Marred by inaccuracies
The prose in this book is well-written and easy to read, a blessing given how indigestibly ponderous most textbooks are, even when they're expressing otherwise simple ideas. It's what the text says and doesn't say that's at issue.

On the Middle East, for example, the text notes that Palestinians "migrated or fled" during the 1948 war. Fair enough, it's an attempt not to take sides regarding the wildly different narratives of this event, a tragedy in the lives of 600,000 people. But the text does not even mention that at the same time, in direct response to the founding of Israel, 800,000 Jews in Arab Middle Eastern countries were expelled from these countries. That's a strange omission in a book on human geography. At another point in the book we read that from 1917 to 1948, when Palestine was under the British Mandate, the British ENCOURAGED Jewish immigration to Palestine. I guess that's why so many Jews, fleeing death from the Nazis with nothing but the clothes on their backs, were forced to risk their lives again, trying to land on the beach in the middle of the night from leaky ships out of Cyprus. The immigration quotas imposed on Jews during the British Mandate are a historical fact. I don't know enough about other areas of the world to critique what the text says about them----it would be interesting to hear from other reviewers--but with this level of omission and inaccuracy, can I trust anything else the book says?

In addition, a glance through the book reveals other errors and confusions. Page 4: What are the units for the Gross National Income in the map? US dollars? Or is this a relative scale? Page 14-15: 90% or over of what?? 90% of Calfiornia students said they'd prefer to live in California? California received an approval rating of 90% or over as a place to live? Page 40: The world population distribution says that "1 dot represents 100,000 people". Note that there is ONE dot in the vicinity of, I guess, Calgary and none in the vicinity of Edmonton--both cities now have about a million people, so they should have about 10 dots each, no? And this is just in the first 40 pages.

This book was supposed to be released in December 2005, but there were delays and I received the book only yesterday. There should have been time to pick up mistakes like the above.

De Blij presents the information in such a way that it is understandable by high school students, and yet it still retains a very intellectual atmosphere throughout the textbook. He also presents the information in an unbiased context. And during units on religion, and culture (major parts of Human Geography) he doesn't try to preach a religion, or express a bias toward any one.

The information in the textbook is also very accurate and reliable. And during times when there is no exact "right" answer, you won't have to worry about getting a completely rejected view in the academic world, since H.J. de Blij is a highly respected academic.

I could go on and on about how great Human Geography: Culture, Society and Space is, but you can find out more about it by getting the book. I really enjoyed reading it (though I still have a couple more chapters to go), and with the AP Human Geography test looming on May 5, I feel very well prepared for it. If you will be taking the AP Human Geography course in the upcoming year, I highly recommend you to request your school to purchase this book as the main textbook for use. And if your school won't get it, I would still recommend you to purchase it on your own. It's worth every dollar of it. And if you aren't, and your a college student taking a Human Geography course, this book would still be a great study tool.

Oh, and wish me and everyone else taking the AP Human Geography test on May 5!

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