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Statistics in Geography has established itself as the best introductory textbook on the subject: the author makes statistical concepts and techniques intelligible and their applications in a wide variety of problems comprehensible, even exciting. The main feature of this much-awaited new edition is a set of 17 computer programs (with sample outputs) that cover nearly all the statistical techniques described. These have been carefully written to be user-friendly in an elementary subset of Basic to make them simple to implement on most microcomputers. This means students can be more adventurous in their applications and interpretations of statistical techniques. The author has, at the same time, retained all the worked examples in the book so that the reader can gain insight into the logic of the methods by working through them by hand. These, together with problems of various levels of complexity plus comprehensive answers at the back of the book, provide the student with a clear and thorough understanding of both the methods and their potential applications. ... Read more

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"This is a book that should be read by all economists." -- Roger E. Backhouse, The Economic Journal

"A stimulating essay by one of the world's most thoughtful and innovative economists." -- Paul Ormerod, The Times Higher Education Supplement

Why do certain ideas gain currency in economics while others fall by the wayside? Paul Krugman argues that the unwillingness of mainstream economists to think about what they could not formalize led them to ignore ideas that turn out, in retrospect, to have been very good ones.

Krugman examines the course of economic geography and development theory to shed light on the nature of economic inquiry. He traces how development theory lost its initial influence after it became clear that many of the theory's main insights could not be clearly modeled, and concludes with a commentary on areas where further inquiry looks most promising.

The Ohlin Lectures ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Not sure what to think about this, yet
I got this about a year ago (before his Nobel was awarded) and didn't get around to reading it until recently. I should have really enjoyed it, since it covers several topics I enjoy (history, economics, development of cities). However, there was something about ... I don't know, maybe the tone. Krugman comes off as arrogant or smug or something through the first 2/3 of the book; I couldn't decide if he was being directly critical of people he actually admired, if he was sarcastically praising his opponents with back-handed compliments before dismissing them, or damning them with faint praise. Maybe it's the fact that he seems very, very deeply buried in academia and uses language that assumes that the audience spends most of their days developing and critiquing formal economic models.

I don't know if I got used to it, or simply started to catch on to (or perhaps remember?) the jargon, or Krugman began to warm to the topic, or what, but I think I actually turned a corner in the last 1/3 and began enjoying it. It could also be that the book is not about Development and Geography, but about the life and death of theories in modern academia. That is a subject area that would seem to have a very narrow audience indeed.

As far as the maths, I guess I would have liked to see a commitment to either deliver a serious lecture and support it with equations and charts and get them right, or to leave that stuff out entirely. There is a chart and some discussion of it in the first section, but the lecture makes such vague references to it that it is not clear whether the chart is wrong or if he was annotating it with notes during the live lecture that did not make it into the book. Similarly, the appendix contains a few equations, but since not all terms are defined, it seems to be nearly useless. Is that really e, the base of the natural logarithm? How in the world did that get into the equation? Maybe arbitrary introduction of variables is just some archaic practice among economists that makes engineers wince? But now I'm being overly critical of a book that is not intended to be a battering ram of an argument, but rather just a romp through the death and life of theories.

Krugman's "The Self-Organizing Economy", only more technical
Summarizing this book as '"The Self-Organizing Economy", only a bit more technical, filled with more citations to other economists, more navel-gazey, slightly more philosophical and with less of a focus on complex systems' gets you at least 95% of what you need when deciding whether to read this book. As the next step after "The Self-Organizing Economy", it leaves something to be desired: it overlaps too much to be really satisfying. In fact I think Krugman cut and pasted a lot from "Development, Geography, and Economic Theory" into "The Self-Organizing Economy", including particular graphs and particular lines (e.g., one about his love of "Micromotives and Macrobehavior", and Gertrude Stein's quote about L.A. that "there's no there there"). Which is fine: these are good ideas, and they deserve to be explored in some depth.

