American Literature: Geography Used Instead of Heroes

The Acton Institute has a good blog post on how American Literature uses different regions instead of heroes to convey civic virtues.  The blog points out how this is more Roman Republican than later European literature which emphasized martial and saintly elite virtues symbolized in specific hero characters.

Key takeaways are

Prior to the modern age most literary heroes exemplified the martial virtues of the warrior (courage, honor, duty) or the theological virtues of the saints (kindness, generosity, faithfulness). They were the virtues of the elite, whether militarily, politically, or spiritually. But in the post-Civil War era, America needed to reconnect with the virtues of the citizen.

and

The ideal virtues of the Via Americana—qualities needed to conquer and civilize regional peoples under one American republic—are remarkably similar. But whereas in Rome these virtues were embodied in mytho-theological constructs (e.g., Veritas, the goddess of truth), in America we associate them with the geographic regions (e.g., the frugality of the New Englanders). 

and

Americans can associate themselves with virtues of regions in which they do not live because they share a common connection of Americanness.

The blog posts ends with a powerful question:

[D]o we need strong associative ties and allegiances to larger communal groupings (either regional or federal) in order to live virtuously in our own local communities? Can Americans be good localists without first identifying with the disseminated virtues of Americana?

Placing Literature: Crowd Source Mapping Where Books Take Place

Placing Literature is an effort to crowd source map where books take place.  So far over 1,074 places have been mapped.  One can use social media tricks like gamification to "check-in" to places and compete against others.

Quick Note:  Who knew Duluth, Minnesota is so popular in literature?

Liam Fox's Ten Global Trends to Watch Out For

Former British Secretary of State for Defense Liam Fox has published the book Rising Tides about global threats against the West and the world in general.  The top ten threats are

Pakistan: A fractured rogue state artificially held from Collapse, thus only prolonging the decay, by international aid.

Water Scarcity and Wars Derived from It: In the end water is worth more than oil.  Egypt and Ethiopia already play a dangerous game over the flow of the Nile.

Dirty Bombs: Deadly, long-term impact terrorism made easy

The Downfall of the Euro:  Last time Europe's economy failed the dream of globalization died for 75 years and there were two world wars.

National Debt:  First international strength dies, then national strength, and then everyone suffers.

Demographic Graying:  A nation of old people cannot have a welfare system nor can it be a player on the world stage.

Unfettered Immigration: Eventually non-assimilated immigrants can take over a graying country and bring all the problems they tried to escape over with them to their new home.

International Jihadi Terrorism:  From New York to London to Africa to Syria to the Far East, militant Islamists are fighting a war against the world.

Nuclear Iran:  The world will become an even more dangerous state.  Eventually someone will use a nuclear weapon again.

Collapse of Political Will in the West: So many Westerners are afraid to confront other culture's problems.  The West has some major problems (selective killing of young), but no one dares confront the problems which cause so much death and suffering across the world.  Sometimes other's choices are not "different", they are wrong.

French Exploration Accounts of the Interior United States: Great Plains and Great Lakes Regions

The Native American Nations Map post has caused a bit of a comment flame war as the cartographer, Aaron Carpella, believes that one of the reasons I am criticizing the map's historical inaccuracy is my racial profile.  He also denies historical records because they are White histories and instead picks certain tribe legends over others to mark his map.

The debate between myself and Carpella has given me the opportunity to re-read some excellent first person accounts of American Indians along the Great Lakes and in the Great Plains.  These accounts show the richness of American Indian culture, politics, and international relations between themselves and Europeans.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents is a collection of detailed reports from 1610 to 1791 by French Jesuits.  These were missionary priests who spent years of their lives living with the Indians.  Some had great successes converting Indians to Christianity while others failed (especially with the Sioux).  The area covered by the reports covers the Great Lakes region from New York to Minnesota and into the Canadian Great Lakes region as well.

Journal of the Expedition of the Chevalier de La Vérendrye and One of His Brothers to Reach the Western Sea, Addressed to M. the Marquis de Beauharnois, 1742-43 documents a journey from present-day Canda through the present-day Dakotas in search of a quick route to the Pacific Ocean.  Eventually the La Verendrye brothers saw mountains (whether they were the Black Hills or Rocky Mountains is still up to debate) and turned back knowing that America continued well beyond a length they were ready to travel.  Reading the journal one feels the brothers feeling they are truly in an unknown land.  They frequently mention the presence of Indians on the Plains.

