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.

1941: Geography

Geographic factors, both directly and indirectly, are playing a major role in the progress and direction of present military and naval action in the second World War. Intensity of military activity rises and falls and changes locality with the procession of the seasons, assuming major importance in one theater when seasonal conditions make movement easiest, and battle most advantageous there; and then as the weather changes, the force of the struggle dies down in that particular area, only to flare up elsewhere under weather conditions more favorable for successful operation of armed forces.

Geographic Factors in the German Campaign in Russia.

One of the best illustrations of the importance of climate in military campaigns is the rapid advance of the German army into Russia from the Murmansk peninsula on the north to the Black Sea on the south, while open conditions of summer and autumn were most favorable for the kind of aggression in which it was so skilled; and its subsequent hasty withdrawal almost to the point of rout when weather conditions became so inclement that it could no longer maintain its successful type of offensive. The Russians, well accustomed to rigorous winter were able to turn that same inclemency to their own advantage in pushing back the Germans and defeating them in every major engagement. The Germans, realizing the disadvantage under which they were maintaining their Russian front, turned their primary attention, and diverted vast numbers of troops and great quantities of equipment toward Mediterranean shores where winter weather is much more conducive to health of men and successful military strategy, than it is on the bleak steppes of Russia. Their troops and their equipment were both much more effective in Mediterranean winter conditions than they were in the Arctic conditions that prevailed at the time on the great plains of Russia. In the Russian cold German airplanes were seriously handicapped in their offensive activity, troop movement was exceedingly difficult, and health and morale of the German soldiers suffered severely. The German campaign in Russia in the winter of 1941-42, duplicated on a larger scale but in a lesser degree, the experiences that Napoleon's army barely survived in its retreat from Moscow.

Another very important geographic factor in the Russian campaign as it developed was the barrier effect of the rivers. At almost every river the Russians were able to make a stand against the rapid German advance and slaughter their enemy by thousands as they attempted the exposed crossings of the rivers. Again and again the Russians, holding the enemy on river banks, gained sufficient respite from the pursuing Germans to save their armies from encirclement and destruction. Lacking any high mountain bastions where they might make a stand, the Russians made their rivers chief barrier to the mechanized movement of the Germans. The so-called 'blitzkrieg' which had won so many complete successes for the Germans elsewhere in western Europe, was so slowed down by the rivers of Russia that it was no longer irresistible as it had been in France, the Low Countries, and the Balkans.

In this delay of the German forces, river barriers were supplemented by the loessial soils. In the black silt soils of Russia, which become a sea of mud with every rain and melting snow, the mechanized units of the German army found it almost impossible to move forward swiftly until winter freezing began, and hardened the mud. The Russians, taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain, their knowledge of their winter climate and the adaptations that had to be made to it, and their long experience with mud, were able first to slow down the German advance, then to stop it, and finally, as winter developed its full intensity, to take the offensive themselves and push the Germans back from territory that they had won earlier at heavy expense of men and munitions. The forbidding character of the Russian land as well as the fanatic love of the people for Mother Russia defeated the German purpose, and expectation of quick conquest.

Military Strategy in the Balkan Mountains.

The Balkans afford an example of the effect of mountainous relief upon military strategy. Throughout Yugoslavia particularly, guerrilla warfare has been eminently successful in sustained opposition by rebellious elements of the native population against German occupation. Again and again organized groups of guerrillas have emerged from their mountain fastnesses in the rough country of the Dinaric Alps and the Rhodope Massif and their rugged spurs, and deployed themselves against the forces of occupation, sometimes with marked success. Only by utmost vigilance and exertion have the Germans and Italians been able to retain their grasp upon the Balkan area with all its advantages for rebellion. Just as the Russian campaign so clearly illustrates the influence of weather and climate upon military activity, so do the Balkans reveal the effect of high relief and rugged terrain.

Geographical Elements in the Pacific.

Problems of military and naval strategy in the Pacific are of a wholly different character, affected almost entirely by the elemental factor of distance. Despite the almost incredible improvements in transportation and communication of the last quarter century, distance remains a vital factor in the development of the Pacific war between Japan on the one hand and the United States and her allies on the other. Because of her relative proximity to the Philippines, Malaya, and the East Indies as compared with United States and Britain, Japan was enabled to strike first and with almost overpowering effect against the scattered bases of the Allied forces. Having once gained initial superiority, she increasingly exploited her advantage in the matter of distance. As the campaign progressed the effect of distance became increasingly disadvantageous to the allies and increasingly favorable to Japan. It became more difficult for the allies to move up reinforcements and equipment and maintain their lines of supply and communication, whereas it was easier and safer for Japan to establish and support her advanced forces. Because the Japanese, fully aware of their exposed and open position had duly considered distance and provided against its disadvantages, the Allies were forced to change their whole strategy after the battle of Pearl Harbor, the landing of Japanese forces successfully upon the Philippines and in Malaya, the relatively easy occupation of Hongkong, and the successful establishment of Japanese bases in Borneo, Celebes, and other islands in the west Pacific. Long-range Japanese bombers supported by fighting planes based upon landing fields quickly established and conveniently distributed, early achieved the mastery of the air and the sea as well. Just as climate in Russia, rugged relief in the Balkans, and favorable weather in the Mediterranean have been important elements in the European campaigns, so has distance given Japan her early superiority in the Pacific War.

The most encouraging element in the situation of the United States and her allies is their undoubted superiority of resources, strategic location, and geographic advantages. Utilized to the full by competent and well-trained men, these factors of superiority should turn the tide of war to final victory for the democracies. Though threatened by the growing efficiency of air attack, the naval forces of Britain and American retain their dominance of oceans of the world. The influence of sea power upon history, outlined forty years ago by Capt. A. T. Mahan of the United States Navy, remains still effective though greatly modified by air power.

As a consequence of all this play of geographic factors in the war, and the problems arising from the war, there has been renewed and accelerated activity on the part of geographers throughout the world, and particularly in the United States. The whole American public, for example, as must be the case with the rest of the peoples of the world, has become acutely conscious of how vital it is to have a thorough understanding of geographic fact and geographic relationship. As never before, too, economics, history, sociology, political science, and international relations must be interpreted largely through the medium of geography. By incredible improvements in the means of transportation and communication distance has been broken down as a barrier among the nations of the world, and all the peoples and all the lands of the earth have become one intimately associated neighborhood, wherein none can be sufficient unto himself.

Geographical Organizations and Publications.

In America the Association of American Geographers, that small but highly trained group of professional geographers who have devoted themselves to assiduously to the facts and principles of their science, has taken the lead, so far as geographic knowledge is concerned, in mustering the man and mind power available for use by the nation in this crisis. The services of many of its most capable members have been requisitioned by the Government, and practically every member is making some definite contribution to basic preparations for defense and ultimate victory. At its annual convention in New York, Dec. 29-31, inclusive, the Society devoted itself primarily to discussion of war problems and the most effective methods of solving them. Prof. J. Russell Smith of Columbia University was elected president to take the place of Prof. Griffith Taylor of the University of Toronto; Prof. Nels Bengtson of Nebraska University was elected vice-president to succeed Prof. W. Elmer Ekblaw of Clark University; Prof. Ralph H. Brown of the University of Minnesota was elected secretary to succeed Prof. Preston E. James of the University of Michigan who has assumed charge of the Latin Division of the Office of Coordinator of Information; Prof. Guy-Harold Smith of Ohio State University was reelected treasurer; and Prof. Robert B. Hall, of the University of Michigan was elected to succeed Prof. Lewis F. Thomas of Washington University, as director to serve three years. Prof. Derwent Whittlesey of Harvard University continues as editor of the official organ of the Association, Annals of the Association of American Geographers. The Annals has published four numbers the past year, all of them with a rich content of basic geographic material, chiefly by members of the Association. Such important articles as 'Geography and the Defense of the Caribbean and the Panama Canal,' by G. S. Bryan; 'The Defense of Greenland,' by William H. Hobbs; 'Alaska in Relation to National Defense,' by Johnson E. Fairchild; 'Petroleum Utilization in Peacetime and in Wartime,' by John W. Frey, help to demonstrate the trend of thought within the Association.

