Maryland Geography: An Introduction
A grand tour of Maryland’s geographic past through the lens of today’s landscape.

When he first laid eyes on the countryside around Chesapeake Bay in 1608, records reveal, Captain John Smith exclaimed, “Heaven and earth seemed never to have agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.” In Maryland Geography, James DiLisio—another admirer of the Free State—pays tribute to Maryland’s rich cultural, historical, and geographical heritage. This up-to-date, in-depth account interprets the contemporary environmental conditions of the “Marylandscape” by emphasizing its evolving political and socioeconomic contours.

This closely researched volume, which is loaded with instructive charts and maps, is the result of DiLisio’s lifelong fascination with the geography of his adopted state and his thirty-five years teaching Maryland geography at Towson University. Arguing that regional geography is a product of both natural and human events, Maryland Geography provides an account of the vital geographical stage that the people of Maryland have created.

DiLisio touches on Maryland’s pre-European American Indian heritage, post-colonial agriculture, and shifting industrial geography, as well as the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay and the rise of the modern economy. He considers the emergence of the isolated Eastern Shore; the rural tobacco land of southern Maryland; the rugged mining area of western Maryland; the prosperous, mixed farming area of the Piedmont; and the metropolitan Baltimore-Washington corridor. More than descriptive, the book examines major trends in the state—natural, economic, and demographic—in a way that prompts thinking about the consequences of growth and unbridled development. Aimed at college-level geography students, the book will also be of great interest to general readers, historians, politicians, and anyone involved in making policies relating to Maryland places.

1119462082
Maryland Geography: An Introduction
A grand tour of Maryland’s geographic past through the lens of today’s landscape.

When he first laid eyes on the countryside around Chesapeake Bay in 1608, records reveal, Captain John Smith exclaimed, “Heaven and earth seemed never to have agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.” In Maryland Geography, James DiLisio—another admirer of the Free State—pays tribute to Maryland’s rich cultural, historical, and geographical heritage. This up-to-date, in-depth account interprets the contemporary environmental conditions of the “Marylandscape” by emphasizing its evolving political and socioeconomic contours.

This closely researched volume, which is loaded with instructive charts and maps, is the result of DiLisio’s lifelong fascination with the geography of his adopted state and his thirty-five years teaching Maryland geography at Towson University. Arguing that regional geography is a product of both natural and human events, Maryland Geography provides an account of the vital geographical stage that the people of Maryland have created.

DiLisio touches on Maryland’s pre-European American Indian heritage, post-colonial agriculture, and shifting industrial geography, as well as the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay and the rise of the modern economy. He considers the emergence of the isolated Eastern Shore; the rural tobacco land of southern Maryland; the rugged mining area of western Maryland; the prosperous, mixed farming area of the Piedmont; and the metropolitan Baltimore-Washington corridor. More than descriptive, the book examines major trends in the state—natural, economic, and demographic—in a way that prompts thinking about the consequences of growth and unbridled development. Aimed at college-level geography students, the book will also be of great interest to general readers, historians, politicians, and anyone involved in making policies relating to Maryland places.

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Maryland Geography: An Introduction

Maryland Geography: An Introduction

by James DiLisio
Maryland Geography: An Introduction

Maryland Geography: An Introduction

by James DiLisio

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Overview

A grand tour of Maryland’s geographic past through the lens of today’s landscape.

When he first laid eyes on the countryside around Chesapeake Bay in 1608, records reveal, Captain John Smith exclaimed, “Heaven and earth seemed never to have agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.” In Maryland Geography, James DiLisio—another admirer of the Free State—pays tribute to Maryland’s rich cultural, historical, and geographical heritage. This up-to-date, in-depth account interprets the contemporary environmental conditions of the “Marylandscape” by emphasizing its evolving political and socioeconomic contours.

This closely researched volume, which is loaded with instructive charts and maps, is the result of DiLisio’s lifelong fascination with the geography of his adopted state and his thirty-five years teaching Maryland geography at Towson University. Arguing that regional geography is a product of both natural and human events, Maryland Geography provides an account of the vital geographical stage that the people of Maryland have created.

DiLisio touches on Maryland’s pre-European American Indian heritage, post-colonial agriculture, and shifting industrial geography, as well as the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay and the rise of the modern economy. He considers the emergence of the isolated Eastern Shore; the rural tobacco land of southern Maryland; the rugged mining area of western Maryland; the prosperous, mixed farming area of the Piedmont; and the metropolitan Baltimore-Washington corridor. More than descriptive, the book examines major trends in the state—natural, economic, and demographic—in a way that prompts thinking about the consequences of growth and unbridled development. Aimed at college-level geography students, the book will also be of great interest to general readers, historians, politicians, and anyone involved in making policies relating to Maryland places.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421414829
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 11/04/2014
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

James E. DiLisio is former vice provost of Towson University. He is author of Maryland: A Geography.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction The Itinerary 1

Part I Shaping the Landscape

1 Maryland's Past in Today's Landscape 7

2 The Mosaic of Maryland 32

3 The Physical Environment 49

4 Environmental Challenges 72

Part II Old Economy, New Economy

5 Sustaining a Farming Heritage 97

6 The Watermen's Domain 126

7 The Minerals Industries 154

8 The Shifting Geography of Manufacturing 175

Part III Human Footprints on the Marylandscape

9 The People of Maryland 199

10 Moving around Maryland 228

11 Governing Maryland 250

12 Urban Geography 263

Conclusion Maryland Transformed 289

References 293

Index 301

What People are Saying About This

John Rennie Short

Drawing upon a comprehensive body of information, DiLisio takes a wide sweep through the human and physical geography of the state of Maryland. This book is clearly a labor of love.

From the Publisher

Drawing upon a comprehensive body of information, DiLisio takes a wide sweep through the human and physical geography of the state of Maryland. This book is clearly a labor of love.
—John Rennie Short, University of Maryland Baltimore County

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