, a McDonald’s vice president, a minister, a college administrator, and a motorcycle cop, among many othersincluding her irrepressible protagonist, a onetime cocktail waitress, Home Depot clerk, and general contractor named Linda May.
4. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Author: by Jared Diamond Ph.D.
English
528 pages
0393354326
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize New York Times Bestseller Over Two Million Copies SoldOne of the most significant projects embarked upon by any intellectual of our generation (Gregg Easterbrook, New York Times), Guns, Germs, and Steel presents a groundbreaking, unified narrative of human history.
Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this artful, informative, and delightful (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, a classic of our time, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond dismantles racist theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for its broadest patterns.
The story begins 13,000 years ago, when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Around that time, the developmental paths of human societies on different continents began to diverge greatly. Early domestication of wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and other areas gave peoples of those regions a head start at a new way of life.
5. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World (Politics of Place)
Author: by Tim Marshall
Scribner Book Company
English
320 pages
In this New York Times bestseller, an award-winning journalist uses ten maps of crucial regions to explain the geo-political strategies of the world powersfans of geography, history, and politics (and maps) will be enthralled (Fort Worth Star-Telegram). Maps have a mysterious hold over us.
Whether ancient, crumbling parchments or generated by Google, maps tell us things we want to know, not only about our current location or where we are going but about the world in general. And yet, when it comes to geo-politics, much of what we are told is generated by analysts and other experts who have neglected to refer to a map of the place in question.
All leaders of nations are constrained by geography. In one of the best books about geopolitics (The Evening Standard), now updated to include 2016 geopolitical developments, journalist Tim Marshall examines Russia, China, the US, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Greenland and the Arctictheir weather, seas, mountains, rivers, deserts, and bordersto provide a context often missing from our political reportage: how the physical characteristics of these countries affect their strengths and vulnerabilities and the decisions made by their leaders.
6. American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
Author: by Colin Woodard
0143122029
Penguin Books
English
A New Republic Best Book of the Year The Globalist Top Books of the Year Winner of the Maine Literary Award for Non-fiction Particularly relevant in understanding who voted for who in this presidential election year, this is an endlessly fascinating look at American regionalism and the eleven nations that continue to shape North AmericaAccording to award-winning journalist and historian Colin Woodard, North America is made up of eleven distinct nations, each with its own unique historical roots.
In American Nations he takes readers on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, offering a revolutionary and revelatory take on American identity, and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and continue to mold our future.
From the Deep South to the Far West, to Yankeedom to El Norte, Woodard (author of American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good) reveals how each region continues to uphold its distinguishing ideals and identities today, with results that can be seen in the composition of the U.S.
7. The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature
Author: by Peter Wohlleben
English
264 pages
1771646896
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREESA powerful return to the forest, where trees have heartbeats and roots are like brains that extend underground. Where the color green calms us, and the forest sharpens our senses.
In The Heartbeat of Trees, renowned forester Peter Wohlleben draws on new scientific discoveries to show how humans are deeply connected to the natural world. In an era of climate change, many of us fear we’ve lost our connection to naturebut Peter Wohlleben is convinced that age-old ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact.
We just have to know where to look. Drawing on science and cutting-edge research, The Heartbeat of Trees reveals the profound interactions humans can have with nature, exploring:the language of the forestthe consciousness of plantsand the eroding boundary between flora and fauna.
A perfect book to take with you into the woods, The Heartbeat of Trees shares how to see, feel, smell, hear, and even taste the forest. Peter Wohlleben, renowned for his ability to write about trees in an engaging and moving way, reveals a wondrous cosmos where humans are a part of nature, and where conservation and environmental activism is not just about saving treesit’s about saving ourselves, too.
8. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
Author: by David Wallace-Wells
Tim Duggan Books
English
384 pages
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon. Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday DemonWith a new afterwordIt is worse, much worse, than you think.