The National Geographic Society of Washington continued its praiseworthy popularization of geography by its monthly magazine, The National Geographic, of which every issue is full to the brim with descriptive and interpretative text and highly educational illustrations. From time to time the Society issues a map of regions vitally important in the popular thought of the day. For many years the National Geographic Society has served the purpose of making millions of Americans acutely geography conscious.

The American Geographical Society of New York during the past year achieved new heights in the value and opportuneness of the scholarly articles, most of them highly professional and technical, which it has presented in its Geographical Review. For many years the Geographical Review has remained the most important geographical publication in the world. In its pages have been published the most important results of scientific explorations, mapping expeditions, and other research projects in geography. Both theoretical and applied geography form the material of the articles presented in its pages, and it invariably issues the best maps, publishes the best reviews of new books and current literature, and summarizes most ably and selectively the geographic news of the time.

Now in its eighteenth year Economic Geography has completed seventeen volumes of authoritative and basic material in the specialized field which it embraces. Many of the foremost geographers of the country, as well as the ablest investigators among the younger students of the subject in America and elsewhere, contribute regularly to this magazine. The subject with which it is concerned has been, and continues to be, of paramount importance to those who are more concerned with the application of geography than with its theory or technique. More than thirty fundamentally significant articles on various phases of the subject of economic geography have been published the past year.

Like the rest of the magazines in the field of geography The Journal of Geography, which is the voice of the National Council of Geography Teachers, reveals a distinct advance in the quality and significance of the articles published within its pages, just as the National Council of Geography Teachers remains the outstanding organization of the men and women who are shaping the pedagogical trend and emphasis of the subject.

1940: Geography

Continued confusion and change have characterized the year. The political and economic problems of almost every country have increased, and international relations have grown correspondingly weaker. Uncertainty and unrest have spread into the far corners and most remote recesses of man's dominion until there no longer seems to be stability or order anywhere. The political map of the world has undergone still further changes, some of them of as much significance as the unexpected and profound changes of 1939.

The Influence of Geography in the European War.

Europe has become the major theater of war and political change. The totalitarian system of government, a relic of barbarism, expounded by Hitler and his hordes in Germany, and Mussolini and his legions in Italy, has subdued by ruthless aggression and conquest almost all the governments of northwestern Europe — Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France, and threatens all the rest of Europe. Sweden and Finland have been reduced to economic vassalage by Russia and Germany; Switzerland is surrounded by totalitarian administrations and virtually dependent upon them for existence. Spain and Portugal have accepted the totalitarian doctrine and domination. No independence of sovereignty, no freedom of action, endures in the Balkans.

Greece rose to almost incredible heights of courage and defensive spirit in thrusting back Italy's invasion from Albania and hurling the Fascist legions still farther back across Albania toward the Adriatic. Britain, strong in her sea power, has doggedly retained her control of the Mediterranean, destroyed Italy's power in Africa, and staved off immediate hazard to her position in the Dark Continent. The whole course of European struggle the past year has revealed ever more clearly the persistent influence of geographic environment upon the course of empire and the destiny of nations.

Norway.

Early in the year Britain and France were forced for their own safety to rally to the defense of Norway, when Hitler in a surprise move as dastardly in its treacherous betrayal of faith as it was daring in its tactical methods, successfully invaded Norway, and that democracy free from war for more than a century found herself wholly unprepared to resist, or to defend herself. The very sea that aided the German invasion prevented effective help from Britain and France to save Norway, and after a disastrous attempt to establish adequate bases in Norway the Allies were compelled to withdraw in humiliating recognition of Germany's overpowering strength and preparedness; to have contested with her hold upon Norway would have involved sacrifice and struggle that Britain and France could not have afforded without seriously jeopardizing their safety and security, inviting the invasion of their own territory. They withdrew successfully without serious loss of men or equipment, but with great loss of prestige and strategic position.

