Across This Land: A Regional Geography of the United States and Canada / Edition 1

by John C. Hudson

Overview

A fascinating overview of the lands and peoples of the United States and Canada, both past and present.

Based on decades of research and written in clear, concise prose by one of the foremost geographers in North America, John C. Hudson's Across This Land is a comprehensive regional geography of the North American continent. Dividing the terrain into ten regions, which are then subdivided into twenty-seven smaller areas, Hudson's brisk narrative reveals the dynamic processes of each area's distinctive place-specific characteristics. Focusing on how human activities have shaped and have been shaped by the natural environment, Hudson considers physical, political, and historical geography. He also highlights related topics, including resource exploitation, economic development, and population change.

Praised in its first edition as a readable and reliable interpretation of United States and Canadian geography, the revised Across This Land retains these strengths while adding substantial new material. Incorporating the latest available population and economic data, this thoroughly updated edition includes

• reflections on new developments, such as resource schemes, Native governments in Atlantic Canada, and the role of climate change in the Arctic
• a new section focused on the US Pacific insular territories west of Hawaii
• evolving views of oil and gas production resulting from the introduction of hydraulic fracturing
• revised text and maps involving agricultural production based on the 2017 Census of Agriculture
• current place names
• more than 130 photographs

The most extensive regional geography of the North American continent on the market, Hudson's Across This Land will continue as the standard text in geography courses dealing with Canada and the United States, as well as a popular reference work for scholars, students, and lay readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801865671
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2002
Series:	Creating the North American Landscape
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.21(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John C. Hudson is a professor of geography and the director of the Program in Geography at Northwestern University. He is the coauthor of American Farms, American Food: A Geography of Agriculture and Food Production in the United States.

Table of Contents

List of Maps
Preface
References
PART I. Atlantic Canada and Quebec
Chapter 1. Newfoundland and Labrador
Chapter 2. Quebec
Chapter 3. The Maritimes
PART II. The Northeast
Chapter 4. New England
Chapter 5. New York and Ontario
Chapter 6. The Middle Atlantic
PART III. The Upland South
Chapter 7. The Southern Appalachians
Chapter 8. The Interior Low Plateaus
Chapter 9. The Ozarks and the Ouachitas
PART IV. The Lowland South
Chapter 10. The Southeastern Piedmont and the Coastal Plain
Chapter 11. The Florida Peninsula
Chapter 12. The Gulf Coastal Plain and the Alluvial Mississippi Valley
PART V. The Middle West
Chapter 13. The Corn Belt
Chapter 14. The Lower Great Lakes
PART VI. The Central Plains
Chapter 15. Prairie Wheat Lands
Chapter 16. Texas and the Southern Plains
PART VII. The Western Plains and the Rocky Mountains
Chapter 17. The Southern Rocky Mountains and the High Plains
Chapter 18. The Missouri Plateau
PART VIII. The Intermountain West
Chapter 19. The Northern Rocky Mountains and the Columbia–Snake Plateau
Chapter 20. The Great Basin
Chapter 21. The Colorado Plateau and the Desert Southwest
PART IX. The North
Chapter 22. The Upper Great Lakes
Chapter 23. The Canadian Shield
Chapter 24. The Far North
PART X. The Pacific Realm
Chapter 25. The Pacific Northwest
Chapter 26. California
Chapter 27. Hawaii
Index

What People are Saying About This

John Fraser Hart

This book is a genuine tour de force. Light years ahead of existing textbooks, Across This Land is a true regional geography that will benefit anyone who reads it.

— John Fraser Hart, University of Minnesota

Editorial Reviews

"The delicious historical details are interspersed with sweeping generalizations that capture the essence of each region and sub-region... It's such good reading and such a valuable resource that Across This Land is an essential book in the personal library of any well-read American or Canadian."

Wisconsin Magazine of History - Russell S. Kirby

"Extensive emphasis on the history and politics of each region makes it unique and outstanding. The book offers a new direction for teaching the regional geography of the United States and Canada."

American Review of Canadian Studies - James C. Saku

"An elegantly written and concise regional geography... The result accomplishes the best intent of regional geography—to shape the character of the whole through careful description of its parts."

Annals of Iowa - Michael Steiner

A readable and informative volume that is not limited to one phase of geography, but which includes the physical, historical, economic, human, and political aspects of the topic.
—American Reference Books Annual

A well-written story of a land and people, enhanced by photographs taken over a 20-year period. The narrative is tied to a series of fascinating and uncluttered maps, which enable readers to relate place and circumstance . . . This regional study of the geography of North America is as comprehensive as it is excellent.
—Choice

This fact-packed, well-organized and felicitously written book goes miles beyond the mere recitation of state capitals. Drawing upon his nearly 30 years of teaching university-level geography, Hudson offers a comprehensive history of the geological, agricultural, topographical, industrial, social and political development of the United States and Canada.
—Northwestern

The delicious historical details are interspersed with sweeping generalizations that capture the essence of each region and sub-region . . . It's such good reading and such a valuable resource that Across This Land is an essential book in the personal library of any well-read American or Canadian.
—Wisconsin Magazine of History

Extensive emphasis on the history and politics of each region makes it unique and outstanding. The book offers a new direction for teaching the regional geography of the United States and Canada.
—American Review of Canadian Studies

An elegantly written and concise regional geography . . . The result accomplishes the best intent of regional geography—to shape the character of the whole through careful description of its parts.
—Annals of Iowa

This book is a genuine tour de force. Light years ahead of existing textbooks, Across This Land is a true regional geography that will benefit anyone who reads it.
—John Fraser Hart, University of Minnesota

From the Publisher

Extensive emphasis on the history and politics of each region makes it unique and outstanding. The book offers a new direction for teaching the regional geography of the United States and Canada.

American Review of Canadian Studies

This fact-packed, well-organized and felicitously written book goes miles beyond the mere recitation of state capitals. Drawing upon his nearly 30 years of teaching university-level geography, Hudson offers a comprehensive history of the geological, agricultural, topographical, industrial, social and political development of the United States and Canada.

Northwestern

An elegantly written and concise regional geography . . . The result accomplishes the best intent of regional geography—to shape the character of the whole through careful description of its parts.

Annals of Iowa

This book is a genuine tour de force. Light years ahead of existing textbooks, Across This Land is a true regional geography that will benefit anyone who reads it.

John Fraser Hart

The delicious historical details are interspersed with sweeping generalizations that capture the essence of each region and sub-region . . . It's such good reading and such a valuable resource that Across This Land is an essential book in the personal library of any well-read American or Canadian.

Wisconsin Magazine of History

A readable and informative volume that is not limited to one phase of geography, but which includes the physical, historical, economic, human, and political aspects of the topic.

American Reference Books Annual

A well-written story of a land and people, enhanced by photographs taken over a 20-year period. The narrative is tied to a series of fascinating and uncluttered maps, which enable readers to relate place and circumstance . . . This regional study of the geography of North America is as comprehensive as it is excellent.

Choice