In "The Self-Organizing Economy", Krugman explained why he thought that economic geography had died out sometime in the 1960's. Partly, he said, it was that the discipline lacked "microfoundations": it didn't explain high-level behaviors (in this case the existence of cities) from the unguided actions of individual economic actors. Instead it took the existence of cities as given, then derived conclusions about where people and businesses would locate. "The Self-Organizing Economy" painted some cute little models to try to build these microfoundations. Widely dispersed populations turned out in that book to be an unstable equilibrium: we get the microfoundations by assuming a "state of nature" in which everyone is spread out, then show that the state doesn't last. Krugman actually comes to a stronger conclusion from his toy model: cities end up being evenly spaced around the circular landscape. Any closer together and they start eating into each other's markets. Any further apart and they lose the benefits of closeness to customers and suppliers. This unifies a number of traditions in economics that have tried, over the years, to explain why cities exist in the shapes and sizes they do.

"Development" assumes more economic knowledge than did "The Self-Organized Economy", though I could fumble along and get most of what he was saying. Understanding why cities concentrate at all, says Krugman, inevitably means understanding increasing returns to scale. My intuition is ill-formed here at the moment, but I think the idea is that with constant returns to scale, doubling the number of employees in a given factory only doubles your output -- so there's no reason to prefer one large factory to two small ones at two different locations.

Hence understanding cities at all means understanding increasing returns to scale. But, says Krugman, increasing returns to scale is precisely what neoclassical economics doesn't know how to handle.My intuition here is even hazier. Krugman refers a few times to "unexploited economies of scale" causing problems for neoclassical economists, which suggests to me that there's some kind of arbitrage principle at work: in a perfectly competitive economy, the theory probably says somehow that factories would eventually scale up to the point that they're working in a constant-returns regime. Again, my intuition on this is hazy, but that's what the context of Krugman's writing suggests.

So if you're going to model city development, you need to model increasing returns. And if you're going to model increasing returns, you can't be talking about a perfectly competitive market. Apparently you're forced into a monopolistic competition model. These are just the sort of models that economics has always had a hard time understanding, says Krugman.

Krugman spends a good fraction of the book explaining this economic issue, so in a lot of ways "Development" turns into meta-economics: a study of why economics as a discipline behaves the way it does. Economics, says Krugman, ignored city development for so long because it didn't know how to model it; a certain standard of rigor has prevailed in economics since the 1960's, such that anyone who had nice ideas in prose but couldn't express them in mathematics was the proud owner of a dead letter.

So "Development, Geography and Economic Theory" is three things: a collection of toy models, a unification and deepening of some earlier work in economic geography, and a meditation on the value of those very models.

Do economic models matter?
Paul Krugman is one of the few economists at home both in `high theory' and in public economic discourse. He thinks deeply, and he thinks brilliant thoughts. This little book - based on the Olin Lectures he gave in Stockholm - is proof of what his mind can yield, when it sets out to clarify issues.

Development and economic geography, he argues, failed because they did not submit themselves to the discipline of model-building - what might look or even be at first sight downright silly in the end is preferable to the unconscious metaphors of the narrative economic discourse.

For all its clarity, Krugman's argument is deeply flawed. Development and economic geography - together with income distribution - belong to the derelict class of economic problems that addresses the question of historical disparities of wealth in the economic tissue. Why have some countries or regions developed and others have staid behind, why are there poor and rich? Was it done by better use of the available resources, or by impoverishment of other nations or persons? A corollary to this question would be: does our quest for efficiency worsen or reduce disparities? Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx addressed this question, but their observations have been largely forgotten. Pareto and welfare economics picked up the thread, only to conclude platidinuously that the only `good' policies are those that benefit all.

Should the model-building solutions that Krugman suggests be used in development and geography be any good, they might imply that a `big push' applies not just to economic growth, but also to concentration of income - consumer surplus playing the role of `economies of scale'. Interesting. Just as interesting as the metaphor that - as in the `big bang' theory of star formation - the smallest of initial income irregularities (e.g. first predatory capital accumulation) lead to the agglutination of wealth around capitalists. Which, of course, also implies that it is the 90% of dark (workers) matter that keeps the shiny capitalist `stars' in place in a well-ordered and expanding economy.

