John Rennie Short was born in Tullibody, Scotland. He was educated at Alloa Academy and Aberdeen University. He completed his PhD at Bristol University and lectured in geography at Reading University before taking up his present position of Professor of Geography at Syracuse University in 1990. His previous books include Housing and Residential Structure (1980), The Humane City (Blackwell, 1989), Imagined Country (1991) and Human Settlement (1993).