The trivia lover's guide to the world : geography for the lost and found / Gary Fuller.

Includes index.

The effects of geographic ignorance on the modern world -- We think big, sometimes too big -- Maps are flat, the world isn't -- Africa bashing? What's that? -- Places aren't always where you think they should be -- State capitals and American politics -- The exception to everything -- Married to a stranger -- Why old maps look funny -- Military uses of geography -- Really big cities -- Agriculture and tourism -- Geography and religion -- Geographic pockets of isolation: Preserving old ways -- Geographic incoherence -- Countries breaking apart -- Unity in disunity -- Maps fool us again! -- Culture hearths: Ancient and modern -- Population decline: Change on the horizon -- Geographic differences and civil war -- New agricultural crops -- Domestications -- Continental tidbits -- Islands divided -- Oceans and seas -- Bridges -- Rivers -- Medical geography -- Border issues -- Geography of sports -- Geography and religion revisited -- The north -- Prison islands -- Canals -- Land and sea battles -- Buildings -- Mountain peaks -- Lakes -- Outliers -- Cities: Planned and fiat -- Whatever happened to ...? -- The wild West -- Spatial diffusion -- Parks -- Climate and weather.

Gary Fuller's entertaining and engaging guide enhances geographic know-how with good, old-fashioned fun, using trivia to open up new worlds of knowledge for all readers. Often dismissed as unimportant, trivia here highlights issues that are far from trivial, pondering, for example, what peaceful country requires citizens to keep guns in their homes? what continent contains at least 75 percent of the world's fresh water? and why aren't New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia the capitals of their respective states?