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.