Denmark.

Denmark at the same time was completely overrun by the Nazi hordes and reduced to a German dependency. With no barrier of any kind, — mountain, or desert, or sea, — against the mobile, mechanized forces of the Nazis, she was lost to democracy and won for totalitarianism without a struggle. Once again the inexorable influences of environment had wrought havoc with the hopes of Denmark, and served the will of Germany. A part of the north German plain, Denmark became part of the great German plan for European domination.

Low Countries.

And Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, and northern France in turn soon afterward succumbed to the irresistible forces of the German hordes, and in turn were reduced to German dependencies, to become part of the new German order. The North German plain had finally won the mastery over the whole terrain of northwestern Europe. With the inclusion of Norway and Denmark in the German economic, political, and military system, Sweden completely lost her freedom of action. Though nominally independent in internal administration, though ostensibly sovereign in her own government, and formally unoccupied by German troops, Sweden can trade with no foreign lands but Russia, Germany, and to a small extent with Finland, and can permit no activity that runs counter to German interests. She has no alternative but to accept Germany's mandates. The same inexorable influences of geographic location and terrain impel the Swedes to bow to Germany's might, whatever their reluctance to do so, however strong their opposition. Again the German geographers under Karl Haushofer's leadership seem to have been vindicated in their 'Geopolitik.'

Great Britain and the Sea.

But the strength of the sea has been Britain's. Her glorious withdrawal of her own forces and large detachments of the French and Belgian armies from Dunkirk after the inglorious debacle of the Allied armies in the Low Countries and Flanders depended upon her sea resources. The protection of the sea upon which her great navy operates so effectively to defend her shores, has enabled her to fend off every attempt at invasion, to cut off from her enemies the supplies they so sorely need to maintain the struggle against her, and to safeguard her sea avenues of communication and transportation by which her own supplies must come for her succor and support from her far-flung dominions and the neutral nations of the world. Her confluence in the future is based in large part upon her geographic advantages, and upon the geographic heritage her folk have in their character, their training, their imperial vision.

The Geographical Advantages of Greece.

It is the same geographic heritage that has given the Greeks their time of victory over the Fascist legions. They have turned their rugged terrain, their mountain climate, their knowledge of the sea, into powerful allies both in defense and offense. Their strategy is born of the conditions of their land, the land they have defended so long and so nobly.

The Far East.

In the Far East China and Japan have continued their desperate struggle, apparently at stalemate. French Indo-China and Thai Land (Siam) have been drawn into the vortex of oriental war, but Russia and Japan seem to have agreed upon at least a temporary truce.

Thus has the map of the world been in large part a map of war and war's alarms. Never has there been so prominent a place for geography in the news of the world, in all the newspapers, in all the magazines, in the minds of the people. To keep abreast of the news, to evaluate the significance of current events, to understand the course of international relations in all their aspects, every intelligent citizen has had to refresh his knowledge of geography and supplement it by learning new facts and ideas about lands and seas, rivers and mountains, ports and provinces, of which he had never before heard.

Geographic Publications.

The Geographical Review, Economic Geography, The Journal of Geography, The National Geographic Magazine, half a score of regional publications that deal not only with their own regions but with problems of general character, and many magazines in related fields of science, have portrayed the course of history as related to the culture and peoples of the various lands of the world. They constitute a reservoir of current knowledge relating to the lands which are now making world history. They describe the features that form the theater of man's international and national activity, and delineate the scene of action for both war and peace. The volume of books of all kinds has decreased somewhat, but the proportion of geographical texts and reference books is greater now than ever.

The Annals of the Association of American Geographers remains the outstanding professional mouthpiece of the Association to which most of the professional geographers of the country belong, particularly those geographers who are making the distinctive and most progressive contributions to the field. Articles which represent the most advanced thought and technique of the geographic field can scarcely be said to be popular, but they form one of the most valuable contributions each year to the literature of the field.