Toys are useful provided they teach a child the `real thing'. Toy models are not useful when they fail to recognise (let alone address) fundamental issues like that of economic disparity. Models are downright bad when their incautious use leads to blind-sighting in economic policy. Every economist should be made to ponder Kenneth Arrow's Theory of Second Best. Partial optima are bad solutions in the search for an overall optimum.
Can we expect models of income disparity soon? Paul Krugman might devote some of his intellectual powers to construct the simplest of models of income disparity and attempt to integrate it into a growth model - just to disprove (or prove) the widespread intuition that when governments pursue efficiency single-mindedly, the rich get rich and the poor poorer.

Can we further expect a `grand unified theory of everything economic' that would bring together both concerns of efficiency and income distribution into a unified model for development? Don't hold your breath. As Koopmans famously proved, one cannot kill two birds with one stone. Until then, however, efficiency models should either be denied the Warrant Of Fitness for circulation in political circles, and/or carry the label: Efficiency may be harmful to income distribution.

Neat little book but too expensive!
It's a wonderful little piece, but a teeny little book for $40 bucks?!What's more, most of contents are/were actualy available at Krugman's own web site.Someone's sure making a lot of unearned money here off..... If money were no object, though, I'd surely rate this book much higher.

An Excellent critique of high development theory
This is an excellent critique of high development theory. Although good economists will know the main faults of their disapline, this text elegantly explains why development theory lost its direction. I will not divulge the main ideas, they are well worth the money to find out. -Economists consist of two groups, those that don't know, and those whodon't know that they don't know. ... Read more

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Introduces the geography, animals, tourist sites, and other facts about the state in which Pilgrims came ashore in the year 1620. ... Read more

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Political Geography acquaints readers with the major issues and conceptual problems that have dominated the discipline over the past two to three decades. Besides discussing and assessing current themes, Agnew provides a historical analysis of the emergence of modern political geography from the 1890s onwards, identifies and discusses the three "waves" of the revival of political geography during the last three decades, and discusses evidence for a new coherence to the discipline, centering around issues of geographical scale, place and politics, etc. ... Read more

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Provides a good fundamental base
A good read for anyone trying to understand the geo-political situation in the past few years and more years to come in the future. ... Read more

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Studying PGCE Geography at M Level is for all students undertaking their PGCE, those working to gain Masters credits, and experienced teachers who wish to broaden their understanding of geography education.

Bridging the gap between theory and practice, it is designed to support and challenge teachers as they explore geography education research, consider how theory and research enhance practice, and develop critical reflection on practice. Divided into three key sections, it:

• investigates professional practice - what we understand about professionalism and quality in geography education, and how teachers can improve their practice
• introduces perspectives and debates on key themes and ideas in geography education, including subject expertise, sustainable development, learning outside the classroom, and assessment
• provides practical guidance on the skills involved in undertaking M level work – extended reading, engaging with theory, undertaking research, and writing your dissertation.

Chapters include key readings and questions to encourage further research and reflection, and every chapter is illustrated with summaries of real students’ dissertations, demonstrating the kind of research undertaken at M Level.

Written by experts in geography education, Studying PGCE Geography at M Level offers invaluable support and inspiration for all those engaged in teaching, research and writing in geography education.

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The best-selling book in the World Regional Geography market, Regions provides general readers with up-to-date information on various topics around the world. It delivers the authors' authoritative content, outstanding cartography, currency, and comprehensive coverage, in a technology-rich package. The 14^th edition reflects major developments in the world as well as in the discipline. These range from the collapse of Russia's Post-Soviet transformation to the impact of globalization and from the rise of Asia's Pacific Rim to the war in Iraq. Readers will find accurate data and information in this streamlined resource. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

NICE
The product came in a timely fashion and was in really good condition even for a used book.

Substantial Coverage
This is a tool, the book is used as an intermediary. It is just about as standard as it comes, yet it is very helpful. The book is informative, and is a great way to take a first step into scratching the surface on topics such as geography, and economics. Physically the book was in great condition, as i have yet to have a problem with amazon.

Purchase Review
This has been my first purchase over the internet and I am very pleased with the results. Thanks!

Very Impressed
Very impressed with the condition of the book for the price I gave. Needing the book for classes starting in less than a week- I was a little worried it wouldn't get to me in time... However, the book came only 2 days later. Very fast.Overall- very impressed!

