The Best Historical Geography Books 2024

1. Studies in Environment and History: Evolutionary History (Hardcover)

This book introduces a new field that unites history and biology to create a fuller understanding of the past. We tend to see history and evolution springing from separate roots, one grounded in the human world and the other in the natural world. Human beings have, however, become probably the most powerful species shaping evolution today, and human-caused evolution in other species has probably been the most important force shaping human history. This book introduces readers to evolutionary history, a new field that unites history and biology to create a fuller understanding of the past than either can produce on its own. Evolutionary history can stimulate surprising new hypotheses for any field of history and evolutionary biology. How many art historians would have guessed that sculpture encouraged the evolution of tuskless elephants? How many biologists would have predicted that human poverty would accelerate animal evolution? How many military historians would have suspected that plant evolution would convert a counter-insurgency strategy into a rebel subsidy? With examples from around the globe, this book will help readers see the broadest patterns of history and the details of their own life in a new light.

Evolutionary History: Uniting History and Biology to Understand Life on Earth (Studies in Environment and History)

2. The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned - A narrative of exploration-- full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants-- that explains the enduring fascination of France. While Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language. Graham Robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages. The Discovery of France explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France-- past and present-- remains to be discovered. 8 pages of color and 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations.

The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

3. Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned - A tour of the world s hidden geographies from disappearing islands to forbidden deserts and a stunning testament to how mysterious the world remains today At a time when Google Maps Street View can take you on a virtual tour of Yosemite s remotest trails and cell phones double as navigational systems, it s hard to imagine there s any uncharted ground left on the planet. In Unruly Places, Alastair Bonnett goes to some of the most unexpected, offbeat places in the world to reinspire our geographical imagination. Bonnett s remarkable tour includes moving villages, secret cities, no man s lands, and floating islands. He explores places as disorienting as Sandy Island, an island included on maps until just two years ago despite the fact that it never existed. Or Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and crowning his wife as a princess. Or Baarle, a patchwork of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where walking from the grocery store s produce section to the meat counter can involve crossing national borders. An intrepid guide down the road much less traveled, Bonnett reveals that the most extraordinary places on earth might be hidden in plain sight, just around the corner from your apartment or underfoot on a wooded path. Perfect for urban explorers, wilderness ramblers, and armchair travelers struck by wanderlust, Unruly Places will change the way you see the places you inhabit.

Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

4. Cartographica Extraordinaire : The Historical Map Transformed, Used [Hardcover]

Assembling some of the finest cartographic examples from private collection of renowned map collector David Rumsey, this atlas bridges the gap between historical cartography and exploration and the new technologies and applications of geographic information systems (GIS). More than a lavish collection of cartographic masterworks, this book tells two paralled stories. The first story lays out the relevant history, the human players, and the events that place each map in the context of the time in which it was created. The second thread, of particular interest to cartographers, designers, map lovers, and geographers, tells the stories of the maps themselves--how they were created and the lessons they can teach modern cartographers and other designers of information and visual communication.

Cartographica Extraordinaire : The Historical Map Transformed, Used [Hardcover]

5. Pre-Owned History of the World Map by Map Paperback

9781465475855. Pre-Owned: Good condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 440. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 440 p. Contains: Illustrations. DK History Map by Map. More than 140 detailed maps tell the story of pivotal episodes in world history, from the first human migrations out of Africa to the space race. Custom regional and global maps present the history of the world in action, charting how events traced patterns on land and ocean--patterns of exploration, discovery, or conquest that created empires, colonies, or theaters of war. Thoughtful organization of information will help you follow the story of civilizations through ancient, medieval, and modern times. But not every page is full of maps. At key points in History Map by Map, broad, sweeping introductions provide a chance to step back and look at entire periods, such as World War II, or to explore overarching themes, such as the Industrial Revolution. Picture spreads, meanwhile, focus on epoch-defining moments or developments, such as fascism and communism, and the invention of printing.

Pre-Owned History of the World Map by Map (Hardcover 9781465475855) by DK, Smithsonian Institution (Contributions by)

6. Mr. Selden's Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Timothy Brook's award-winning Vermeer's Hat unfolded the early history of globalization, using Vermeer's paintings to show how objects like beaver hats and porcelain bowls began to circulate around the world. Now he plumbs the mystery of a single artifact that offers new insights into global connections centuries old. In 2009, an extraordinary map of China was discovered in Oxford's Bodleian Library-where it had first been deposited 350 years before, then stowed and forgotten for nearly a century. Neither historians of China nor cartography experts had ever seen anything like it. It was so odd that experts would have declared it a fake-yet records confirmed it had been delivered to Oxford in 1659. The "Selden Map," as it is known, was a puzzle that needing solving. Brook, a historian of China, set out to explore the riddle. His investigation will lead readers around this elegant, enigmatic work of art, and from the heart of China, via the Southern Ocean, to the court of King James II. In the story of Selden's map, he reveals for us the surprising links between an English scholar and merchants half a world away, and offers novel insights into the power and meaning that a single map can hold. Brook delivers the same anecdote-rich narrative, intriguing characters, and unexpected historical connections that made Vermeer's Hat an instant classic.

Mr. Selden's Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer, Used [Hardcover]

7. Hammond the Times Concise Atlas of World History (4th ed.) [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Hammond the Times Concise Atlas of World History (4th ed.) by GEOFFREY BARRACLOUGH (EDITOR)

Hammond the Times Concise Atlas of World History (4th ed.), Used [Paperback]

8. Rand McNally Atlas of World History [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Presents maps which depict historical events and their impact on human development, from the beginnings of civilization to the population of the United States in 1990.

Rand McNally Atlas of World History, Used [Paperback]

9. Geography, Volume I Bks. 1-2 : Books 1-2, Used [Hardcover]

Strabo (ca. 64 BCE to ca. 25 CE), an Asiatic Greek of Amasia in Pontus, studied at Nysa and after 44 BCE at Rome. He became a keen traveller who saw a large part of Italy, various near eastern regions including the Black Sea, various parts of Asia Minor, Egypt as far as Ethiopia, and parts of Greece. He was a long time in Alexandria where he no doubt studied mathematics, astronomy, and history. Strabo's historical work is lost, but his most important Geography in seventeen books has survived. After two introductory books, numbers 3 and 4 deal with Spain and Gaul, 5 and 6 with Italy and Sicily, 7 with north and east Europe, 8-10 with Greek lands, 11-14 with the main regions of Asia and with Asia Minor, 15 with India and Iran, 16 with Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, and Arabia, 17 with Egypt and Africa. In outline he follows the great mathematical geographer Eratosthenes, but adds general descriptions of separate countries including physical, political, and historical details. A sequel to his historical memoirs, Geography is planned apparently for public servants rather than students--hence the accounts of physical features and of natural products. On the mathematical side it is an invaluable source of information about Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Posidonius. The Loeb Classical Library edition of Strabo is in eight volumes.

Geography, Volume I Bks. 1-2 : Books 1-2, Used [Hardcover]