The Geographical Review, one of the world's outstanding journals in any professional field, and for many years the most important journal in the field of geography, a position which it still holds, has continued the publication of a wealth of significant and fundamental articles. It is not amiss to enumerate some of the most important that have appeared the past year. In the October issue the first article by Colonel Lawrence Martin, chief of the Division of Maps and incumbent of the Chair of Geography in the Library of Congress, presents an article 'Antarctica Discovered by a Connecticut Yankee, Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer,' which proves beyond the peradventure of doubt that to an early American whaler belongs the credit and the honor of having discovered and in part outlined the great continent which embraces the South Pole. The documentary evidence that he presents is irrefutable.

Further to indicate how extensive and how up-to-date is the material in the Geographic Review, it is worth listing the other titles and authors in that same issue: 'Angolan Safari,' by Linton Wells; 'The Rice Country of Southwestern Louisiana,' by Lauren C. Post; 'Landslides and Earthflows near Ventura, Southern California,' by William C. Putnam and Robert P. Sharp; 'The Expanding Settlements of Southern Brazil,' by Preston E. James; 'Land and Peoples of the Hadhramaut, Aden Protectorate,' by Ruthven W. Pike; 'The Australian Iron and Steel Industry as a Functional Unit,' by Clifford M. Zierer; 'Some Notes on the Growth of Population in Minnesota,' by Leonard S. Wilson; 'Suez Canal Problems,' by Halford L. Hoskins; 'Economic and Social Problems in the British West Indies: A Review,' by Raye R. Platt; and 'Mineral Economics and World Politics: A Review,' by Charles H. Behre, Jr.

Other issues of the Review earlier in the year contain such outstanding articles as 'Hawaii and the Pacific: A Survey of Political Geography,' by Stephen B. Jones and Klaus Mehnert; 'Finland in the Sixteenth Century,' by W. R. Mead; 'Stockholm: Its Structure and Development,' by W. William-Olsson; and 'The World's Petroleum,' by John W. Frey; all in the July issue.

In the April issue Robert Burnett Hall presents a valuable and interesting article 'American Raw-Material Deficiencies and Regional Dependence,' Griffith Taylor an equally important article 'Trento to the Reschen Pass: A Cultural Traverse of the Adige Corridor'; R. H. Fiedler, 'Fisheries of North America: With Special Reference to the United States'; Felix Howland, 'Crossing the Hindu Kush.'

The January issue is equally noteworthy, containing such outstanding contributions as 'The World in Maps,' by John K. Wright; 'Bolivia's Water-Power Resources,' by William A. Rudolph; 'Singapore: Town and Country,' by E. H. G. Dobby; and 'The Function of Meltwater in Cirque Formation,' by W. V. Lewis.

Economic Geography, in addition to the regular series of articles, has resumed publication of the monographic 'Agricultural Regions of the World' by beginning a new series on Africa, by Dr. Homer L. Shantz, chief of the Division of Wildlife Management, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. The series presents an exhaustive discussion of the distribution of agricultural methods and products in Africa. Outstanding articles for the year have been: 'Timber Industry of the U.S.S.R.,' by V. Katkoff; 'Salmon Industry of the Pacific Coast,' by Homer E. Gregory; 'Dairy Region of Southwestern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois,' by Loyal Durand Jr.; and 'Weather Influences on Crop Yields,' Stephen S. Visher, all in the October issue. 'Geography of Mast Feeding,' by Earl B. Shaw; and 'Geography in the Census Bureau,' by A. W. von Struve in the July issue; 'Geographical Aspects of the Defense of the Netherlands,' by Samuel Van Valkenburg; 'Recent Trends in Manchoukuo Trade,' by George F. Deasy; 'Return of the Forest in Northeastern Minnesota,' by Darrell H. Davis, in the April issue; and in the January issue 'The Szechwan Village Fair,' by J. E. Spencer; 'Population of Quebec Province,' by H. Harry Lewis; and 'Distribution of Dairy Farming in Peninsular Ontario,' by J. R. Whitaker. In the field of economic geography no other journal publishes so much new and original material.