Regions 12 edition
This book is in great condition with an unbeatable price.I am very satisfied, I have no complaints.This was my first purchase on Amazon and I see why its recommend first by most. ... Read more

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Teaching College Geography provides a starting point for becoming an effective geography teacher from the very first day of class. Divided in two parts, the first set of chapters addresses “nuts-and-bolts” teaching issues in the context of the new technologies, student demographics, and institutional expectations that are the hallmarks of higher education in the 21st century. The second part explores other important issues: effective teaching in the field; supporting critical thinking with GIS and mapping technologies; engaging learners in large geography classes; and promoting awareness of international perspectives and geographic issues.  MARKET: For all readers interested in becoming an effective geography teacher. ... Read more

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If you are adventurous in your travel or are interested in knowing more than what is found in travel brochures, this book makes for interesting reading.It gives a basic geographic overview of the world and each major geographic region, providing insights about the geographic character of specific regions to show how it establishes a setting for tourism.All regions or countries have a brief overview of the cultural, physical, and tourism characteristics of the region or country.The cultural characteristics are in the form of cultural capsules pertaining to the people and some tips as to personal actions that are acceptable and others to be avoided. Following the analysis of the geographic character the text discusses the tourist attractions in each of the regions, focusing on the geographic features that are important for creating a desire to visit that region.The authors highlight the most significant attractions, which combine with the geographic facts of the region to form the uniqueness of the area for visitors.In some cases there are differences of opinions concerning which are the major attractions, but those presented in the text provide an overview of the character of each specific tourist destination region.Tourists themselves also create geography.An area with few tourists is different in character from an area with large numbers of visitors.The origin of tourists also affects the environment; as for example visitors from Great Britain create a different environment than those from France because of their differing expectations and resultant services. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nicely done.
The item was exactly as described.The book arrived in a very timely manner. One of the best textbook buying experiences I've had!

Bed and Breakfast (with Cat's Hairs in the Fried Egg)
I recently spent New Year's Eve on top of a gale- and rain-swept volcano in the southern Philippines. Compared to that wet, muddy night, this text comes in a distant second. It never ceases to amaze me that almost anytruly fascinating subject, when moulded into a textbook, can be made toappear overwhelming tedious. Many geographers (including the presentreviewer way back in 1969) have tried to get their heads round what appearsto be the obvious relevance of their discipline to the world's biggestindustry - tourism; all have failed - at least to make what they have tosay about the connection interesting. This, I regret to say, doesn't make amuch better job of the task than its predecessors. I suspect that thereason is that geographers, on the whole, have not taken on board theconcept of 'relative geography' - a geography in which distance is measurednot in kilometres and miles but in dollars. Once that is accepted then itbecomes evident that distances vary depending on the disposable incomeavailable to one and the map of the world becomes radically transformedgenerating quite new insights into how humans use space. To be fair to theauthors, this book is probably the best available so far - it is farranging in its coverage; has a good writing style; is well illustrated; andis as up-to-date as any non-electronic publication can be (though that'snot saying a great deal). But exactly who will buy it? Tourism studentsreally don't need to - tourism is not at all about geography but marketingand human/personnel skills. And the general reader isn't going to find toomuch inspiration here - unless they are stuck on top of a galesweptmountain in Mindanao ... Read more

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Geography is more than just trivia, it can help us understand why we import or export certain products, where the best place to build an office complex, predict climate change, plan cities, and even where to place fire and police stations. Geography For Dummies gives you the tools to interpret the Earth's grid, read and interpret maps, and to appreciate the importance and implications of geographical features such as volcanoes and fault lines. Plus, you'll see how erosion and weathering have and will change the earth's surface and how it impacts people, understand the key ways climate affects humans and how humans have affected the climate, appreciate how human population has spread and the impact that has on our world, and so much more! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great resource
If you are wanting a book to tell you WHERE things are, then buy an atlas or just use Google Earth. If you are wanting a text to explain WHY things are, then this may be your book.

I teach a Geography course at a Christian private school, and last year, selected this as our textbook. Unlike "normal" texts employed at most schools (both Christian and secular), which tend to be loaded with some sort ofagenda - this one simply brings the facts forward in plain, understandable language. I have not regretted my choice. Not only does it cut through the useless crud, it also addresses almost every topic required for the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) requirements. (I did a line-by-line comparison to justify my choice of text)

It is well organized into 4 main sections and a 5th which is filled with helpful lists. It clearly explains the six essential elements of Geography: 1) The world in spatial terms, 2) Places and regions, 3) Physical systems, 4) Human systems, 5) Environment and society, and 6) Uses of geography.

