Now in its fourth edition, this leading textbook has been extensively revised to reflect the sweeping changes the past decade has brought to Europe and to incorporate new research in the field. Hailed for its creativity and intellectual depth, the book for the first time combines lead author Terry Jordan-Bychkov's decades of first-hand experience in Western and Central Europe with Bella Bychkova Jordan's expertise on European Russia to provide a comprehensive view of the region as a whole. The authors employ a humanistic geographical approach that is ideally suited to facilitate understanding of this ancient, complex culture. Their topical organization, including environment, religion, language, geogenetics, demography, geopolitics, industry, and urban and rural life, offers students a holistic understanding of the diverse European culture area. The final chapter offers a fitting capstone with its unique regional classification that pulls together all the strands of the narrative. Inclusive, intellectual, rich in ideas, lively, controversial, humanistic, and above all interesting, The European Culture Area is the text of choice for courses on the geography of Europe. Book jacket.