1942: Geography

This science has never played so conspicuous a role, or so widely engaged public attention, as during 1942. To some degree, depending chiefly upon the layman's alertness to contemporary news, every man recognizes more definitely than ever before the impelling influence of geographic environment upon the forces and events that are making history in this Second World War. Before the crisis which brought every man, every nation, face to face with the problems of war, geography had been relegated to a minor place in the curricular program of higher institutions of learning, well-nigh banished from high schools, and reduced to a subordinate place even in grade-school programs, where it was considered to have merely cultural value. Now it comes into its rightful heritage as one of the two most vital fields of study for a useful and intelligent interpretation of man's physical and cultural character, on a par with history, and similarly indispensable.

New Importance of Geography.

The discipline of geography, that is, the orientation of thought along geographic directions, the application of place relationships and principles of location and distribution to the study and understanding of the forces and events that are shaking man's world today, is now recognized as essential to the solution of economic and political problems which the world faces, and indispensable in the training and education of men for agriculture, for trade and industry, for law and medicine and government, for war and peace and diplomacy, for able citizenship in any country.

The effects of distance; of water-borne transport; of desert and marsh and mountain barrier; of steppe and valley and pass routes of movement; of insular and peninsular protection or vulnerability; of maritime facility of communication and integration; of prevailing westerly, or foehn, or mistral wind; of fog, and sand, and thorny vegetation; all these and the effects of a multiplicity of other geographic factors, have been considered in the military campaigns, the bombing attacks, the advances and retreats, the distribution of armed forces, upon land and sea wherever the war has spread. No commander goes into the field, or engages his foe in battle, without maps and charts to guide him and direct his strategy and tactics. No statesman deploys his political forces without due regard for the economic and social statistics of place that only geography provides. No navigator plots his course by air or sea, no commissary gathers and packs its stores, no ordnance forges its weapons of defense or attack, without careful study of geographic conditions that prevail in the area with which they are concerned. Maps and data and geographical equipment have become weapons of war, just as have ships, or guns, or planes, or tanks, or food.

Geographic Factors in War.

As a case in point, once again the Germans, in their attack upon Russia, were defeated in 1942 by the same elements of climate and terrain which foiled them in their 1941 campaign. Distances ever lengthening; winter harsh and grim; mud sticky and deep, and dust uncomfortable and harassing; rivers broad and sluggish; steppes relentlessly open and monotonous — these difficulties the Russians know how to endure and overcome, their enemies can not prevail against them. History and geography, as always and everywhere, repeat themselves in Russia — Hitler may yet find his greatest similarity to Napoleon in the results of this Russian campaign! The oil fields of the Caucasus are as far away from him as ever, the grain fields of the Ukraine and the Kuban have proved to be 'scorched earth' for the invader, as unproductive as a desert for the conqueror.

Our own American and Allied forces in the Pacific have felt severely the strain of vast distances, the debilitating ravages of tropical heat and humidity and moisture, the disastrous malignity of tropical pests and diseases, the formidable barriers of tropical vegetation. That they have wrought victory from their battles stands to their everlasting credit. Their patriotism, their stamina, and their resourcefulness are well-nigh superhuman. Only careful preparation for the campaigns in the light of adequate geographical knowledge, enables them to win their forward positions and to hold them.

It was careful study of geographic factors, as well as able organization of every phase of the North African campaign, from the first step of planning to the final maintenance of lines and depots of supply and reenforcements, that enabled the Allied nations to anticipate and prevent by previous occupation all the hopes and plans of the Axis nations to make of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis a totalitarian stronghold and arsenal.

On every front the armies are faced with conditions that geography imposes, problems that must be solved by adjustments to geographic factors. To continue enumeration of such problems or conditions would be superfluous.

Modern Works on Geography.

