Historians will find these provocative essays useful in rethinking the geographical aspect of our work. The editors divided the chapters into two groups: the first serves to introduce the reader to postmodern trends in geography; and the second part analyzes how social actors create regional identities in a given geographic space. Unlike many books produced from conferences, the papers in this collection work well together and the observations of the first section establish themes that the more empirical studies of the second half develop. Some contributions still read like presentations and could use more elucidation to achieve their ambitious objectives.
Eric Van Young once wrote that, “Regions are like love—they are difficult to define, but we know them when we see them.” This collection agrees that the categories often used to define regions “objectively” (ethnicity, politics, hydrology, ecology), are rarely consistent. Regions are socially constructed and constantly changing but also...
