Written specifically for freshman-level human geography courses, Human Geography: A Serious Introduction gives students a thorough, rigorous grounding in the subject and its historical, economic, political, cultural, and urban dimensions. The book addresses early cultures, languages, religion, the rise of capitalism, and globalization as components of human geographical systems. Human Geography also explores developed and underdeveloped societies, population, political geography, urban geography, agriculture, manufacturing, and services. The book closes with a chapter on geography-related careers. Each chapter includes a preview of the main points, a post-reading summary, a glossary of key terms, and study questions to be used for in-class discussions or as writing assignments. Through reading Human Geography students gain a historically contextualized understanding of how the world's geographies have been formed, from hunting and gathering societies to cyberspace. Barney Warf is a professor of geography at the University of Kansas. He holds a Ph.

D in geography from the University of Washington and is particularly interested in regional development including timber interests, ports, and commercial real estate trends. Dr. Warf has co-authored three geography textbooks and numerous book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and journal articles. His most recent book is Global Geographies of the Internet , and his professional writing has appeared in Geographical Review, the Journal of Geography in Higher Education, and Urban Geography . He is a member of the Association of American Geographers and the International Geographical Union.