read with my son for our geography course, it was a thorough trek thru history seen through the eyes of a real estate broker (location, location, location). where it was history we had already covered, it was great. but when it was more recent, and we didn't have the base knowledge, it was hard to grasp because - let's face it - geography without a framework is a boring list of never-heard-of places.

the book was published in the early 90's and it's a product of it's time - pushing an environmental agenda and raising all sorts of warning bells. actually it was quite a downer in that aspect. all the worries for the environmental age have gone nowhere - acid rain, artic ice melting, the hole in the ozone layer, carbon emissions...