Geographical Snapshots of North America

Providing a fascinating picture of North American landscapes through space and time, this richly illustrated album of essays reveals the allure, depth, texture, and variety of current geographical tools and philosophies. Developed in celebration of the 27th Congress of the International Geographical Union and Assembly, the volume features 93 essays written by contributors who represent a wide cross-section of the field. The book utilizes snapshot metaphors to focus on representative and symbolic points and lines of the North American landscape. Interpreting the continent in all of its diversity, points are represented by such places as Walden Pond and Mount St. Helens while lines include the Mississippi River, Route 66, and breadlines. Each of the ten sections offers a view from a different focus or scale--from wide-angle panoramic to portraits, close-ups, and time-lapse treatments, among others. In this way, each concise essay offers unusual insight into a particular site in North America and demonstrates the value and use of geographical methods and perspectives. Taken as a whole, the essays illustrate the range of theoretical, analytical, and descriptive approaches that are used by geographers to better understand human as well as physical geography.