ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

Jones & Darkenwald Economic Geography In the preparation of the third edition of Economic Geography, the previous editions’ general organization of the subject matter has been maintained—that is, by types of activities or occupations such as hunting, fishing, gathering of forest products and lumbering, grazing, farming, mining, manufacturing, transportation, and foreign trade. Forty years of teaching the subject have demonstrated to the satisfaction of the author that neither a regional nor a straight commodity organization of the subject matter offers the several merits of the occupational approach. Some of the newer economic geography texts, organized in part by occupations, indicate that other authors also like this plan. One of the chief advantages of the occupational approach is that it analyzes all commodities as they are closely related in given activity (such as commercial grain farming in semiarid plains or the more complex farming of fruits, vegetables, cereals, hay crops, and animals in regions of Mediterranean climates), and in all regions of that activity, whether the region be in North America or Australia. Other advantages are that it facilitates relating the activity to physical factors and to economic and political conditions and organizations, and that it maintains a world perspective rather than a local, regional, or individual commodity point of view. Our world, both politically and economically, is quite different from what it was prior to World War II. Several colonial empires have declined, many peoples have gained independent status, and others have become more subservient. Communism has spread from the Soviet Union to mainland China, North Korea, North Vietnam, the Soviet satellite countries of eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Albania, Algeria, and Cuba, and Communists are active in many other countries. The communist nations comprise a powerful political and economic bloc. In the free world there are several powerful and successful economic blocs, such as the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The United Nations has become an important economic organization. The production and distribution of all important commercial products are influenced government regulations of one kind or an other. A technological revolution, including automation, is taking place in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation, and communication. In analyzing the occupations of economic geography, cognizance has been taken of the effects of all the forces previously mentioned. Nevertheless, the relationship of physical geographic conditions has not been overlooked. An effective text in economic geography must be based upon a great deal of statistical information. In this edition, ample statistical information is presented in graphic form rather than in tables. Of the 280 maps, graphs, and charts, nearly one fourth are graphs, so constructed that the student can readily ascertain the important countries and larger areas in production, exports, and imports; 40 per cent are maps or cartograms, showing distributional aspects on a quantitative basis; 90 per cent of all maps, graphs, and charts and 97 per cent of all photographs used are new.

Write a review

Your Name:

Your Review:

Note: HTML is not translated!

Rating: Bad Good

Enter the code in the box below: