Geography 460

The links below supplement the Geography 460 page on Carmen. Lecture outlines, exam study guides, and a copy of the current course syllabus can be found there.

Writing resources:

• The Academic Enrichment Center at OSU-Marion
• APA Style Tips
• Common Errors in English from a professor at Washington State University
• Citing References in Your Paper from the University of Wisconsin
  • The section on Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources is an excellent guide to avoiding inadvertent plagiarism and improving your writing.
  • This source also lists five different documentation styles. Feel free to work with whichever one you like; all I ask is that you use a consistent style throughout a single paper.

Lecture resources:

• What qualifies as a state?
  • The official web site of The Principality of Sealand
  • The web site for HavenCo, a "data haven" operating from Sealand
  • A Wired magazine article from 2000 reporting on the declared state and the purported activity of HavenCo
• Nationalism
  • Readings:
    • Us and Them: the Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism by Jerry Z. Muller in Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008
  • Some resources for Nationalism assignment:
    • Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation
    • Federal Union of European Nationalities
    • A list of Nations and Peoples whose culture or territory is threatened (scroll down to "Nations and Peoples")
    • Flags of Stateless Nations
• U.S. political geography
  • U.S. Electoral Geography:
    • 270towin.com, an interactive electoral-vote predictor for the 2008 U.S. presidential election
    • Thought the ubiquitous 2004 red state/blue state map was too simplistic and misleading? Then try the ones at Maps and cartograms of the 2004 US presidential election results or at Election 2004 Results.
    • For past elections, see Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, which contains maps and historic information relating to all U.S. presidential elections from 1789-2004.
  • Sullivan, R.D. "Beyond Red & Blue." Please familiarize yourself with the concept of Sullivan's 10 regions, and read enough of the following articles to develop an understanding of how he believes presidents win election in the United States. Starred (*) items are especially important:
    • *Beyond Red and Blue (Introduction)
    • *The 10 Regions of US Politics (please follow the links to detailed descriptions of all 10 regions)
    • Dominators and Bloc-heads
    • History: Continental Divides
    • Déjà vu in Des Moines (pre-2004 election update)
    • *Tote that barge, lift that bale (post-2004 election review/analysis)
    • *More recent posts regarding the 2008 primaries can be found here, on the Beyond Red & Blue blog.
  • The Christian Science Monitor's Patchwork Nation, a different way of dividing us up by political preferences
    • The 11 community types
    • Methodology of the study
    • How do you fit in?
    • Forum
• Geopolitics and International Relations:
  • Readings:
    • Waving Goodbye to Hegemony by Parag Khanna in the New York Times, January 27, 2008
    • Kaliningrad: The forgotten land by Steven Paulikas of BBC News, March 26, 2005
  • Maps of War, a collection of interactive, dynamic maps showing one point of view on the historic political geography of the world. Thought-provoking maps include:
    • Which Presidents have led the United States into its deadliest wars?
    • Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history?
    • How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries?
  • The U.S. Dept. of State
  • Basic Statistics for United States Imperialism (note that, as used in this document, the word "statistics" is not necessarily the equivalent of "indisputable fact")
  • The United Nations
  • The CBC's report on the James Bay Project and the Cree

Assignment 2 resources:

• Marion County GIS
• The U.S. Census Bureau's American Fact Finder, which provides demographic information for all communities in the country. To use for this assignment, select "Block Group" (or "Census Tract" if your precinct includes all of the block groups in a census tract), then "Ohio", then "Marion County", then the one of your census tracts, and finally the relevant block group(s) for that census tract. Next, select another one of your census tracts and its block group(s), and repeat if necessary. Finally, click "add" and then "next" to get a list of all tables with data on your census tract(s). Each of the Summary Files includes slightly different data, so look through each of them to see which ones you want to use for your census tract(s).
  • Summary File 1
  • Summary File 3
  • Summary File 4

Geography in general:

• Geography at About.com, an excellent collection of information about the discipline and links to more resources
• Download Google Earth, an interactive map of the entire world
• Globalis, the United Nations' Interactive Map

The Ohio State University Geography Department Site
Back to Dave's Home Page