I have been very pleased with this book... it is even reasonably entertaining to read.I highly recommend it IF you want to learn about the science of Geography. If you just want to know where things are located... you should choose a more appropriate tool.

not what I expected
I thought this book was going to break down what was where in the world for me. Instead, this book covers topics of geopraphy such as maps, climate, population and culture. Perhaps the fault is mine, as I did not read the online description beforehand. ... Read more

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A Companion to Cultural Geography brings together original contributions from 35 distinguished international scholars to provide a critical overview of this dynamic and influential field of study.

• Provides accessible overviews of key themes, debates and controversies from a variety of historical and theoretical vantage points
• Charts significant changes in cultural geography in the twentieth century as well as the principal approaches that currently animate work in the field
• A valuable resource not just for geographers but also those working in allied fields who wish to get a clear understanding of the contribution geography is making to cross-disciplinary debates

Customer Reviews (1)

Good, but not great
As a cultural geographer I have found this book to be very useful as a basis for arguments.Duncan, Johnson and Schein are very well respected members of the Geography community and bring to this collection of essays scholarly prestige.The topics covered in this book are wide ranging in the field of cultural geography and touch on the main sub-sub fields such as religious geography and political geography which seem to fall through the cracks in terms of compiled essay books.The material is very current and draws on the ideas of important members of each sub field.All in all this is a very useful book for general knowledge.I would recommend this text to teachers, and students of cultural geography.The main drawback of this text is the cost.For such amazing work that really needs to be made widely available to the public the cost is very prohibitive.All in all very well done. ... Read more

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The Geography of Malcolm X explores how the radical black power movement that emerged in the 1960s thought and acted in spatial terms. ... Read more

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Cultural Geography opens by introducing the ideas that have informed the work of cultural geographers. It includes six chapters, each focusing on a particular cultural geographic theme. In each chapter conceptual material explains the rationale for the theme and empirical material provides examples of analyses conducted by cultural geographers. A concluding chapter provides an opportunity for readers to make some observations on the current and future status of cultural geography. ... Read more

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The popular Rookie Books expand their horizons - to all corners of the globe! With this series all about geography, emergent readers will take off on adventures to cities, nations, waterways, and habitats around the worldÂ…and right in their own backyards. ... Read more

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Love These Rookie Readers!

The Rookie Reader series is great for my beginning readers.It provides pretty complex information with few words and great photographs.I can't have enough of them.Very valuable for English Language Learners. ... Read more

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Entirely revised and updated, this reviews the history of the rise and fall of centres of power and draws on a wide range of case studies to illustrate current trends and offers discussion of future developments in a useful, compact form. ... Read more

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Illustrated with a wide range of case studies drawn from all parts of the world, POPULATION GEOGRAPHY clearly depicts the cause-and-effect links between demographic change and the socio-economic transformation of societies. Providing timely information in a clear and accessible style, the text is an ideal classroom text for instructors who are introducing their students to the topic of population geography.
... Read more

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A Companion to Political Geography presents students and researchers with a substantial survey of this active and vibrant field.

• Introduces the best thinking in contemporary political geography.
  
• Contributions written by scholars whose work has helped to shape the discipline.
  
• Includes work at the cutting edge of the field.
  
• Covers the latest theoretical developments.

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Late nineteenth-century America was a time of industrialization and urbanization. Immigration was increasing and traditional hierarchies were being challenged. Combining empirical and theoretical material, Hannah explores the modernization of the American federal government during this period. Discussions of gender, race and colonial knowledge engage with Foucault's ideas on "governmentality." Through an analysis of the work of Francis A. Walker, a prominent political economist and educator of the time, the author demonstrates that the modernization of the American national state was a thoroughly spatial and explicitly geographical project. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

digging into the mastery of territory with Foucault
Matthew Hannah's "Governmentality and the Mastery of Territory in Nineteenth-Century America" is an interesting, even intriguing work in historical and political geography. It is concerned about how power over territory is politically articulated and established through different discourses (through the writings of texts, drawings of maps and through governmental practices like censuses and administrative record keeping). Hannah focuses on late nineteenth-century America and the public career and writing of Francis A. Walker, superintendent of two national censuses (1870 and 1880) and a prominent political economist, social commentator and educator.

