The Five Themes—Modified for the New Edition
The Human Mosaic has always been built around five themes. In the new edition, these themes, modified to reflect changes both in the discipline and in the world, are:
- Region
- Mobility
- Globalization
- Nature-culture
- Cultural landscape
These five themes are introduced and explained in the first chapter and serve as the framework for the 11 topical chapters that follow. Each theme is applied to a variety of geographical topics: demography, language, ethnicity, politics, religion, agriculture, industry, the city, and types of culture. A small icon accompanies each theme as a visual reminder to students when these themes recur throughout the book.
Reorganized Contents In Response to Instructor Input
- Population Geography is now the third chapter in the book, introducing students to the patterns and movements of human settlement before examining socio-cultural topics such as language, ethnicity and religion.
- Chapter 10 (Urbanization: The City in Time and Space) now focuses on the processes and patterns of urbanization.
- On a completely different scale of analysis, Chapter 11 (Inside the City: A Cultural Mosaic) looks in more detail at the patterns and processes inside of cities.
New "Subject to Debate"
In every chapter, this feature gives students several sides of a controversial topic and asks them to form an educated opinion. Topics include:
- Do human activities affect the Earth’s climate?
- How do transplanted cultures become a part of or reshape the culture of their new homes?
- Are females an endangered gender?
- Should learning and speaking English be imposed on all residents of the U.S.?
- Will racism persist so long as cultural differences exist in the world?
- Does globalization mean the end of the nation-state?
- What is religious fundamentalism?
- Are biofuels the answer to the current resource crisis?
- Does free trade benefit some groups more than others?
- Can urban areas become environmentally sustainable?
- Can gentrification of urban areas benefit everyone?
- How is the Internet used to promote democracy and to suppress free speech?
New Topics, including:
- A broad view of the concept of globalization, as discussed in the introduction to the new Globalization theme (Chapter 1).
- The diffusion of disease in human history, including the examples of the Black Plague, and the spread of Cholera, HIV/AIDS and SARS (Chapter 3).
- The dynamics of language dominance on the Internet (Chapter 4).
- The red state/ blue state phenomenon in the United States, accompanied by several eye-popping new figures (Chapter 6).
- Discussions of the Taoic religions alongside the major monotheistic religions throughout all five themes (Chapter 7).
- Timely topics, such as aquaculture, labor mobility, organic food, food safety and biofuels (Chapter 8).
- A stronger focus on economic development, including Rostow’s model of economic development and its failings (Chapter 9).
- The future of geography as a result of globalization (Chapter 12).