Our purpose is to convey concisely and clearly the nature of the field of geography, its intellectual challenges, and the logical interconnections of its parts. Even if they take no further work in geography, we are satisfied that students will have come into contact with the richness and breadth of our discipline and have at their command new insights and understandings for their present and future roles as informed adults. Other students may have the opportunity and interest to pursue further work in geography. For them, we believe, this text will make apparent the content and scope of the subfields of geography, emphasize its unifying themes, and provide the foundation for further work in their areas of interest.

The content is structured around the major research traditions of the discipline. Chapter 1 introduces students to the four organizing traditions that have emerged through the long history of geographic thought and writing: earth science, culture-environment, locational, and area analysis. Each of the four parts of this book centers on one of these geographic perspectives. Within each of the first three parts are chapters devoted to the subfields of geography, each placed with the tradition to which we think it belongs. Thus, the study of weather and climate is part of the earth science tradition; population geography is considered under the culture-environment tradition; and urban geography is included with the locational perspective. The tradition of area-analysis – of regional geography – is presented in a single final chapter that draws on the preceding traditions and themes and is integrated with them by cross-references.