If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possiblefood shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. An epoch-defining book (The Guardian) and this generation’s Silent Spring (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through itthe ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress.
The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generationtoday’s. Praise for The Uninhabitable EarthThe Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read.
9. Orientalism
Author: by Edward W. Said
Vintage
English
368 pages
More than three decades after its first publication, Edward Said’s groundbreaking critique of the West’s historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East has become a modern classic. In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of “orientalism” to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined “the orient” simply as “other than” the occident.
This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding. Essential, and still eye-opening, Orientalism remains one of the most important books written about our divided world.
10. Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest
Author: by Richard K. Nelson
English
308 pages
0226571637
“Nelson spent a year among the Koyukon people of western Alaska, studying their intimate relationship with animals and the land. His chronicle of that visit represents a thorough and elegant account of the mystical connection between Native Americans and the natural world.”Outside “This admirable reflection on the natural history of the Koyukon River drainage in Alaska is founded on knowledge the author gained as a student of the Koyukon culture, indigenous to that region.
He presents these Athapascan views of the landprincipally of its animals and Koyukon relationships with those creaturestogether with a measured account of his own experiences and doubts…. For someone in search of a native American expression of ‘ecology’ and natural history, I can think of no better place to begin than with this work.”Barry Lopez, Orion Nature Quarterly “Far from being a romantic attempt to pass on the spiritual lore of Native Americans for a quick fix by others, this is a very serious ethnographic study of some Alaskan Indians in the Northern Forest area….
11. The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Author: by Jane Jacobs
Vintage
English
458 pages
A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured.
In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves.
She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed, Jane Jacobs’s monumental work provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.
12. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Author: by Charles C. Mann
0307278247
Vintage
English
A deeply engaging new history of how European settlements in the post-Colombian Americas shaped the world, from the bestselling author of 1491. Presenting the latest research by biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows how the post-Columbian network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Mexico Citywhere Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interactedthe center of the world.
In this history, Mann uncovers the germ of today’s fiercest political disputes, from immigration to trade policy to culture wars. In 1493, Mann has again given readers an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination.
13. Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound
Author: by David B. Williams
English
264 pages
0295748605
Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways.
Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region’s ecological complexities. Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound.
In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today’s ferry system.
14. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography
Author: by James Rubenstein
Pearson
English
576 pages
For courses in human geography. Global issues, local impacts Trusted for its timeliness, readability, and structured learning path, the bestselling The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography explores the patterns and processes of Earth’s human landscapes. Rubenstein weaves the themes of globalization and diversity and their relationship throughout the text, addressing these themes with a clear organization and presentation that engages students and appeals to instructors.
The 13th Edition incorporates the latest data and applied examples of human geography, helps students connect global concepts and phenomena to their local geographies, and engages students in active debate around the most critical topics of human geography. Text links integrated into each chapter connect students to MapMaster 2.
0 and interactive Data Visualization activities powered by Social Explorer, providing students with hands-on experience using data-driven geospatial technology and the techniques of geographers. Also available as a Pearson eText or packaged with Mastering Geography Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience that can be adopted on its own as the main course material.
15. Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy
Author: by Anthony Harkins
English
432 pages
1946684791
2020 American Book Award winner, Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award Weatherford Award winner, nonfiction With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, a Ron Howard movie in the works, and the rise of its author as a media personality, J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis has defined Appalachia for much of the nation.
What about Hillbilly Elegy accounts for this explosion of interest during this period of political turmoil? Why have its ideas raised so much controversy? And how can debates about the book catalyze new, more inclusive political agendas for the region’s future?
Appalachian Reckoning is a retort, at turns rigorous, critical, angry, and hopeful, to the long shadow Hillbilly Elegy has cast over the region and its imagining. But it also moves beyond Hillbilly Elegy to allow Appalachians from varied backgrounds to tell their own diverse and complex stories through an imaginative blend of scholarship, prose, poetry, and photography.