Free Books: History of Cartography

The University of Chicago is giving away the two volume, four book set on the history of cartography for free download.  Enjoy the rich PDF text, beautiful maps, and history.

Virtual Geography Convention 2013: Free Book about Online GIS Platforms

Welcome to the Virtual Geography Convention 2013!  If you have a presentation or blog post you wished published please contact me at catholicgauze [at] gmail [dot] com! 

For those who work with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), ESRI's ArcMap is the be all and end all.  As one geographer put it "the beast lives off government and corporate contracts.  It is able to charge a $500 licence for a single user.  It is GIS."  There are other systems out there, mostly freeware, but since most people are trained on ESRI software and professionally work on ESRI, the learning curve is step and many people shy away from other programs.

Christopher Brown, however, made a book about various other OnlineGIS programs.  He reviews each program and gives his opinion on what each own would be a best fit for.  He wrote a book, Online GIS, which is available for free download. (Hat tip: GISLounge)

Virtual Geography Convention 2013: New Physical Atlas of Africa

Welcome to the Virtual Geography Convention 2013!  If you have a presentation or blog post you wished published please contact me at catholicgauze [at] gmail [dot] com!

The Association of American Geographers and the United States Geological Survey and others are giving away online copies of their new physical geography atlas of Africa: A New Nap of Standardized Terrestrial Ecosystems of Africa.

The USGS' press release states

A team of African and North American scientists led by the U.S. Geological Survey and NatureServe, a conservation non-profit organization, has created a series of continent-wide ecosystem maps that offer the most detailed portrayals of Africa's natural setting yet produced. The new maps and related data on landforms, geology, bioclimates, and vegetation can be used across Africa for conservation planning and resource management, as well as for impact assessments of climate change and changes in land use, such as agriculture, deforestation, and urbanization. 

"This was a multi-organizational, international collaboration to create new earth science datasets for the entire continent at finer resolutions than ever before," said Matt Larsen, USGS Associate Director for Climate and Land Use Change. "An added benefit is that this information about ecosystem conditions can be put to many different uses. It will have tremendous utility beyond ecosystem assessments." 

USGS and NatureServe researchers collaborated with the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), based in Nairobi, Kenya. RCMRD hosted two workshops where invited experts from many African nations developed a new classification of African ecosystems and provided location data for the newly classified ecosystems. 

Overall, a total of 37 experts from 18 countries worked together to formulate the ecosystem classifications (126 distinct ecosystems were mapped) and produce the maps at a base resolution of 90 meters. 

"This much improved baseline of Africa's ecosystem conditions has the potential for more accurate carbon assessment studies in Africa," observed USGS scientist Roger Sayre, lead author of the publication. 

Determination of biological carbon stocks in ecosystems is an emerging science. Currently, carbon stocks are assessed in general biome categories like forests, grasses, shrublands, wetlands, deserts, and agricultural lands. The increased classification resolution supplied by the new African ecosystems maps will facilitate a more robust assignment of carbon inventories to a greater, more precise number of biological sources. 

The Association of American Geographers (AAG) provided key support for the final publication. The publication is available in digital form from the USGS.

Free Environmental Geography Book Until April 30, 2013

ODTMaps is giving away for free the supplemental handbook to their world environmental geography map until April 30, 2013.  The map is available for sale for ODTMaps' store.

Geography-Related Books Read in 2012

Another year means more books read.  For past years check out 2011, 2010, and select picks from 2009.

Americana

1812: The War That Forged a Nation:  An easy read overview of the War of 1812 from the American perspective.  I liked this book but I favor 1812: The War with America, which is mostly but not limited to the British perspective and ties the war with the French Revolutionary-Napoleonic Wars.

American Indian Mafia: An FBI Agent's True Story about Wounded Knee, Leonard Peltier, and the American Indian Movement - Overly long and in need of editing but a great look at the how and why concerning the rise and fall of the terrorist American Indian Movement.

