In prehistoric times, our ancestors began building shelters and planting crops in order to escape from nature's harsh realities. Today, we flee urban dangers for the safer, reconfigured world of suburban lawns and parks. According to geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, people have always sought to escape in one way or another, sometimes foolishly, often creatively and ingeniously. Glass-tower cities, suburbs, shopping malls, Disneyland-all are among the most recent monuments in our efforts to escape the constraints and uncertainties of life-ultimately, those imposed by nature. "What cultural product," Tuan asks, "is not escape?" In his new book, the capstone of a celebrated career, Tuan shows that escapism is an inescapable component of human thought and culture.

段义孚,是享誉世界的美国华裔人文主义地理学大师,在地理学理论、园林建筑、文学、宗教等研究领域都作出过举世瞩目的贡献。他关注人的问题,注重人性、人情,其思想见解发人深省,因而被公认为“拥有超然灵魂之正义之声”。他著作颇丰,代表作品有：《恋地情结：对环境感知、态度和价值观的研究》 (Topophilia： A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values)、《经验透视中的空间与地方》(Space and Place：The Perspective of Experience)、《恐惧的景观》(Landscapes of Fear)、《撕裂的世界与自我：群体生活和个体意识》(Segmented Worlds and Self：Group Life and Individual Consciousness)、《美好的生活》(The Good Life)、《逃避主义》(Escapism)、《宇宙与家：从一个世界公民的视角》(Cosmos and Hearth： A Cosmopolite’s Viewpoint)等等。

他一生荣获多种荣誉与奖项,包括英国科学院院士、美国艺术与科学院院士、威斯康星大学荣誉教授、古根海姆基金奖、布里根景观建筑奖及美国地理学会授予的地理学杰出贡献奖等等。