Between the Summit and the Sea

This book brings together a wide array of commentary to coalesce as though it were a piece of landscape theatre, always with the recognition that the fascinating and at times entertaining observations carry venom.

Alfred H. Siemens is a professor in the Geography department at the University of British Columbia.

James J. Parsons, University of California, Berkeley:
The comparative analysis of so many travellers' accounts coming in roughly the same time period is where its strength lies. I can think of nothing comparable and it is made much more effective by the fact that the author himself knows the area so well ... It is original, comparative and has contemporary relevance.

Philip L. Wagner, Simon Fraser University:
This book should stimulate curiosity about the ancient agricultural remains, as well as encouraging visits to now safe and sanitary Veracruz and still felicitous Jalapa. One is tempted to imagine today's traveller, as heir to those that Siemens cites, recording similarly his or her impressions. and to ask how much they would differ from what was written a century ago.

George Lovell, Queen's University:
A fine example of what a mature geographer, one writing in his intellectual prime, can produce. What we have before us, in range and imaginativeness, is a piece of work the author clearly enjoyed undertaking, an illustration of something geography is eminently capable of producing ... an especially innovative example of good geography, one that is alive, animated, and breathes with the wonder of curiosity and discovery.