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Geography

Summary And Conclusion



An attempt to bring the subject together, after a long hiatus, is Geography: A Modern Synthesis by Peter Haggett. This is suggested by the titles of a selection of chapters of his book: "The Fertile Planet"; "Environment Risks and Uncertainties"; "Ecosystems and Environmental Regions"; "Resources and Conservation"; "Spatial Diffusion"; "Toward a Regional Convergence"; and "Outer Space, Inner Space." Analysis may give partial answers, but syntheses is essential to provide cohesion to the reality that is geography. The holistic view of the Earth as seen from space should be imperative for geography as a unified discipline, concerned with ecosystems on a fragile planet.



As indicated above, in recent decades the study of geography has suffered a decline in institutions of higher learning in the United States, and it is opined that there will only be improvement by the re-establishment of the subject in high schools. The abysmal ignorance of most Americans about the world, which may be a legacy of isolationism, contrasts with the situation in other (even so-called Third World) countries where geography is taught at all levels. In those colleges and universities in the United States where the subject continues to be taught it is often necessary to recruit faculty worldwide. If wars in the Middle East and elsewhere are not enough to goad Americans into giving more attention to the subject, then perhaps increasing dependence on resources from overseas will provide the impetus to achieve this end.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Agnew, John, David N. Livingstone, and Alisdair Rogers, eds. Human Geography: An Essential Anthology. Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1996. See especially: David Harvey, "On the Present Condition of Geography"; J. B. Harley, "Deconstructing the Map"; Yi Fu Tuan, "Space and Place"; Torsten Hager-strand, "Diorama, Path and Project"; and Stan Openshaw, "A View of the GIS Crisis in Geography."

Clark, Michael J., Kenneth J. Gregory, and Angela M. Gurnell, eds. Horizons in Physical Geography. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Education, 1987. See especially: Roger G. Barry, "Perspectives on the Atmosphere"; Keith M. Clayton, "Perspectives on the Geosphere"; and Richard J. Chorley, "Perspectives on the Hydrosphere."

Cosgrove, Denis. Apollo's Eye: A Cartographic Genealogy of the Earth in the Western Imagination. Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: Norton, 1999.

Entrikin, J. Nicholas, and Stanley D. Brunn, eds. Reflections on Richard Hartshorne's "The Nature of Geography." Washington, D.C.: Association of American Geographers, 1989.

Haggett, Peter. Geography: A Modern Synthesis. 2nd ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1975.

Hartshorne, Richard. Perspective on the Nature of Geography. Chicago: Published by Rand McNally and Company as Monograph No. 1, 1959.

——. The Nature of Geography: A Critical Survey of Current Thought in the Light of the Past. Lancaster, Pa.: The Association, 1939. Reprint: Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976.

Harvey, David. Spaces of the Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001.

Katz, Cindi, and Janis Monk, eds. Full Circles: Geographies of Women over the Life Course. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.

Lewis, Martin W., and Karen E. Wilgen. The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997.

Livingston, David N., and Charles W. J. Withers, eds. Geography and Enlightenment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Quaino, Massimo. Geography and Marxism. Translated by Alan Braley. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes and Noble, 1982.

Romm, James S. The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought: Geography, Exploration, and Fiction. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Spate, O. H. K. "Toynbee and Huntington: A Study in Determinism." Geographical Journal 118 (1952): 406–428.

Thrower, Norman J. W. Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society. 2nd ed. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Norman J. W. Thrower

Additional topics

Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Gastrula to Glow dischargeGeography - The Nature Of Geography, Geographical Determinism, Military And Public Geography, Geographical Theories, The Limits In Geography