Settlement is the physical reflection of the social organization of space. Starting with the human dwelling, settlements aggregate into farmsteads, hamlets, villages, towns, and cities. Emphasizing their impact on present day society, Landscapes of Settlement traces the course of rural development, deciphering from these contours the history of the land and its people. Out of detailed case studies in both the developed and developing worlds this book distills the underlying processes behind rural settlement systems, and then builds upon this to analyze settlement patterns on the continental and global scales.