Richard Peet looks in detail at the main trends in human geographic thought over the last thirty years, relating these to broader themes in philosophy and social theory. Beginning with existential phenomenology and humanistic geography, the book covers Marxism and radical geography, structuralism, structuration theory, realism, locality studies, various streams of poststructuralism and postmodernism, and feminism.

Each chapter examines a few theories in depth, concentrating on the major works and the nature of their contribution. Many of the ideas covered are dense and complex, but the reader is drawn gradually into the text through notions understandable to students. After spending time with this book the reader should be able to tackle virtually any philosophical theme in contemporary geographic thought.

The book will be central to courses in geographical thought and the history of geographical thought, and as part of virtually all courses in human geography whcih entail philosophy and theory.