Geography of British Columbia: People And Landscapes In Transition

British Columbia is often called Canada’s most beautiful province because of its extensively varied landscape. Unfortunately, this third-edition quasi-textbook on the geography of British Columbia falls short of highlighting that beauty. The book is heavy on statistics and a little bit boring in its text. While one of the advertised improvements for the new revision is “emphasizing the human side of geography,” it’s done in subject but not tone.

The book is very heavy on cultural geography as compared to physical geography, with only five of the six chapters really focusing on the physical part. This is a shame, as the physical geography chapters seem to come off as the most interesting. There is also surprising little information on the cities of British Columbia, both big and small.

The best feature of the book is its organization and use of illustrations. The many maps and diagrams are generally very helpful and help to break up the extensive text. The book also includes a full list of each map, chart, or table and where to find them, which is an incredibly useful tool that is so often overlooked in textbooks. The one thing that would have really improved the visual element of the book would have been printing in colour for the full effect of the maps.

Overall this is an acceptable text for the average high-schooler in British Columbia. It may be a bit dry, and therefore only read by students who have to, but the information is extensive and very conducive to learning about the geography of British Columbia.