How humans harnessed the geographical landscape and wrote ourselves onto our surroundings
'A wonderfully curious writer'
OBSERVER'This is a book that reshapes our story of global human geography'
PROFESSOR DANNY DORLING Mountains, meridians, rivers and borders; these are some of the features that carve up the world on our maps and in our minds. But geography is far less set in stone than we might believe and, over time, we have become experts at reshaping our surroundings.
From the Qhapaq Ñan, South America's 'Great Road', and the Panama Canal to Mozambique's railways and Korea's sacred Baekdu-daegan mountain range, Samson explores how we mould the world around us. And how, as we etch our needs onto the natural landscape, we alter the course of history.
An immense work of cultural geography touching on ecology, sociology, history and politics,
Earth Shapers argues that, far from being constrained by geography, we are instead its creators.
About the AuthorMaxim Samson is a geographer and the author of Invisible Lines: Boundaries and Belts That Define the World. An award-winning educator and researcher, he has taught and presented keynote lectures at universities in the United Kingdom, the United States and Indonesia. He is an adjunct professor at DePaul University in Chicago, specialising in cultural geography and religion. In his free time, he enjoys long-distance running and exploring the culture and language of his favourite country, Indonesia.
Industry Reviews
'A captivating and compelling account of how civilisations have made use of natural landscapes for their long-term benefit. From the astounding Incan road system to the building of Chicago and the Panama canal, humans have a long history of shaping the Earth to build connections between ourselves. Samson demonstrates how we are not always prisoners of geography, but increasingly it's masters' - Professor Lewis Dartnell, author of ORIGINS: How the Earth Shaped Human History
'From railroads colonisers dreamed of building turning in projects designed by Africans, through to what travel routes will be used again when there is no longer a border within Korea, Earth Shapers tells stories that have been ignored because they do not fit the old narrative; a book that reshapes our story of global human geography' - Danny Dorling, 1971 Professor of Geography, University of Oxford
'Modern geography is the geography of our personal, political and sociological souls. We urgently need to know what we are. Samson holds up a mirror, showing us ourselves reflected in what we've done. Fascinating, original and prescient' - Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild
'Humans are inveterate environmental meddlers. No guide to their excesses is more eloquent, more learned, more surprising, more amusing or more convincing than Maxim Samson. His lively language and minatory message are as entertaining as they are unsettling' - Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, William P. Reynolds Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
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