The Siege of Washington:The Untold Story of the Twelve Days That Shook the Union - A great read about the days after the Fall of Fort Sumter when the geography of anti-Lincoln feelings cut off Washington DC from pro-Union states.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl  - The geography and history of the sadness of the 1930s Great Plains.  An interesting look at the desperation of people in a man-made disaster.

Americas

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus - An overall good book on the more advanced civilizations in the Americas.  Some cherry picking of data and a weird epilogue temper my enjoyment of the book, though.

For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada, the Cristero War and Mexico's Struggle for Religious Freedom - The most basic introduction to the Cristero War.  If you know anything about this war you won't learn anything new.  The book is not bad but very much meant for people who had no idea there was a Cristero War.

Asia

Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power - A good overview of the geopolitics, demographics, cultural geography, and history of the Indian Ocean area.  Sadly, geographers missed out making this book thus leaving it to people like Kaplan to fill the void.

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang - An inside look into the late-1980s battle inside the Chinese Communist Party.  This is the sad story of reformist losing to tyrants, an all too common story.

Cartography

How Maps Change Things - The good: how maps can be selected to display certain message.  The bad: goes off on political tangents.

Europe

A Heart for Europe - A nice biography of Emperor Karl I, the last ruler of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and a possible soon-to-be saint.

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - The sad, forgotten in the West geography and history of a land which saw the worst of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World - A fast read on how a cholera outbreak in London led to the birth of medical geography.  On the side, its interesting to note that the first two public health measures by the first official public health board helped cause the deaths of thousands upon thousands of people.

Imperial Twilight - The Story Of Karl And Zita Of Hungary - Compared to some other Emperor Karl biographies this has a lot more detail, while in other parts it lacks an incredible amount of important events.  The authors seem to play into the old belief that Empress Zita was the covert, knife and dagger monarch her enemies made her out to be.

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin - A good look into the rise of Vladimir Putin.  However, when concerning Chechen terrorists, Ms. Gessen betrays a radical "why don't we just negotiate with hostage takers who have already killed hostages"-bias.

Terry Jones' Medieval Lives - A fun, accurate look at our misconceptions of Medieval-era England.

History of Geography

Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus - One of the best histories I ever read.  The book focuses on the times, voyages, and man himself.  I have written elsewhere about Columbus and this book.  The man was a complex mix of genius and egotist, Catholic and cruel, excellent micro-geographer and horrible macro-geographer.

Language

The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language - Great book on the history and origin of English and how other languages influenced it.  Great in audiobook format so one can actually hear the language throughout time.

Middle East

The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis - A deep look at philosophy's role in Islam and why it was purged from the faith.  The book does a good job at showing how the impact of this purge is affecting the Middle East today.  Written before the Arab Spring but a good introduction into how Islamists work.

The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, The West, and The Future of the Holy City - While having some Israeli bias, the book does a great job with the history showing how Judaism has always valued Jerusalem while Christianity and Islam have gone through cycles of loving, hating, and ignoring the city.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City - While having some Israeli bias, the book does a great job with the history showing how Judaism has always valued Jerusalem while Christianity and Islam have gone through cycles of loving, hating, and ignoring the city.

Raid on the Sun: Inside Israel's Secret Campaign that Denied Saddam the Bomb - A very readable and enjoyable account of the intelligence preparation and actual raid by Israel on Iraq's nuclear power reactor.

Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir - Great but not for the reasons Wael wanted it to be.  This shows how the "liberal" youth of Egypt had their sympathies with the Muslim Brotherhood.  Listening to Wael confusion why Muslims would be blamed for 9/11 and his frequent references to the "moderate" Muslim Brotherhood reveal the civilization/cultural gap between the Islamic Core and the West.

The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West - A decent overview of Iran but not likely to inform anyone something they already did not know.  Also, little is actually dedicated to the nuclear program; it is more an overview of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations - I am really torn by this book.  Some parts it is hard to go along with while other parts seem really enlightened.  Either way, a very good read and an unique view into the Arab mind.

The Struggle for Power in Syria: Politics and Society under Asad and the Ba'th Party - Surprised it is still in print as the "updated" editions have nothing of use after 1982.  Good historical background but not something to read if you want a greater understanding of what is going on today in Syria.

Rise of Man

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors - An interesting history of pre-history but still a bit tedious, I do not understand the finer points of genetics, in some parts.

