Human Geography: A Serious Introduction gives students a thorough, rigorous grounding in the subject and its historical, economic, political, cultural, and urban dimensions.

The book addresses early cultures, languages, religions, the rise of capitalism, and globalization as components of human geographical systems. Students read about developed and underdeveloped societies, population, political geography, urban geography, agriculture, manufacturing, and services. Each chapter includes a preview of the main points, a post-reading summary, a glossary of key terms, and study questions to be used for in-class discussions or as writing assignments.

The fourth edition features a new chapter on economic geography concerned with industrial agriculture, manufacturing, and services. It includes refreshed statistics and figures regarding world populations, groups, and geography to provide students with the most up-to-date information possible. It also contains new data on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on world geography.

By reading Human Geography, students gain a historically contextualized understanding of how the world's geographies have been formed, from hunting and gathering societies to cyberspace. The book is an idea resource for freshman-level human geography courses.