2.4 Subregions of North America
When geographers try to understand patterns of human geography in a region as large and varied as North America, they usually impose some sort of subregional order on the whole (Figure 2.38). The order used in this book divides North America into eight subregions. Each subregional section sketches in the features that give the subregion its distinct “character of place.” As we noted in Chapter 1, however, geographers rarely reach consensus on just where regional boundaries should be drawn or specifically how to define a given region. There are many schemes for dividing North America into subregions. The scheme used here is partly based on a book by Joel Garreau, The Nine Nations of North America (1981), in which he proposed a set of regions that cut across not only state boundaries but also national boundaries.