War on Terrorism/Military Geography

The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda - The pre-9/11 information is a good, detailed read of what is already out in the public domain.  The after 9/11 parts are [blank] with some [blank] which led me to think [blank] so I must say [redacted passages].  A good read if you are interested in a personal account of intelligence interrogations.  If you want actual War on Terrorism knowledge there is not much to offer in this book.

Cultural Intelligence for Winning the Peace - Overall a good book on the use of cultural intelligence not only for winning conflicts but also peace building.  However, the disagreements with Huntington go too far and off base (one critique is even put in verse).

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - A good overall look at why the Surge was created and how it work, and where some of its gaps were/are.

In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan - A decent book on the events of war in Afghanistan.  Too much time is spent on the previous, pre-American, conflicts, however.

The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan - A great travelogue about a reporter's one week journey with General McChrystal's crew.  A good mini-biography of some people under McChrystal.  The book falls apart when the author tries to analyze counter-insurgency and the Iraq war with weak claims linking Francoism and counter-insurgency's birth in 1950s Algeria.  Hastings is also a ignorant of the course events in Algeria's independence war.

Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan - Sometimes the book has great details on developments in Pakistan.  Other times the book diverts into Afghanistan issues.  Other times the book contradicts itself ("the U.S. needs to work more with Pakistan" while the next paragraph is "Pakistan is to corrupt and there is no leadership so every effort the U.S. has done was wasted").

The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World's Most Dangerous Terrorist Power - A pretty good detail look at Iranian's activity in the more covert fields.

Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude - The parts where he talks about US-Saudi relations are fascinating.  However, way too often does Baer want you to think he is James Bond with his off topic personal stories.

World

The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest - Eating right, stress control, forms of isolation of the hectic world, and family support all combine to form life styles several cultures have used to live longer.  A good geography of why people in certain cultures live longer.

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order - A very good book that is misunderstood by those who have not read it.  The portions on Islamic culture have been proven dead right and even include predicting the Arab Spring.

How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too) - Eye opening when discussing foreign country trends concerning collapsing birth rates.  I think the book falls apart a little bit in the American section though.

Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide -  A look at the history and mechanics of peace keeping and how it is helping, in part, to reduce the numbers of wars around the world.

The Geography of Jobs in America after the Great Divergence

Economist Enrico Moretti (sadly academic geographers yet again are missing out doing readable, important research) has published a book about the geography jobs during this recession entitled The New Geography of Jobs.

One of Moretti's main thesis is that there has been a "Great Divergence" on-going since the 1980s.  Moretti sums his idea as-so:

America’s new economic map shows growing differences, not just between people but between communities. A handful of cities with the “right” industries and a solid base of human capital keep attracting good employers and offering high wages, while those at the other extreme, cities with the “wrong” industries and a limited human capital base, are stuck with dead-end jobs and low average wages. This divide—I will call it the Great Divergence—has its origins in the 1980s, when American cities started to be increasingly defined by their residents’ levels of education. Cities with many college-educated workers started attracting even more, and cities with a less educated workforce started losing ground. While in 1969 Visalia did have a small professional middle class, today its residents, especially those who moved there recently, are overwhelmingly unskilled. Menlo Park had many low-income families in 1969, but today most of its new residents have a college degree or a master’s degree and a middle- to upper-class income. Geographically, American workers are increasingly sorting along educational lines. At the same time that American communities are desegregating racially, they are becoming more segregated in terms of schooling and earnings.

Regions of boom and bust are nothing new in economic geography, but never before has education played such an important role.  Communities themselves are specializing immensely on skilled, education-needing industries.

Moretti discusses his idea and the new geography of jobs in America in his lengthy Salon article.  There are counterweights to this education rise, service industries and technical jobs (carpenters, plumbers, etc) will always complement any strong professional population.  Meanwhile, one also has to consider the potential upcoming higher education bubble and the inflation of degrees being awarded.

Free Geography Book Until March 31: How Maps Change Things by Ward Kaiser

ODT Maps, the owner of the Gall–Peters projection map, and Ward Kaiser have teamed up to offer Kaiser's new book, How Maps Change Things: A Conversation About the Maps We Choose, and the World We Want, for free for the rest of March 2012.  Available formats include Kindle, PDF, Apple-friendly, and Android-friendly.

