geographers-from-the-united-states

"The Corn Belt is a gift of the gods—the rain god, the sun god, the ice god and the gods of geology. In the middle of the North American continent the gods of geology made a wide expanse of land where the rock layers are nearly horizontal. The ice gods leveled the surface with their glaciers, making it ready for the plow, and also making it rich. The rain god gives summer showers. The sun god gives summer heat. All this is nature's conspiracy to make man grow corn. Having corn, man feeds it to cattle and hogs, and thereby becomes a producer of meat."

"Man is a product of the earth’s surface. This means not merely that he is a child of the earth, dust of her dust; but that the earth has mothered him, fed him, set him tasks, directed his thoughts, confronted him with difficulties that have strengthened his body and sharpened his wits, given him his problems of navigation or irrigation, and at the same time whispered hints for their solution"

"An important characteristic of plains is their power to facilitate every phase of historical movement; that of mountains is their power to retard, arrest, or deflect it. Man, as part of the mobile envelope of the earth, like air and water feels always the pull of gravity."

"Map-makng is very old, and has been practised by the most primitive peoples for many ages. Rude scratches on many rocks in South America are now interpreted as maps. East Greenland natives carve maps out of wood; American Indians make map-sketches on birch and other barks; the Marshall Islanders charted the sailing routes along their coasts long before they knew of the white man; the desert nomad sketches maps in the sand to illustrate his wanderings, and nearly every primitive tribe to-day makes maps to show routes to hunting-grounds, animal paths, fisheries, fords, etc. They know as well as we do that maps are practically a human necessity; but we know further that a good map often places before our eyes an amount of accurate geographical information that might take many months to dig out of books."

"Though many of our geographers give most attention to special phases of their study, there is a common ground upon which all should stand. The geographical needs of America are great. Most of our teachers are so deficient in knowledge of the subject that our general educational standards are low. Geography, on the whole, occupies a low plane. We know of no way to improve these conditions in which the efforts and influence of the working geographers shall not be paramount. This is a duty that our geographers owe to their study; and there is nothing that will bring them into closer touch, that will make their united influence in such Associations as ours more effective, than to work together, not as experts in this or that department of the study, but as geographers, pure and simple, who have a common interest in the improvement of geographical conditions and who desire and expect to participate in the promotion of all approved measures designed to bring about better conditions."

"All of my research involves a combination of field experimentation, field observations and laboratory analysis, and is fundamentally interdisciplinary and collaborative."

"Over my career, I have collaborated with dozens of excellent scientists from a variety of disciplines to conduct research projects that have achieved far more than any of us could have on our own."

"The ultimate goal of my research is to improve our knowledge of how changes in climate and land-use will affect forest ecosystems and water resources."

"I investigate how forest processes affect water flow dynamics and pathways in soil and streams, and conversely, how water flow paths affect ecological function in mountainous areas. This bridging of hydrology and ecosystem science is key to developing sustainable management of water resources."

"Quantitative geographers do not often concern themselves with philosophy, and although externally we are often labeled (incorrectly in many cases) as positivists, such a label has little or zero impact on the way in which we prosecute research. We do not, for example, concern ourselves with whether our intended research strategy breaches some tenet of positivist philosophy. Indeed, most of us would have scant knowledge of what such tenets are. As Barnes (2001) observes, for many of us, our first experience with positivism occurs when it is directed at us as a form of criticism."

"Of all the pleasures of which the human mind is sensible, there is none equal to that which warms and expands the bosom, when listening to commendations bestowed on us by a beloved object, and are conscious of having deserved them."

"Oh my dear girls, for to such only am I writing, listen not to the voice of love, unless sanctioned by paternal approbation; be assured it is now past the days of romance."

"... the heart that is truly virtuous is ever inclined to pity and forgive the errors of its fellow creatures."

"The very basis of true peace of mind is a benevolent wish to see all the world as happy as one's Self; and from my soul do I pity the selfish churl, who, remembering the little bickerings of anger, envy, and fifty other disagreeables to which frail mortality is subject, would wish to revenge the affront which pride whispers him he has received."

"... while discretion points out the impropriety of my conduct, inclination urges me on to ruin."

"Pleasure is a vain illusion; she draws you on to a thousand follies, errors, and I may say vices, and then leaves you to deplore your thoughtless credulity."

"Wealth and titles, which were sure to be heaped on the hero or heroine of the tale at last, she considered as the ultimatum of all sublunary good."

"... she had on a blue bonnet, and with a pair of lovely eyes of the same color, has contrived to make me feel devilish odd about the heart."

"The mind of youth eagerly catches at promised pleasure: pure and innocent by nature, it thinks not of the dangers lurking beneath those pleasures, till too late to avoid them."

"... my boys, with only moderate incomes, when placed in the church, at the bar, or in the field, may exert their talents, make themselves friends, and raise their fortunes on the basis of merit."

"I am a scientist. That is enough. I do not make value judgments in my work or worry about ethics or doing right (or wrong). I simply do science, geography."

