Don’t Know Much About® Geography
Revised & Updated
Now available in a revised and updated edition: DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT® GEOGRAPHY: Everything You Need to Know About the World but Never Learned
by KENNETH C. DAVIS
•Who killed the Dead Sea?
•Why did Columbus think the world was shaped like a pear?
•Does the World Bank have ATMs?
•Is all the talk of global warming just a lot of hot air?
In a world of Google maps, “checking in,”and smartphones that tell us where we are, does Geography still matter?
Of course! Because Geography is more than simply knowing where you are and memorizing state capitals.
Understanding geography is to understand that WHERE something happens has so much to do with WHY it happens. Geography is about looking at the world and asking questions. It is the reason humanity moved from one place to the next and eventually off the planet in search of new worlds. As this recent New York Times story makes clear, Geography has everything to do with climbing the income ladder in America.
But Geography is also about curiosity — Where am I? What’s on the other side of that mountain? How do I get from here to there? And what and who will I find there?
Geography is also about the way people “discovered” the world. And, as usual, the real story is a lot more interesting than the simplistic version we got in grade school. Remember they told you that Columbus proved the world was round?
Wrong. People knew that the world was spherical by the time Columbus sailed in 1492. But Columbus actually thought the world was shaped like a pear. That’s what he wrote in his logbooks when he saw a river that he thought might even be one of the biblical rivers that flowed around the Garden of Eden. They left that out of my schoolbooks. (He also wrote that the world was shaped like a woman’s breast. But that’s another story!)
Even as technology shrinks time and distance, thinking “geographically” –looking at the world with wonder and asking Why?– is the key to understanding the things that make us all different. Technology may shorten distances, but the differences remain. If we ever hope to completely bridge those distances and honor those differences, we’re going to have lo learn the lessons of Geography.
Enjoy the journey!
