The Western World: Daily Readings on Geography

(1 review)

Joel Quam, College of DuPage

Scott Campbell, College of DuPage

Publisher: College of DuPage

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of Use

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA

Reviews

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Caitlin Finlayson, Associate Professor, University of Mary Washington on 6/23/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

This textbook includes a broad array of essays on each major world region and each core theme within World Regional Geography, but it's unclear how case studies were selected and some case studies overlook important ideas. In the case study on religion in the United States, for example, Muslims are barely mentioned. In the Latin American Culture section, a creole language that is spoken in the Netherlands Antilles is discussed. The chapter on European culture is exclusively about Christianity. It's quite neat to have fairly narrow essays to highlight examples of broader geographic topics, but without any context or discussion of why they were chosen (and why other topics were ignored) the reader might conclude that what's being discussed is most important. (And thus, what is left out isn't important.)

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The book seems to be generally error-free and unbiased, but as mentioned, by focusing on a narrow set of topics, the reader might incorrectly conclude that concepts not discussed are unimportant.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

I really like the "Did You Know?" callout boxes and think these would be beneficial to readers. I do think there might have been better topics for particular case studies (for example, the discussion of murder mysteries in Europe is interesting, but what about more relevant topics related to European nationalism? In the chapter on Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church is highlighted but what about Russian ethnic/cultural tension with Ukraine?)

Clarity rating: 3

At times, the writing style is a bit hard to understand and there are some grammatical errors (such as incomplete sentences) in the Preface that would benefit from a more thorough edit.

Consistency rating: 4

The book seems to consistently present its goal of short essays on a variety of topics.

Modularity rating: 5

It would be very easy to assign these short essays to accompany a more formal World Regional Geography textbook.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

The organization of the text is a little hard to follow. I would have loved more explanation in the introduction of the essays as to why these case studies were selected. In addition, because there are so many essays, it makes the textbook a little hard to navigate.

Interface rating: 3

The menu navigation is a bit confusing. There are introductions to each realm followed by a lengthy list of essays but then followed by an overview of the region. It's unclear how the overview differs from the introduction and what the flow of the text is intended to be and at times the case studies overlap a bit with the chapter overviews.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

There are some incomplete sentences throughout the text and some grammatical errors (for example, "Coastline provides access...")

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

At times, the text makes generalizations or presents conclusions that would benefit from more support or a more culturally relevant approach. For example, the authors poke fun at the name Harry Hole, but this would be offensive to readers with this Norwegian last name.

Comments

I find this text to be a unique approach to World Regional Geography.

1. What is the Western World?
2. What is Regional Geography?
3. Cultural Geography
4. Economic Geography
5. Historical Geography
6. Physical Geography
7. Political Geography
8. Population Geography
9. Urban Geography
10. Medical Geography
11. Pacific Realm
12. Pacific Realm: Regional Example
13. Pacific Realm: Cultural Geography I
14. Pacific Realm: Economic Geography I
15. Pacific Realm: Historical Geography I
16. Pacific Realm: Physical Geography I
17. Pacific Realm: Political Geography I
18. Pacific Realm: Population Geography I
19. Pacific Realm: Urban Geography I
20. Pacific Realm: Cultural Geography II
21. Pacific Realm: Economic Geography II
22. Pacific Realm: Historical Geography II
23. Pacific Realm: Physical Geography II
24. Pacific Realm: Political Geography II
25. Pacific Realm: Population Geography II
26. Pacific Realm: Urban Geography II
27. Pacific Realm: Overview
28. North America
29. North America: Regional Example
30. North America: Cultural Geography I
31. North America: Economic Geography I
32. North America: Historical Geography I
33. North America: Physical Geography I
34. North America: Political Geography I
35. North America: Population Geography I
36. North America: Urban Geography I
37. North America: Medical Geography I
38. North America: Cultural Geography II
39. North America Economic Geography II
40. North America: Historical Geography II
41. North America: Physical Geography II
42. North America: Political Geography II
43. North America: Population Geography II
44. North America: Urban Geography II
45. North America: Overview
46. Europe
47. Europe: Regional Example
48. Europe: Cultural Geography I
49. Europe: Economic Geography I
50. Europe: Historical Geography I
51. Europe: Physical Geography I
52. Europe: Political Geography I
53. Europe: Population Geography I
54. Europe: Urban Geography I
55. Europe: Cultural Geography II
56. Europe: Economic Geography II
57. Europe: Historical Geography II
58. Europe: Physical Geography II
59. Europe: Political Geography II
60. Europe: Population Geography II
61. Europe: Urban Geography II
62. Europe: Overview
63. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR)
64. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Regional Example
65. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Cultural Geography I
66. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Economic Geography I
67. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Historical Geography I
68. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Physical Geography I
69. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Political Geography I
70. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Population Geography I
71. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Urban Geography I
72. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Cultural Geography II
73. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Economic Geography II
74. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Historical Geography II
75. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Physical Geography II
76. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Political Geography II
77. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Population Geography II
78. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Urban Geography II
79. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Overview
80. Russian Domain
81. Russian Domain: Regional Example
82. Russian Domain: Cultural Geography I
83. Russian Domain: Economic Geography I
84. Russian Domain: Historical Geography I
85. Russian Domain: Physical Geography I
86. Russian Domain: Political Geography I
87. Russian Domain: Population Geography I
88. Russian Domain: Urban Geography I
89. Russian Domain: Cultural Geography II
90. Russian Domain: Economic Geography II
91. Russian Domain: Historical Geography II
92. Russian Domain: Physical Geography II
93. Russian Domain: Political Geography II
94. Russian Domain: Population Geography II
95. Russian Domain: Urban Geography II
96. Russian Domain: Overview
97. Russian Domain: Physical Geography III
98. North America: Cultural Geography III
99. Europe: Population Geography III
100. Latin America and the Caribbean (LACAR): Political Geography III

Ancillary Material

Submit ancillary resource

About the Book

In essay format, this textbook considers examples of various sub-categories of Geography in combination with five regions of the Western World.

About the Contributors

Authors

Professor Joel Quam

Professor, Geography, College of DuPage

Dr. G. Scott Campbell