Hannah has two purposes of the book. The first purpose is to enrich the field of historical geography of the modern American nation-state. This is done by using Foucault's ideas about discourses and governmentality. Governmentality is here understood as "the ensemble formed by the institutions, procedures, analyses and reflections, the calculations and tactics that allow the exercise of ... complex form of power, which has as its target population, as its principal form of knowledge political economy, and as its essential technical means apparatuses of security [legal power, bureaucracy etc]" (p. 22). In short, governmentality is a web of different practices, based on institutional power and various kinds of knowledge, which enables the rule of a territory and its population. The second purpose is to clarify the inherent and fundamentally spatial nature of governmentality in practice. This is done by weaving the complexity of governmentality into a geo-historical tale about industrial, urban and modern changes in the USA. But Hannah just does not point out the spatial character of Foucault's idea on governmentality. He also develops the notion of governmentality by adding a gender perspective. By identifying the gender issues in the case of the governmental restructuring of the American nation-state, by Walker among others, he shows that patriarchal construction of gender dualism and the creation of masculinity and masculine objects is very much a part of governmentality in this especially case. Hannah therefore claims that governmentality not necessarily has to be structured fundamentally by gender issues, but that "we should not be surprised to find that it often is" (p. 28).

I enjoyed reading "Governmentality and the Mastery of Territory in Nineteenth-Century America" for several reasons. One of his purposes with the study is to challenge the intellectual aesthetic "according to which theory should be kept to a minimum" (p. 220) in historical geography. By weaving together an empirical tale and theoretical discussions, the tale becomes exiting for me (this ambition also stands for Robert Dodgshon's "Society in Time and Space: A Geographical Perspective on Change", also published in Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography in 1998, even if Dodgshon almost apologize for his ambition). Further, as a well-known interpreter of Foucault, Hannah succeeds in condense Foucault's writings and apply Foucault's rather abstract reasoning in an empirical full-length study. Finally, again following Foucault, Hannah is "intensive" rather than "extensive" in his use of theory, using a limited range of documents intensive instead of attempting to refer to every theoretical and historical source at hand. As the production of academic literature grows exponentially (it seems), the intensive use of theory may (and has maybe been for some time now) be the only manageable use of theory in the future. Hannah's study could be a methodological guide in such a case. ... Read more

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The popular Rookie Books expand their horizons - to all corners of the globe! With this series all about geography, emergent readers will take off on adventures to cities, nations, waterways, and habitats around the world…and right in their own backyards. ... Read more

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Rookie Reader - Texas
We are a homeschooling family and are currently doing a study of the states.I am always happy to be able to find books that my struggling 3rd grade son is able to read and enjoy.I believe the books in this series have accomplished that.We have enjoyed the books in this series very much.

Most of the states I've been able to request through ourlibrary system.This particular one was not available but since my husband is from Texas I wanted to make this one available to our son.So I purchased this one.

Through our local library and a few other purchases my son has read many of the books in this series.Not just in Geography but many others in the Rookie Read About Science/Health/Math/Holidays books that are also available.

I think even if the child is not a struggling reader these are still good, informative and interesting books. ... Read more

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All you need when your lost
An amazing experience of the places where Jesus walked captured and put into the places of our hearts.Something to read when confused or just looking for inspiration.May God speak to you through this inspiring bookand may He bless you.

Gaddy takes you on a journey of the soul
Jesus went a lot of places both geographically and spiritually, and this author takes us there. We go to the places Jesus went in our own souls - places of promise, loneliness, celebration, commitment, change.All places Jesus went, and places we go as we journey through life.I read this book while my son was having surgery for cancer and we stayed in the hospital for a month. The last year has been a journey to a lot of places for my soul, and Gaddy showed me how Jesus walked through them. This book is so meaningful to me that I want to share it with a dear friend - actually with all my friends. ... Read more