"Harm de Blij's childhood started with five idyllic years. His mother was a concert pianist and music teacher, his father a violinist with the Rotterdam symphony orchestra, and they lived in a suburban house filled with music and sunshine. Then, in May 1940, the Germans destroyed the heart of Rotterdam to break Dutch resistance in the Second World War. The family moved to a village in the province of Utrecht, where the next four years were a time of deprivation and survival, isolation and peril." "Through these difficult years, a collection of geography books and atlases in the de Blij's library provided solace and formed a window on the outside world. Young de Blij's encounter with geography books and magazines during this period led to a globe-girdling career as a leading geographer, researcher, author, and teacher."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved