This interdisciplinary 1984 volume extends the debate about the purpose and practice of historical geography.

This 1982 work conceives of historical geography as a field in its own right and as the foundation of a revitalized traditional, empirical human geography. The main argument is that historical enquiry is an independent form of understanding not based upon the approaches of the natural or social sciences.

This 1982 volume of essays attempts to promote discussion about the purpose and practice of historical geography.

Focusing on aspects of the functioning of technology, and by looking at instruments and at instrumental performance, this book addresses the epistemological questions arising from examining the technological bases to geographical exploration and knowledge claims. Questions of geography and exploration and technology are addressed in historical and contemporary context and in different geographical locations and intellectual cultures. The collection brings together scholars in the history of geographical exploration, historians of science, historians of technology and, importantly, experts with curatorial responsibilities for, and museological expertise in, major instrument collections. Ranging in their focus from studies of astronomical practice to seismography, meteorological instruments and rockets, from radar to the hand-held barometer, the chapters of this book examine the ways in which instruments and questions of technology - too often overlooked hitherto - offer insight into the connections between geography and exploration.

Table of contents

Interest of historical geography is not limited to the locations of historical importance or places with many historical sites. On the contrary, areas of less historic importance often emerge as places of geographical interest. In other words, from a geographical perspective, wherever human beings reside is worth studies and fieldworks. Human beings are living on the earth often oblivious to the grace in nature. It is considered natural that regional studies focus on intangibles such as history, politics and economy rather than nature or land. Regional studies revolve around specific historical events or leading persons while ignoring the life of everyday people. How our forefathers expanded agricultural lands and conducted farming, what kind of houses they built and how they established settlements were considered matters of no consequence. This point of view stems from the ruling class which lacked the interest to keep records of the lives outside their class. The lives of ordinary people, being unable to write and keep records of themselves, are hardly documented. While written historical references are deficient, vestiges of the common people's lives remain in the cultural landscape, in the minds of people and their way of living. It is not impossible to review regional characteristics based on various aspects of everyday lives of the people. This book is one such study within the Korean context.

For many the dawn of the twentieth century ushered in an era where the world map had few if any blank spaces left to discover. The age of exploration was supposedly dead. "New Spaces of Exploration" challenges this assumption. Focusing specifically on exploration in the twentieth century, the authors demonstrate how new technologies and changing geopolitical configurations have ensured that exploration has remained a key feature of our rapidly globalizing world. Ranging widely in their geographical focus - from the Europe and Asia to Australia, and from the polar regions to outer space - they demonstrate the increasing diversity of modern exploration and reveal the continuing political, military, industrial and cultural motivations at play. The result is a major contribution to our understanding of the significance of exploration in the twentieth century. Contributors include: E. Baigent, C. Collis, K. Dodds, F. Driver, M. Godwin, J. Hill, F. Korsmo, F. MacDonald, S. Naylor, J. Ryan, N. Thomas, and K. Yusoff.

This classic text retains the superb scholarship of the first edition in a thoroughly revised and accessibly written new edition. With both new and updated essays by distinguished American and Canadian authors, the book provides a comprehensive historical overview of the formation and growth of North American regions from European exploration and colonization to the second half of the twentieth century. Collectively the contributors explore the key themes of acquisition of geographical knowledge, cultural transfer and acculturation, frontier expansion, spatial organization of society, resource exploitation, regional and national integration, and landscape change. With six new chapters, redrawn maps, a new introduction that explores scholarly trends in historical geography since publication of the first edition, and a new final chapter guiding students to the basic sources for historical geographic enquiry, North America will be an indispensable text in historical geography courses.

A digitally enhanced version of this atlas was developed by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond and is available online. Click the link above to take a look.

Winner, 2020 J.G. Ragsdale Book Award from the Arkansas Historical Association “I reckon stranger you have not been used much to traveling in the woods,” a hunter remarked to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft as he trekked through the Ozark backcountry in late 1818. The ensuing exchange is one of many compelling encounters between Arkansas travelers and settlers depicted in Arkansas Travelers: Geographies of Exploration and Perception, 1804–1834. This book is the first to integrate the stories of four travelers who explored Arkansas during the transformative period between the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and statehood in 1836: William Dunbar, Thomas Nuttall, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, and George William Featherstonhaugh. In addition to gathering their tales of treacherous rivers, drunken scoundrels, and repulsive food, historian and geographer Andrew J. Milson explores the impact such travel narratives have had on geographical understandings of Arkansas places. Using the language in each traveler’s narrative, Milson suggests, and the book includes, new maps that trace these perceptions, illustrating not just the lands traversed, but the way travelers experienced and perceived place. By taking a geographical approach to the history of these spaces, Arkansas Travelers offers a deeper understanding—a deeper map—of Arkansas.