George Demko

The world changes so quickly that some of the information in this book is already outdated. That did not detract me at all from my enjoyment of this book. It is a fun, light introduction to the social, economic and political aspects of geography and its place in the world as well as the more traditional idea of geography as a physical map.

Of course, things change. Wars and conflicts make borders change and even countries change. The statistics are only as fresh as the last printing of the book. But it is still fun to read about how things evolve.

I am a list person so I liked all the charts and graphs. I can appreciate that while they might be out of date as of the books printing, they still provide a jumping off point to go and look up more current information and to see how some of the concepts and ideas have progressed (or even regressed) over time.

It is always fun to look at what was written in the past and see how they envisioned the future and compare how those speculations played out or didn't. I think we have lost something in the education system by not including geography in the curricula. It is worth noting that other places in the world still offer geography as a major area of university study with options to pursue not only physical geography but economic and social geography.

The latter part of the book provides snapshots of countries all around the world. While some of it is now outdated, it is still informative as an historical piece and worth the investment of your time. This book was read as a light, pick up and put down book between novels and when I had some time to kill. It would be a little dry cover to cover but if you are a fact hound, it is a lot of fun.… (mer)