The Journal of Geography, devoted particularly to material for the use of high school and grade school teachers, and the elaboration of teaching methods, publishes a large number of articles most of which are relatively brief and more compact and general than the articles of the magazines previously mentioned; but such articles as 'Mussolini: Italy's Geographer-in-Chief,' by Harold Kemp; 'Harbin, Manchoukuo,' by Shannon McCune; 'Climate: A Factor of Economic Life,' by J. Sullivan Gibson; 'The Rupununi Savannahs of British Guiana,' by Earl B. Shaw; and a score of others of equally high value in content and educational significance, indicate the scope and diversified character of the material which it presents. The National Geographic, the best known monthly geographical magazine of English-speaking people, popularizes geography in lavishly illustrated articles that cover the whole world. Its readers are numbered in the hundreds of thousands, even in the millions, and its influence upon the public generally has been of incredible value to the knowledge of geography among the masses of the people.

Outstanding books of the year in the field of geography include 'The Physiographic Provinces of North America,' a textbook which represents the mature thought and experience of Dr. W. W. Atwood, for many years one of the leading physiographers of the country, and now president of Clark University; 'The Earth and the State,' an equally comprehensive textbook in the field of political geography by Derwent Whittlesey, Professor of Geography at Harvard University; 'Australia: A Study of Warm Environments and their Effect on British Settlement,' by the veteran explorer and geographer, Professor Griffith Taylor of the University of Toronto; a revision of 'College Geography,' a textbook in the field of geography for students of college grade, by E. C. Case and D. R. Bergsmark of the University of Cincinnati; 'Indians of the United States,' a geo-anthropological popular account of the Indians of the United States, their distribution and customs, by Clark Wissler of the American Museum of Natural History; 'Guatemala: Past and Present,' by Professor Chester Lloyd Jones of the University of Wisconsin, a much needed and valuable textbook and reference; and 'My Country 'Tis of Thee,' a rather personalized and somewhat exaggerated argument for the need of land conservation.

The Association of American Geographers in 1940 held its annual meeting in New York from Dec. 29 to 31 inclusive. Officers of the Association: Professor Griffith Taylor of the University of Toronto, president; Professor W. Elmer Ekblaw of Clark University, vice-president; Professor Guy-Harold Smith of Ohio State University, treasurer; and Professor Preston E. James of the University of Michigan, secretary. See also EUROPEAN WAR and WORLD ECONOMICS.

1939: Geography

The year has been characterized by significant changes in the political structure of the world and consequently a multiplicity of changes in boundaries and relationships of nations.

Far East.

The warfare in the Far East in which Japan, China, and Russia have been engaged, has continued throughout the year with varying change of fortune. In western China Communism has so firmly entrenched itself that the provinces of that district, though still represented as part of China on general maps or as nominally under the sovereignty of China, are actually under Soviet control. The borders between the Japan-administered area of China and Russian sections of occupancy or domination in Mongolia are constantly changing, and remain in large part undetermined. The sections of eastern China now held in military control by Japan comprise wellnigh the entire coastal belt and deep projections into the interior.

Changes in Europe.

In Europe the map has similarly undergone change. Through conquest, or virtual conquest, the boundaries of Germany have been extended to include all of Austria, practically all of Czecho-Slovakia, and the western half of dismembered Poland. Similarly Russia has extended her authority in greater or lesser degree over the eastern half of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and parts of ravaged Finland. Hungary has absorbed a small part, the eastern tip, of former Czecho-Slovakia. The end is not yet; further changes in sovereignty, in boundaries, in international relations impend. Not since the treaty of Versailles have so many great changes occurred in the political map of the world.

Books on Crucial European Areas.

So many books have appeared upon the areas in which the most profound changes have been made, in central Europe, that to enumerate them all would transcend the space or purpose of this brief review; three will suffice to indicate their general character: (1) 'Czechs and Germans: A Study of the Struggle in the Historic Provinces of Bohemia and Moravia,' written by Elizabeth Wiskemann and issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and from the Oxford University Press, a book in which both German and Czech points of view are as adequately and impartially presented as would seem possible; (2) 'The Baltic States: A Survey of the Political and Economic Structure and the Foreign Relations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,' also issued by the Royal Institute of International Affairs and from the Oxford University Press; and (3) 'Poland: Key to Europe,' by Raymond Leslie Buell, a book which anticipated the final conquest and dismemberment by pointing out the inherent weaknesses, both in its internal and external policies, of the Polish state.

