E-Book Overview
This leading text offers a comprehensive, richly nuanced, and authoritative introduction to European geography. Coverage encompasses the entire region: its physical setting and environment, population and migration, languages and religions, and political organization. Particular attention is given to historic and contemporary features of the diverse urban environments in which most Europeans live, work, and play. Combining vivid description, essential information, and cogent analysis, the text is illustrated with more than 200 photographs and 64 maps. New to This Edition*Fully updated to reflect ongoing changes in this dynamic region.*Expanded coverage of timely topics such as emissions and energy policy, aging of the population, migration, religiosity and secularization, ethnonationalism, health care, popular culture, and the future of the European Union.*Engaging vignettes in every chapter on European places, cultural issues, and daily life.*Over 45 new photographs and maps. (20050701)
E-Book Content
The Europeans
Texts in Regional Geography A Guilford Series
Edited by James L. Newman, Syracuse University Latin America: Regions and People Robert B. Kent Africa South of the Sahara: A Geographical Interpretation, Second Edition Robert Stock Cuban Landscapes: Heritage, Memory, and Place Joseph L. Scarpaci and Armando H. Portela A Geography of Russia and Its Neighbors Mikhail S. Blinnikov The Europeans: A Geography of People, Culture, and Environment, Second Edition Robert C. Ostergren and Mathias Le Bossé
Europeans
The
Second Edition
A Geography of People, Culture, and Environment
Robert C. Ostergren Mathias Le Bossé
THE GUILFORD PRESS New York London
© 2011 The Guilford Press A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc. 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012 www.guilford.com All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America This book is printed on acid-free paper. Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ostergren, Robert Clifford. The Europeans : a geography of people, culture, and environment / Robert C. Ostergren, Mathias Le Bossé. — 2nd ed. p. cm. — (Texts in regional geography) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59385-384-6 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-60918-140-6 (hbk.) 1. Europe—Economic conditions. 2. Europe—Social conditions. 3. Geography—Europe. I. Le Bossé, Mathias. II. Title. HC240.O35 2011 940—dc22 2010052595
Preface to the Second Edition
W
hile the basic organization remains unchanged, the second edition of this text features a number of changes and innovations. Material throughout the book has been updated to reflect the many events that have taken place since the first edition appeared in 2004, such as the expansion of the European Union in 2007 to include Romania and Bulgaria or the effects of the 2008 global economic recession. Much new material has also been added. The second edition contains more than 45 new photos and maps. Individual chapters have been expanded to include new material on topics to which the previous edition may have paid too little or only passing attention. The chapter on religion, for example, has been expanded to consider not just religion, but the relationship between religion and values, and the confrontation between Islam and Christianity. Similarly, the political chapter includes new material, for instance, on contemporary ethno-national tensions and conflicts and the rise of xenophobic political movements. Also new to the se