British Columbia in a Global Context

Reviewed by Dimitar Dimitrov, Geography Instructor, Portland Community College on 12/29/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text is an interesting, informative, and comprehensive description of one of the most diverse and abundant with natural resources provinces in Canada, British Columbia. It covers several important topics, presented in eight chapters. Each chapter starts with an introduction, and besides the main text includes case studies, as well as some sections that are very helpful to both students and instructors: a summary, key terms, suggested activities, and references and resources. As a whole, the text is well illustrated with tables and figures. One of the many merits of the text is the abundance of examples from the historical development of the region.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I didn’t find any inaccurate information in the textbook.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The textbook is up to date. Due to the constantly changing subject matter, the human geography parts (text, examples, maps, and figures) should be updated every three or four years.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook is clearly written and easily understandable even for students who are encountering the geography text for the first time.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is consistent in terms of terminology and the framework.

Modularity rating: 5

The chapters are arranged by topics, and each chapter is organized into smaller reading sections that can be easily assigned for individual or group work. All of the chapters include short introductions, a summary, key terms, suggested activities, and references and resources.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The textbook is organized in 8 chapters, each one covering a specific topic: 1. Urban Settlement in British Columbia. 2. Socio-Economics in British Columbia. 3. Aboriginal Issues in British Columbia. 4. Resources in British Columbia. 5. Food Systems in British Columbia. 6. Forestry in British Columbia. 7. Health Geography in British Columbia. 8. Physical Geography of British Columbia.
The flow is not traditional for regional geography texts, and the physical geography of the region is presented in the last chapter. Although the authors explain the reason for this unusual organization of the text in the Introduction, I still believe that the structure and the flow would be more logical if the chapter Physical Geography of British Columbia precedes the other chapters.

Interface rating: 5

I didn’t find any interface issues. The textbook is very easy to navigate.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text is well-edited for grammar and I found no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I didn’t find any offensive language or culturally insensitive issues in both the text and the illustrations. All of the races, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds are addressed with respect.

Comments

The textbook includes some definitions of basic processes and phenomena, which the reader would expect to find in an introductory human geography textbook, not in a regional geography text. For example, the intro part of Chapter 1 includes definitions of city, demographic changes, economic changes, technological changes, and so on; the intro part of Chapter 2 provides definitions of GDP, GNI, PPP, etc.
The review of the contemporary urbanization in British Columbia, which I believe should be the core of Chapter 1, is presented in just one short paragraph.
There are no maps in two of the chapters: Chapter 1 Urban Settlement in British Columbia, and Chapter 6 Forestry in British Columbia.