Kaiser is known for his critical geography work, including a co-authoring with critical geography/pedophile Denis Wood who managed to send off on a rant last year.  His book does go political in some instance and I do not agree with some his map analysis but one can learn much about maps as arguments from Kaiser.

Anyways, this is a good free book that does make some very good points.

Virtual Geography Convention 2012: Megapolitan America Review

Welcome to the Virtual Geography Convention 2012!

Eddie Beaver is a Geography Graduate Student at UNC-Greensboro.



Lang and Nelson's Megapolitan America offers a revised take on a 20th Century obsession of urban, political and economic geographers, the mega-city and its environs. They present a detailed vision of a developing state of urban affairs while crafting a compelling case for the America of 2040-2050 that builds on the efforts of researchers and exceeds the efforts of pop-urbanists such as Joel Kotkin (The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050) most prominently. It is a declaration of a new geography, fueled by commuting and migration patterns, the endemic growth and recognition of regional problems and the increased pressures of national and global competitive talent, production and service rivalries. Marshaling a mini-library of substantial data encompassing everything from economic development to population migration, the authors amply support their proposal of a megapolitan America.

This megapolitan geography is comprised of 23 megapolitan areas (from Florida Atlantic to Chesapeake) that link up with contiguous megapolitans to form 10 megaregions (ala Texas Triangle and the Piedmont). Based on the working definition of the Census' 'Combined Statistical Areas' (itself a combination of multiple metropolitan statistical areas), the megapolitans can comprise a large number of contiguous metropolitan and even micropolitan areas into massive configurations of millions of people in areas the size of small European countries. This last point is important since Lang and Nelson emphasize that since more than 2/3 of the country's population resides among the 10 megaregions, the actual population density of most of America is comparable to European levels, a resounding rejection of significant myths popular among both the left and right about small towns and sprawl alike.

'Regional Governance, Not Government'

This Megapolitan concept is grounded in a vision of public-private linkages and flexibility. Much as successful regional planning organizations emphasize concrete problems and opportunities to solve and exploit in cooperation with the many interest and power groups under their voluntary umbrella, so follows the megapolitan concept.  Enabling legislation, a change in definition in transportation legislation by Congress (shifting funding from 'metropolitan' areas to 'combined statistical areas') and loosening of funds sharing regulations appear to be the only legislative/government actions that would be called for to help interested metropolitan areas align with one another into megapolitans on the issues of the present and future.  Above all else, megapolitan America is about cooperation in economic development, maximizing increasingly scarce public resources and private capacities. Of course, there are intriguing possibilities for improved environmental protection (watersheds and natural lands), land-use reforms (the minimization of leap-frog development and compelling market pressure to redevelop brownfield sites and other infill) and transportation efficiency (the authors do not mention it but regional deregulation of transportation options such as MegaBus would have a significant impact on congestion).

'Geography Has Such Power...'

Geographic constructs have enormous potency in the imaginations and actions of business and civic leaders. The Census Bureau/OMB's restructuring of geographies into micropolitan and metropolitan regions in 2003 exemplifies this as numerous micropolitan regions in particular adapted their new identities with the fervor of a convert as they trumpeted their micropolitan regions' proximity to metropolitan areas and key infrastructure, abundant land for development and other location advantages. Time will tell whether megapolitan regions and areas have a similar impact but if ongoing developments on the ground (from commuting patterns, business investment flows and governmental cooperation at different levels from mayors to regional planning organizations to governors to county councils) are worth accounting for, the concept or something approximating it is well on the way towards realization in policy and planning.

This book is certainly time well spent. The only concern is with the price. Since it contains so many detailed color maps, the price is significantly more than the common hardcover, more akin to a mid-priced textbook ($55). Ideally, an E-edition will be released that more fits the budgets of most readers.

Geography Related Books Read in 2011

A long year for me has given me time to read geography books and other related genres as well (even more than last year).

Afghanistan-Pakistan

Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History by Thomas Barfield: Yes! A great book on the history and culture of Afghanistan that is not afraid to point out that the great myths about Afghanistan, such as it being a graveyard and a self-sufficient country, are wrong.


Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way by Jon Krakauer:  I never trusted the story of Three Cups of Tea and this book seems to prove me right.  Be sure to read by Three Cups of Tea and a Coffee Cake of Lies post.

Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward:  A look at Obama and Afghanistan, late 2008 to mid-2010.  I can't wait to read the next one in order to find out just what the administration is thinking when it comes to America's plans for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

War by Sebastian Juger:  A look at one unit's fight in Afghanistan. Goes into the mind of the solider look no other recent book

Africa

Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones by Greg Campbell:  A decent rundown of the civil war in Sierra Leone and how the diamond trade funded the war.


Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason Stearns:  Wow. The shocking history of the two wars you never heard about.

Americana

How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein:  The fun guide to how the states got their shapes. Equality of size, battles over slavery, and politics are the three primary reasons.

How the States Got Their Shapes Too: The People Behind the Borderlines by Mark Stein:  Brief biographies on those who impacted state boundaries.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt:  A fun murder mystery and an examination of what makes Savannah Savannah.

Asia


The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters by B.R. Myers:  With their weird racist-nationalistic desire for a strong mother I can say with certainty that the Koreas are very, very different.

God Is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China by Liao Yiwu:  A look at the lives of those in the various Christian movements, Protestant-Catholic / Independent-State run, in China.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick:  A decent collection of biographies of North Koreans in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Eurasia

Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War by Thomas de Waal:  Ten years old but still good. A history of why Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Imagine the Israel-Arab conflict if no one cared.

Europe

The Balkans: A Short History by Mark Mazower:  A good but way too brief history of Balkans with a focus of the pre-Cold War Balkans.


Discovering the Camino de Santiago by Rev. Greg J. Markley:  An easy read done in one sitting. A rare book in the sense that it is a religious travelogue of the Camino de Santiago... and done by a priest too!

Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley:  A history into the war that saved Europe, a history we know little about.

Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire by Victor Sebestyen:  The best book I read on 1989. It does a great job looking into events pre-1989 which made the European revolutions possible. Much more in-depth than "The Year that Changed the World."


The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer:  One of the best history books I ever read (and by far the longest). It is the book on Nazi Germany. The 1990 afterward offering words of caution about the reunion of German is somewhat humorous now, though.


The Year that Changed the World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Michael Meyer:  A quick tour of the events of 1989... with a weird, unrelated introduction.

Latin America

The Duke of Havana: Baseball, Cuba, and the Search for the American Dream by Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez:  The good, bad, and ugly about Cuban baseball, those who made it to the majors, those who failed, the heroes, and the villains for free baseball

Middle East and North Africa


Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East by Jared Cohen:  A very readable book but Cohen fails to realize that the younger generations he talks to are those predisposed to talk to Americans. Meanwhile, a huge bulk of the youth population is overlooked. One would get the impression that Iran is full of Europeans if they don't read this book with a grain of salt.




Egypt and the Revolution of 2011: A really poor stitching together of Wikipedia articles. I cannot recommend this book less.

The Instigators by David Wolman:  A good, short look at one of the Egyptian protest leaders.

The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years by Bernard Lewis:  Truly a good "brief history of the last 2,000 years." I enjoyed the parts on culture more than the geopolitical history.


The New Arab Revolt: What Happened, What It Means, and What Comes Next by the Council of Foreign Relations:  A great collection of essays on the Arab Revolts and Protests much a local, regional, and international perspective.

On the State of Egypt: What Made the Revolution Inevitable by Alaa Al Aswany:  While I don't agree with all parts of his world view, this is a good book to see what issues were bothering Egyptians before the revolution.


The Persian Night: Iran under the Khomeinist Revolution by Amir Taheri:  This could have been an informative book but Taheri makes claims that I even know are wrong (such as using Ghurabiyya Shia, a dead sect, to make claims about current Twelver Shia beliefs).

Revolution in the Arab World: Tunisia, Egypt, And the Unmaking of an Era by the Contributors of Foreign Policy Magazine:  A good collection of essays and reports on the development of the Arab Protests of 2011. Some essays are great while in others you can tell the authors have drunk the Kool-Aid.

