The National Geographic desk reference

"The book presents up-to-the-minute facts and definitive figures on each of the planet's 191 nations, but there's much more. A concise history of geography introduces the greatest cartographers and explorers and chronicles the mapmaker's craft as it developed from speculative art to exacting science. A second section surveys the physical world: the slow, inexorable processes that create continents and oceans, the ceaseless swirl of weather patterns, the evolution of climates and ecologies, and the impact of humankind. Yet another chapter traces Earth's peoples as small, scattered bands of prehistoric hominids transform into great civilizations."--BOOK JACKET. "This reference also delves into the roots of language, religion, culture, and technology to show how human ingenuity and the challenges of nature have interacted for millennia to produce the modern world. Finally, an alphabetical, country-by-country overview presents precise, specific data and statistics on everything from political structure to agricultural and industrial production to ethnic, religious, and linguistic makeup."--BOOK JACKET.