"I am short tempered with academic geographers, even Marxist ones. The campus geographers tend to separate theory from practice. They read too much and look and, often, struggle not at all. They cite, not sight. In the heady atmosphere of all theory and no practice all sorts of objections are raised to our work, but the one that is most fearful is an ideological Marxist reductionism. In science the methodology does not endorse itself. Only the substance recommends the methodology. Theory requires experiment. If the substantive work is good, then ask the scientist his methods. But in religion that is all backwards. The methodology becomes everything. Dogma is never put to a test. Perhaps citations of past masters, who did in fact deal with the real world, is permitted, but mostly a convolution, and an embroidery develops in dogmatic Marxism. Heady nonsense spins off. Dogmatic Marxists are as out of place as Christian Scientists. Marxism is ascience relating theory to experimental practice, but the followers of Marx, typically those who have never organized a union or a community, never put out a leaflet, never mobilized a demonstration, but who have buttressed themselves with tons of books, announce their purity. They are a pain in the gluteus Maximus and often delude good people because of the fanaticism of their opinions."

"There are two particularly bothersome problems in treating geography as a science. The first problem is concerned with the role of description in geography and the second with the predictability of geographic phenomena."

"The question of predictability is crucial since it is the basic assumption of all theory. The predictability of geographic phenomena depends in turn on the answer to a question: Are geographic phenomena unique or general? If they are unique, they are not predictable and theory cannot be constructed. If they are general, they are predictable and theory can be constructed."

"So what is the state of geography today? It is in a mess – hyphenated, obfuscated, as confused as it is confusing. Why? Society is itself degenerating. The culture is coarse, vulgar, prostituted, chaotic, ‘dummied down’. We are in desperate need of intellectual reinforcements, and geography can help some."

"I threw myself into the peace movement when it was supported at that time by less than four percent of the American people. Having lived through McCarthyism, I fully expected to be in a concentration camp within a year. (Instead I was forced into exile in five.)"

"They will say that there is bourgeois geography and proletariat geography. True enough. And there is no other. False! There is the geography both sides agree upon. Do the bourgeois geographers insist that the earth is round? Certainly. Then should the proletariat geographers insist it is flat? Certainly not."

"Science is diametrically opposed to the doctrine of uniqueness. It is willing to sacrifice the extreme accuracy obtainable under the uniqueness point of view in order to gain the efficencies of generalization."

"In order to produce aerial classifications of identical sort no matter what differentiating characteristics are considered, it is necessary that there exist a perfect aerial correlation between all phenomena of human significance. This condition is not met on the earth's surface."

"Another aspect of my perspective on Theoretical Geography is the constant attempt to discredit my work by discussion of my personality, which, contrary to my detractors, is innately cheerful and outgoing as evidenced by my popularity with most of my driving taxi cab."

"As an alternative attempt to preserve the region as a concrete unit object, it is possible, but absurd, to insist on some one arbitrary areal classification as sacred and immutable."

"Unlike most other phrases of cartography, metacartography is not directly concerned with the preparation of maps or their psychological impact; rather metacartogrpahy attempts to stand back from the subject to see how maps perform as a device in portraying spatial properties in competition with other devices, such as photogrpahs, pictures, graphs, language, and mathematics."

"Some take the position that description is non-scientific. This position cannot stand."

"Instructors in cartography must accept their obligation to students in other disciplines."

"Poor cartographic training has resulted in poor maps, but the average American, unable to discriminate between good and bad maps, has brought no pressure to bear on producers of poor maps."

"Although the size and frequency of human error in digital data files can be quite startling, recent research has shown that substantial improvement in accuracy can be attained."

"It is almost impossible to discuss cartographic training with any practicing cartographer or employer of cartographers without being overwhelmed by a spontaneous outburst of complaints."

"War II and unsettled postwar conditions have wrought revolutionary changes in mapping activities. An increasing number and variety of maps are now being produced for service men and civilians. New uses for existing maps are being found and rapid technological advances necessitate the development of new and unique types of maps."

"Too many employers of cartographers have reacted to the academic stress on theory by overrating experience. Experience is invaluable, especially in mapping technology, but in practice it is almost always limited to one type of map problem and the production techniques involve."

"In the rush to implement a new computer mapping technology, cartographers and geographers have paid too little attention to their own logical, physiological, and psychological frailties."

"Geography is a science, but it is also an art, because understanding the meaning of area cannot be reduced to a formal process. The highest form of the geographer's art is producing good regional geography- evocative descriptions that facilitate an understanding and an appreciation of places, areas, and regions."

"No matter what the topic, you can find a literature on it"

"if you cannot prove it, you do not know it’s true."

"Yes raster is faster, but raster is vaster, and vector just seems more correcter."

"The most exciting thing about historical GIS is often the "eureka" moment when someone sees data mapped for the first time."

"The old saw that history is the study of when, geography the study of where, has some truth to it, at least as the two fields have been taught at most colleges and universities in North America."

"When choosing map colors, you should not be overly concerned about which colors your audience likes. Everyone has an opinion about color aesthetics, and members of your audience undoubtedly have differing opinions based on their own preferences. There has been a substantial amount of loosely structured research on color preferences. Regardless of context, it seems that most people like blue and do not like yellow, but that is an overly simplistic guideline for multicolor contexts. People also like maps with many colors, so focus your attention on presenting your data clearly and not worry about whether you have picked everyone's favorite colors."

"Using GIS intelligently requires a grounding in geographical knowledge. Applying the technology to history requires knowing how to contextualize and interpret historical sources."

"The form of information in GIS can seem quite alien to humanists upon first encounter."

"Whether one works with texts, historical maps, or any other kind of source, cultivating a spatial and visual imagination makes it easier to recognize the place-based information and spatial relationships embedded in historical evidence."