The balance of topics covered is designed to meet the needs of the one-semester physical geography course. Descriptive details are subsumed under general principles and a unified point of view, making physical geography more intelligible to beginning students. Outstanding illustrations and thoughtful examples are provided that help students grasp the broader implications of the subject, and the ``timely and balanced'' coverage of topics, such as the potential effects of increasing CO2 content and the climates of cities, is highly praised by reviewers.The balance of topics covered is designed to meet the needs of the one-semester physical geography course. Descriptive details are subsumed under general principles and a unified point of view, making physical geography more intelligible to beginning students. Outstanding illustrations and thoughtful examples are provided that help students grasp the broader implications of the subject, and the ``timely and balanced'' coverage of topics, such as the potential effects of increasing CO2 content and the climates of cities, is highly praised by reviewers.