The literature of geography has been substantially increased and improved recently by a number of valuable and stimulating books, both popular and academic. In the field of geographic books for the public, a large number have been concerned with the Caribbean and South America, and with the principles, if so they can be called, of 'Geopolitik' as German geographers and statesmen following the leadership of Karl Haushofer and his school have applied them. The principles of Geopolitik or the interrelation of a nation's policies with its physical environment, are not at all new. They can be traced in a continuously developing philosophy from the time of Frederick the Great to the present, and as a distinct trend in German politics and military policy from much farther back. They took aggressive form on a world-wide scale in the War of 1914-18 and assumed concrete form as a national policy in the Nazi movement under Hitler. Karl Haushofer is but the logical disciple in sequence of Richthofen, Ritter, Ratzel, and other German geographers, who more or less intentionally contributed to the firm German belief of 'Deutschland über Alles.' Tragic to relate, it was the great American naval strategist Capt. A. T. Mahan, author of 'Influence of Sea Power Upon History,' who convinced Germany of the importance of sea power, and Sir Halford J. Mackinder, the great English geographer, who laid for Germany in his 'Democratic Ideals and Reality' the foundation for her plans for world conquest. Thus these two unwittingly formulated the basic concepts for Germany's modern philosophy of German strategy of world conquest.

One of the most important and scholarly books in the field of geography that came from the press in 1942 bore this very title, 'German Strategy for World Conquest.' It was written by a geographer, Derwent Whittlesey of Harvard University, with the collaboration of two other geographers, Charles C. Colby of the University of Chicago, and Richard Hartshorne, formerly of the universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin, now a member of the Board of Analysts of the Office of Strategic Surveys.

This book is important as an interpretation by a group of well-known American geographers of an insidious political philosophy of force, based on geographic concepts. It is further important as the most factual research study of the territorial aspects of German Geopolitics that has been published, without an undue amount of personal bias or the introduction of extraneous material. Original documents relevant to the study from the Library of Congress, the State Department, and other authoritative sources were translated, or abstracted as necessity demanded, but in most cases published in full to permit the reader to appraise the bewildering complexity and contradictions of the German papers upon the subject. The foreword to the volume by E. J. Coil the Director, states that 'The present study shows conclusively that theories of geopolitics, 'racism,' the ambitions of Hitler, and the entire Nazi doctrine, with its initial successes, are parts of a gigantic, carefully designed scheme of world conquest, worked out with ruthless precision, and that its roots, far from being shallow, find the sources of their nourishment deep in the soil of Germany's past.'

A similar subject with equal international significance, but without corresponding serious international consequences, is treated in Nicholas John Spykman's 'America's Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power.' The author is Sterling Professor of International Relations in Yale University, and the book constitutes a contribution from the Institute of International Studies of that University.

'The World of General Haushofer' by Andreas Dorpalen, and 'Generals and Geographers' by Hans W. Weigert are two other books of the year dealing more or less directly with Geopolitics, which deserve mention as being of geographic significance though not written by geographers. The whole concept of Geopolitics, because of the role it has played in the initiation and prosecution of this war has been lately the subject of wide discussion and consideration.

An interesting book savoring strongly of environmental determinism is Robert J. Kerner's 'The Urge to the Sea; the Course of Russian History,' published in 1942 by the University of California Press. It attempts to summarize the role of Russia's rivers and of Russia's need for outlet to the sea, in the expansion of the Russian empire to its present area and power.

Among numerous regional geographic studies that have appeared in recent years, 'The Pacific Northwest: A Regional, Human, and Economic Survey of Resources and Development,' ranks as one of the very best. Written by two geographers, Otis W. Freeman and Howard H. Martin, it is likely that this volume will stand as a primary source book for many years to come. Of broader significance is Preston E. James' 'Latin America.' Professor James, now Major in the U. S. Army, and for many years Secretary of the Association of American Geographers and a foremost authority on South America and its problems, adheres faithfully to geographic discipline, that is the application of place or locale, to his factual material and principles as the criterion by which to evaluate, classify, and organize the vast body of knowledge of Latin America which he presents within the covers of his book. Consequently he achieves an integrity of content and treatment that makes his study the most valuable and interesting thus far published on Latin America. A third regional geographic study of primary importance and monographic character is 'The Rice Economy of Monsoon Asia' prepared by V. D. Wickizer and M. K. Bennett, and published by the Food Research Institute of Stanford University.

An outstanding general textbook of the year for college and university students is 'The Earth and Man: A Human Geography' by Darrell H. Davis of the University of Minnesota. In the field of physiography two major contributions of superior usefulness and value to the teaching profession are 'Geomorphology' by Otto D. Von Engeln of Cornell University and 'Physical Geography,' by Albert L. Seeman of the University of Washington.

Cartography, aerial mapping, and map interpretation have progressed rapidly in 1942, and have become of growing importance in geographic research and interpretation. Land utilization, conservation, and planning increasingly engage the attention of geographers.