Landscapes of Fear

Landscapes of Fear

Yi-Fu Tuan

A landmark study of fear from one of our most eminent thinkers

272 Pages, 6 x 9 in

  • Paperback
  • 9780816684595
  • Published: April 20, 2013
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  • eBook
  • 9780816684953
  • Published: April 1, 2013
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Details

Landscapes of Fear

Yi-Fu Tuan

ISBN: 9780816684595

Publication date: April 20th, 2013

272 Pages

8 x 5

"An elegant encyclopedic treatise on anxiety and its various manifestations, down through the ages. Tuan is an interdisciplinary virtuoso, ranging effortlessly over history, psychology, and anthropology. An arresting and beautifully documented study." —Kirkus


To be human is to experience fear, but what is it exactly that makes us fearful? Landscapes of Fear—written immediately after his classic Space and Place—is renowned geographer Yi-Fu Tuan’s influential exploration of the spaces of fear and of how these landscapes shift during our lives and vary throughout history.


In a series of linked essays that journey broadly across place, time, and cultures, Tuan examines the diverse manifestations and causes of fear in individuals and societies: he describes the horror created by epidemic disease and supernatural visions of witches and ghosts; violence and fear in the country and the city; fears of drought, flood, famine, and disease; and the ways in which authorities devise landscapes of terror to instill fear and subservience in their own populations.


In this groundbreaking work—now with a new preface by the author—Yi-Fu Tuan reaches back into our prehistory to discover what is universal and what is particular in our inheritance of fear. Tuan emphasizes that human fear is a constant; it causes us to draw what he calls our “circles of safety” and at the same time acts as a foundational impetus behind curiosity, growth, and adventure.



Yi-Fu Tuan is the J. K. Wright and Vilas Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.