This book introduces college students to the breadth and spatial insights of the field of geography. The authors' approach allows the major research traditions of geography to dictate the principal themes. Chapter 1 introduces students to the four organising traditions that have emerged through the long history of geographical thought and writing: earth science, culture-environment, location, and area analysis. Each of the four parts of this book centres on one of those geographic perspectives. An access code to Powerweb is included. This website, developed with the help of instructors teaching this course, provides you and your students with curriculum-based materials, updated weekly assessments, informative and timely world news, refereed web links and much more.