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Historical geography is the branch ofgeography that studies the ways in which geographic phenomena have changed over time.[1] In its modern form, it is a synthesizing discipline which shares both topical and methodological similarities withhistory,anthropology,ecology,geology,environmental studies,literary studies, and other fields.[2][3] Although the majority of work in historical geography is consideredhuman geography, the field also encompasses studies of geographic change which are not primarilyanthropogenic.[4] Historical geography is often a major component of school and university curricula in geography andsocial studies.[5] Current research in historical geography is being performed by scholars in more than forty countries.[6]
This sub-branch ofhuman geography is closely related tohistory,environmental history, andhistorical ecology.[7]
Historical geography seeks to determine how cultural features of various societies across the planet emerged and evolved by understanding their interaction with their local environment and surroundings.[8][9]
More recent studies make use of non-traditional methods, such asbotany andarcheology.[10][4]
In its early days, historical geography was difficult to define as a subject. A textbook from the 1950s cites a previous definition as an 'unsound attempt by geographers to explain history'.[11] Its author, J. B. Mitchell, came down firmly on the side of geography: 'the historical geographer is a geographer first last and all the time'. By 1975 the first number of theJournal of Historical Geography[12] had widened the discipline to a broader audience: 'the writings of scholars of any disciplinary provenance who have something to say about matters of geographical interest relating to past time'.[12]
In theUnited States, the termhistorical geography is the name given byCarl Ortwin Sauer of theUniversity of California, Berkeley to his program of reorganizing cultural geography (some say all geography) along regional lines, beginning in the first decades of the 20th century. To Sauer, alandscape and the cultures in it could only be understood if all of its influences through history were taken into account: physical, cultural, economic, political, environmental. Sauer stressed regional specialization as the only means of gaining sufficientexpertise on regions of the world. Sauer's philosophy was the principal shaper of American geographicthought in the mid-20th century. Regional specialists remain in academic geography departments to this day. Despite this, some geographers feel that it harmed the discipline; that too much effort was spent ondata collection and classification, and too little onanalysis andexplanation. Studies became more and more area-specific as later geographers struggled to find places to make names for themselves. These factors may have led in turn to the1950s crisis in geography, which raised serious questions about geography as anacademic discipline in the USA.[13]