Participation of Geographers in Effecting a New Order.

But political changes in states and boundaries of states, some of them so revolutionary as to be wellnigh catastrophic, represent only one phase of the profound transition which characterized 1939, a year which is but a part of the whole period of rapid change through which the world is passing. Social and economic implications, of the same magnitude as those accruing from political changes, follow in the wake of the events which have changed the course of man's progress so drastically.

The past year may perhaps be considered in the future as a turning point in man's cultural evolution. By manifold improvements in means of transportation and communication and in facilities for trade and travel, man has so reduced the effectiveness of distance as a barrier that his world has been correspondingly diminished in size. From a mosaic of detached and distinctive states and peoples, each segregated within its own boundaries and distinguished by its own provincial adjustments and attitudes, the world has been transformed, by virtual reduction of distance in terms of time and expense, to one relatively small neighborhood in which every people, every state is more or less closely interrelated with every other, and more or less dependent upon every other.

As a consequence, the whole economic and social structure, as well as the political alignment, is undergoing readjustment and revision. New spheres of economic influence and activity, new frontiers of trade and routes of traffic, new methods of exploiting and developing the world's resources, are constantly being developed. The old fabric of international relations has worn out, and a new warp and a new woof are being designed and placed in the loom for a new world order. The inadequacy of the old order, the imminent necessity for a new order, is certainly the basic cause for the economic discontent, the social and political unrest and disturbance which has attained so critical a peak the past year in the widespread aggressions, invasions, and utter disregard, among nations, not only for conventions and forms, but for obligations, liberties, and rights. Japan's expansion into new territory, Germany's demand Lebensraum, Italy's annexation of Ethiopia, are some of the most conspicuous and most deplorable evidences of the new needs. The sanctity of the given pledge, of the home and family, of the right to life itself has been completely ignored. The whole unfortunate, miserable situation is a symptom of international and regional maladjustment to which the geographers are turning their attention in the hope of hastening the new and more satisfactory arrangement of world affairs.

To the plans for rebuilding the world's political structure, for recasting the economic mold of the world's trade, for redesigning the world's social fabric, the geographers have devoted much of their thought and time. In laying new local, national, and international patterns upon the trestle-boards of the world's new order, the geographers in every land participate actively with statesmen, financiers, industrialists, economists, farmers, and all the forces working toward better adjustments.

Readjustment in the United States.

In the United States, the most obvious feature of the struggle for better adjustment is the general interest in planning — planning for better farming practices and use of the land, for wiser technique of production and distribution in manufacturing, for more effective transportation and travel. While not wholly, nor even dominantly geographic in its character, this manifestation of readjustment and revision of the folk of America to their advantages and disadvantages, their resources and needs, has claimed the general support and engaged the thought and service of practically every geographer.

Leading Journals and Articles.

The Geographical Review, The Journal of Geography, Economic Geography, a goodly number of regional geographic publications, and a large number of magazines in related fields of science have continued to record the progress of events in man's struggle to reorganize his activities and to restore disrupted relationships between people and people, state and state, to meet the needs of the new conditions of the world as a neighborhood. A host of books has come from the press, some of them distinctly geographic in concept and purpose, some of them merely with geographic implications that deal more or less definitely with this period of transition.

The Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the official organ of the group of professional geographers who are making the most ambitious contributions to their field, has published during the year a valuable series of articles, of which 'Geographical Science and Social Philosophy,' the address of the retiring President, of the University of Wisconsin, Vernon C. Finch, at the annual meeting in 1938, and 'The Nature of Geography; A Critical Survey of Current Thought in the Light of the Past,' by Richard Hartshorne, embracing two issues of the publication to constitute a monograph upon the subject treated, are noteworthy for the exhaustive research, the profound thought, and the critical judgment which they represent.

