Is Geography Destiny?

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A trip to India once meant a saffron-scented experience of the exotic. Today, going to Bangalore means a trip to a First World city built on modern technology. Business travelers can fly from Chicago to Shanghai and experience a pretty homogenous world of identically furnished high-rise offices and business hotels and frequent flyer clubs. And you can always get your preferred breakfast beverage: The sun never sets on the Starbucks mermaid.

But the flat world experienced by the globe-trotting management consultant is only the wealthiest and most air-conditioned sliver of the globe. Harm de Blij’s new book, “The Power of Place” (Oxford University Press, 280 pages, $27.95), reminds us that our planet is still a remarkably diverse globe filled with poverty as well as prosperity. In some ways, the differences across space have only increased over time.

Place is powerful indeed. People born in America or Europe are much more likely to end up wealthy and healthy than people born in the developing world. Life expectancy in Sweden and Japan is over 80, while life expectancy in Zimbabwe is under 45. The success of New York reflects the power of place to foment creativity and productivity by speeding the flow of ideas.

In his book, Mr. de Blij addresses some of the most fundamental questions in geography: Are differences across space man-made or nature’s handiwork? Is globalization homogenizing the world, and is that a good thing? Should political power be held by large nation states or devolved to smaller geographic units?

Mr. de Blij sagely steers a middle ground through all of these old debates. He doesn’t give us a one-sided case for geographic determinism or a wholesale attack on globalization. Instead, “The Power of Place” offers a thoughtful, balanced, and meandering tour of the diversity of human geography.

For all its explanatory power, geographic determinism does have some clear limits. It can provide at best a partial explanation for the variety of language and religion, which is the heart and soul of cultural diversity. As much as anything else, our religious beliefs and our languages are formed socially, through interactions with the people around us. Certainly, no aspects of physical landscape can explain why 71% of Americans, but only 11% of Danes, believe in the devil. These beliefs do not reflect the temperature or trade winds or soil of the two countries. Religious beliefs, like language, reflect what we learn from our parents and peers and preachers and teachers.

But nature is far less innocent in the geography of health. Malaria has been pushed back toward the tropics, but there it remains, killing millions in the climates that are kindest to its carriers. Great tsunamis and hurricanes continue to kill thousands on low-lying coastal areas. Volcanoes threaten Tokyo and Seattle. Man can make naturally dangerous places a little safer, but there is no doubt that natural geography matters.

Mr. de Blij takes the sensible center on the connection between globalization and diversity. Increasing connections between people are reducing the amount of linguistic diversity, but religious heterogeneity, especially of the extreme sort, doesn’t appear to be declining. Global inequality is falling as the once-poor nations of India and China become wealthier, but income inequality within and across nations is rising. (The gains of India and China, among several other fast-developing economies, more than make up for growing inequality elsewhere, in statistical terms.) Within America, the heterogeneity of real estate prices and education levels across metropolitan areas is rising, but racial segregation is falling.

Mr. de Blij also occupies a middle ground on the benefits of globalization. He hopes that more people will get access to the economic opportunities in the developed world, but he also regrets the loss of cultural and linguistic diversity that accompanies this process. I’m less worried about declining linguistic variety than he is but, then again, Mr. de Blij seems to know six languages well; I’m stuck with my grammatically imperfect English, and my linguistically limited perspective makes me pretty enthusiastic about the spread of English.

I am more prone to share Mr. de Blij’s concerns about other adverse consequences of connection. Increasing global connectedness has brought disease, warfare, and terrorism across oceans and continents. We should not turn away from globalization or immigration because of the costs of connection, but we should, at least, acknowledge those costs.

Mr. de Blij also persists in seeing both sides of the case for giving power to subnational provinces. He is right to do so. There is much to admire about systems that allow for regional diversity, but regional governments often exacerbate regional hostility and fail to provide for larger public goods, such as defense or redistribution.

Mr. de Blij’s vast reach and steady even-handedness make “The Power of Place” an enjoyable, intellectual stroll. If the author has one overarching theme, it is to remind his readers that much of the world is still suffering with poverty and disease. That fact is always worth remembering.

Mr. Glaeser is the Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard, director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.


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