Contents:
Part 1: The Earth as a Planet, including
- Smallness of the Earth as compared with the Sun and Fixed Stars
- Motion of the Planet
- Various opinions as to the Formation of the Earth
- Geological Strata
- Incessant modification in the shape of the continents
Part 2: The Land, including
- Regular distribution of continents, the ancient world
- Inequality of Land and Water, mountains, oceans, polar circle, etc
- Principal analogies between continents, slopes and declivities, etc
- Northern continent, southern continents, Old World and the New, etc
- Oceans
- Plains
- Europe
- Deserts in Arabia, Iran, Indus, Gobi etc
- American Deserts
- Central Asia
- Mountains, mountain ridges, valleys, sacred mountains, mountain chains
Part 3: The Circulation of Water, including
- Influence of the Sun and meteroic agents on snow
- Transformation of snow into ice
- Glaciers
- Springs
- Rivers
- Floods
- Lakes
- The Dead Sea & other salt lakes
Part 4: Subterranean Forces, including
- Volcanoes and Eruptions
- Composition of lava
- Submarine volcanoes
- Earthquakes
- Mobility of the Earth’s crust
About the author (from Wikipedia):
Jacques Élisée Reclus (15 March 1830 – 4 July 1905) was a renowned French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes (“Universal Geography”), over a period of nearly 20 years (1875–1894). In 1892 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for this work, despite having been banished from France because of his political activism.
Reclus was admired by many prominent 19th century thinkers, including Alfred Russel Wallace, George Perkins Marsh and Patrick Geddes, Henry Stephens Salt, and Octave Mirbeau. James Joyce was influenced by Reclus’ book La civilisation et les grands fleuves historiques.
Reclus advocated nature conservation and opposed meat-eating and cruelty to animals. He was a vegetarian. As a result, his ideas are seen by some historians and writers as anticipating the modern social ecology and animal rights movements.