The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization's Rough Landscape, by Harm de Blij

A geographer’s provocative response to rosy thinking on globalization

“Millions of world-flatteners move every day from hotel lobby to airport limo to first-class lounge, laptop in hand, uploading, outsourcing, offshoring as they travel, adjusting the air conditioning as they go. They are changing the world, these modern nomads, and they are, in many ways, improving it – depending of course on one’s definition of progress.”

In recent years a spate of books and articles have argued that the world today is so mobile, so interconnected and so integrated that it is, in one prominent assessment, flat.

But as Harm de Blij contends in The Power of Place, geography continues to hold billions of people in an unrelenting grip. We are all born into natural and cultural environments that shape what we become, individually and collectively.

From our "mother tongue" to our father's faith, from medical risks to natural hazards, where we start our journey has much to do with our destiny, and thus with our chances of overcoming the obstacles in our way.

This book will challenge readers perspectives’ on the significance of geography and upbringing

The book taps into the ‘Nature vs. Nurture’ debate, which is highly engaging and contested

Immigration is a highly topical subject, and has been receiving intensive news coverage, especially in relation to politics and the recent election

‘A tour-de-force, a fascinating and deeply knowledgeable account of the crucial ways in which “place”, the Earth's physical geography, shapes global society.’

Jeffrey D. Sachs, author of The End

PUBLISHED: 6th January 2011