Tweets from Tahrir: Egypt's Revolution as it Unfolded, in the Words of the People Who Made it:  A good collection of English-language tweets from the Egyptian Revolution... though I wonder how these compare to the Arabic tweets in message and ideology.

Miscellaneous

Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax" by Philip Plait:  A fun yet smart book showing that one holds a lot of false beliefs about the Earth and astronomy.

God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades by Rodney Stark:  A military, political, religious, and social history of the Crusades.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner:  Sometimes I question the objectivity of the book (the case of British Guyana being a primed example) but a good book none-the-less on failures in the CIA and how it affected America.


Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel:  The discovery of the means to determine longitude at sea was the last battle which ended the marriage between astronomy and geography.




Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings:  Besides acting like the smartest kid in the room and one or two factual errors this is a wild, fun romp through the world of non-academic geographers



McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny: An interesting look at organized crime that seems to speed through and jump around a little too much for its own good.


Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by Its Last Member by Philip Freiherr Von Boeselager:  "It's a good personal biography of an aristocratic Catholic German officer on the Eastern Front. However, do not read it to learn about Valkyrie. Boeselager was only a very minor player on the side.


Religion

The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin: The Hebrew, Desert, Greek, and Latin Church Founders and their quotes on religious matters of both the past and present.


Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection by Pope Benedict XVI: Who Jesus was and what He said and meant.

Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years by John Philip Jenkins:  Great read on the battle between One-Nature and Two-Nature Christians from Nicaea to the Rise of Islam.

War on Terrorism


Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground  by Robert Kaplan:  A look at those in the Navy and Air Force and the geopolitics that affects them and vice versa.



Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror by Robert Young Pelton:  An inside look into armed contractors, mercenaries, and adventurers in the post-9/11 world.



The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda by Peter Bergen:  A biased mix of contradictions (Al Qaeda didn't have ties to Iraq except when it did) and focus on intelligence instead of the actual battles caused me to lose interest.


Militant Islamist Ideology by Youssef H. Aboul-Enein:  An excellent look at the difference between Islam, Islamists, and Militant Islamists; as well as the denominational battles within each group.

The Geographical Association's Geography Reading List

Looking for a good geography book to read?  Already checked out the various books on this blog's Books section?  Foruantely for you, the British Geographical Association has their very own extensive reading list of books that deal with a wide range of geographical issues including human, physical, environmental, maps, historical, and even fiction with geographical content.  I will not vouch for all the books, most especially Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, but one is bound to find a book that sounds interesting to them from this list.  (Hat tip: National Council for Geographic Education's Twitter Feed)

Free Military Geography Textbook for Download

Military Geography: For Professionals and the Public is an excellent textbook on all aspects of military geography.  This textbook goes well beyond the standard geohistorical look at battles and instead focuses on aspects of physical geography which military planners consider during operations.  The book is published by the government-owned National Defense University and is therefore not copyrighted.  One can download the book for free in various formats including PDF, EPUB, Kindle, and text.  If one wants, they can buy the printed form or the official Kindle version as well.

My First Book: Portraying the Overland Other: Representations of Plains Indians along the Oregon Trail

Portraying the Overland Other: Representations of Plains Indians along the Oregon Trail by me.

I am going to make a brief, self-serving commercial announcement.  I have edited my thesis, put it into book form, and published it for the Amazon Kindle (and free Kindle applications).

It is titled Portraying the Overland Other: Representations of Plains Indians along the Oregon Trail.  From the description:

The Oregon Trail is an important part of American history. Since the closing of the West many people and organizations have been involved in memorializing the Oregon Trail along its route. While primarily a story of pioneers, the Oregon Trail is deeply interconnected with Plains Indians who were active in the trail's success and history from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. Sadly the memorialization of the Indian element of the Oregon Trail is poorly done. Many monuments ignore Indians completely or depict them as a stereotypical Sioux-like creature. Only a few memorials get the history right.

This book studies memorials along the Oregon Trail in the Great Plains section of the trail. It examines these monuments in a historical and geographical perspective.

The book covers the entire Great Plains section of the Oregon Trail: Independence, Missouri to Fort Laramie, Wyoming.

The e-book costs $2.99 but for one week I am making a special offer.  I will donate three dollars to any one of my supported charities of your choice on my About Me page (preferably, however, if you want me to donate to another charity contact me and we will see if it can be arranged) if you write a review on Amazon.com before June 1, 2011.  Please be honest on the review.  Money will still be donated to the charity even if you write "editing and subject matter were horrible!"

By the way, Peter Humboldt is a pen name.

Geography Books Read in 2010

While a bit late here's a rundown of geography-related books I read in 2010.  For more recommendations check out my 2009 four great read list and the books section of the blog.

Afghanistan-Pakistan

Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia - Good people make good countries.  Bad people make Pakistan... and Pakistan is a cancer.

Greetings From Afghanistan, Send More Ammo: Dispatches from Taliban Country - One soldier's adventures and cultural observations in Afghanistan.

The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier - A very, very, very detailed book about the Waziristan War.

The Places In Between - Rory Stewart's walking journal of his trip from Herat to Kabul right after the Fall of the Taliban.

The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban - A good book when it discusses corruption in Afghanistan. However, Ms. Chayes is so hell bent against one warlord that she goes on rants while ignoring national government corruption until it is too late.

Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda - Everyone in Afghanistan uses the drug trade and the farmers are their slaves. 

Africa

A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 - Wow.  Probably the best book of the year.  Multiple parts show the lost world of the Pied-Noir, French internal politics, and the Algerian War.  No matter how bad Vietnam was for the United States, it never got as bad as Algeria did for the French.

Coffee Table

Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made it  - A fun look at proposed states, both fanciful and almost would have beens.  (GT Review)

Eurasia


The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus - A good introduction for those who want to know more about the pre-liberation days of the Caucasus.  Read it for pre-1989 history.



A Little War That Shook the World: Georgia, Russia and the Future of the West - A brief look at the 2008 Russia-Georgia War and how Russia played Georgia.

Europe

Geography, empire and National Revolution in Vichy France [An article from: Political Geography]  - Monarchists, fascists, and neosocialists united struggle to remake the field of geography in Vichy France.



No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945 - A book that does a wonderful job not only taking a new look at the European Front but also showing just how small the Western Front was compared to the Eastern Front. (GT Review)


Geography and Education


Global Perspectives in the Geography Curriculum: Reviewing the Moral Case for Geography - A detailed investigation how in England and the United States geography has been replaced by a "global perspectives" subject which radically differs from true geography. (GT Review and Author Interview)


Latin America

Geo-Mexico: the geography and dynamics of modern Mexico - Want to know more about Mexico?  Read this book. (GT Review)


Middle East

Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia - A look, both past and present, at the machine that is Saudi Arabia.  I read it before I traveled to The Kingdom and was able to make sense out of some things I saw.

Lawrence and the Arabs - The books is one of the first accuarte-ish accounts of T.E. Lawrence's time in Arabia and at the Paris Peace conference.  It ends with a powerful warning about Wahabbis.

Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present - A long but fascinating read into the long-time relationship between the United States and the Middle East.

Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948 - While not perfect and a bit dry, a good overview of the destruction of the Arab landscape after 1948, the legal battles over property rights, and current sites of tension.

War on Terrorism

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - A comparison of small wars around the world and potential answers to them.

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001  - Looming Tower from the West's perspective.  This book does a good job talking about the geopolitics of the pre-9/11 world's battle in Afghanistan and against al Qaeda.

The Islamist  - A personal look how Islamists try to create a new denomination of Islam, how they act, and why they differ from other forms of Islam.

Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill  - First half of the book is a great examination into religious violence. Second half can be skipped as it is a "this is how al Qaeda works" book.

World

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World - I wonder what he would say about happy "Iceland" now that their money train has stopped.  But an interesting look at happiness in certain parts of the world.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide -While I don't agree with all the stated solutions, a good read on the current state of women around the world.

Light of the World: The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times  - The Pope's look at the world's problems and some potential solutions.

The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity - Liberal theologies beware.  The future is a theologically conservative Catholic and Pentecostal faith that will rip through anything which stands in its way.  The now for all purposes defunct Anglican Communion and the United Methodist Church are feeling this now.

Vanished Ocean: How Tethys Reshaped the World - Will be properly reviewed when I get back to the states.  A good read into the geology of the forming earth and the giant Tethys Ocean.