The Geographical Review, which has occupied a leading place for years among geographical journals of the world, has published a large number of significant articles which indicate, better than any explicit statement can portray, the incalculable progress that geographic research has made within the last decade. The very first article in the January issue, the first article in Vol. XXIX, 'The Littoral of Pacific Colombia and Ecuador,' by Robert Cushman Murphy, primarily an ornithologist and only secondarily a geographer, illustrates the contribution that non-professional geographers, though well-trained scientists, are making to the field. Another article in the same issue, 'Hurricanes Into New England: Meteorology of the Storm of Sept. 21, 1938,' by Charles F. Brooks, meteorologist and now Director of the Blue Hill Weather Observatory near Boston, illustrates the same point; and a third article, 'Man's Effect on the Palouse,' by W. A. Rockie of the United States Soil Conservation Service, not only helps to prove the point, but recalls the fact that much of the work of the Soil Conservation and Amelioration forces, though definitely engineering or agricultural in character, is based upon geographic research and employs the technique of geography, just as it involves the essence of geographic discipline and the application of geographic criteria.

In the April issue of The Geographical Review for 1939, an article by Margaret Dunlop of Manchester, 'Lines of Cultural Communication in the Bronze Age, France,' deeply interesting in itself, also reveals how fascinating the borderlands between geography and related fields, in this case archeology and anthropology, can be. In the same issue, Eliot Grinnell Mears's discussion of 'Postwar Locational Changes of British Industry' gains import from the continuance of those changes since the outbreak of the new war. 'Water-Planning in the Great Central Valley, California,' by Peveril Meigs; 'The Agricultural Value of California Soils,' and 'A Permanent Loss to New England: Soil Erosion Resulting from the Hurricane,' by Hugh Hammond Bennett — all three represent application of geographic fact and principle to current practical problems. And 'The Law of the Primate City,' by Mark Jefferson, marks a field of new research, the definition of a new problem.

Most of the articles in The Geographical Review are by geographers — in general, statements of results of their research, and deal with applied geography. The October issue contains one such article that serves as example par excellence, 'Agricultural Land in Proportion to Agricultural Population in the United States,' by Richard Hartshorne of the University of Minnesota. An article similarly applicable to current problems in agriculture is 'A New Coefficient of Humidity and Its Application to the United States,' by Phil E. Church and Edna M. Geuffroy concludes the October number, and the volume for 1939.

The October issue of the Review achieves an exceedingly high standard of excellence as well as service. A remarkable series of aerial photographs of the Central Appalachian Mountains and Plateau from Washington to Cincinnati, taken by John L. Rich of the University of Cincinnati, constitutes a major feature of the issue. In addition to this valuable article, the number contains almost a score of high-grade studies, by which most varied and interesting phases of geographic interest and investigation are exemplified.

In this annual summary of geographic progress, the character of one or two of the leading general publications in the field has been given particular attention because the outstanding merit of the published material this year, the bearing of most of it upon the social and political thought and activity of our time, and the view it gives of the widespread interests of geographic research, fully justifies the space and the time required to present it.

The Journal of Geography, official organ of the National Council of Geography Teachers, serves the field of their interests, bearing many articles of which the methods of teaching geography and presenting geographic material in schools form the major theme, and perhaps just as many in which content or material is provided. The 1939 volume represents the thirty-eighth year of its issue.

Economic Geography.

In such a specialized field as economic geography, the magazine of the same name, Economic Geography, which completed its fifteenth year of issue with the 1939 volume, affords ample evidence of the applied activities of geographers and their like. Land tenure and land utilization; farm distribution and agriculture; ores and mining, petroleum and refining, granite and quarrying; shipbuilding and river development; population and map-making; these and a hundred other kindred subjects make up the subject matter, presented in detailed thoroughness or in broad outline, as the subject and the point of view determine. The progress of this phase of geography has unquestionably been accelerated by the publication of Economic Geography.

Geographical Convention.

The annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers and the National Council of Geography Teachers were held in Chicago, the last week of December 1939.

1938: Geography

Meetings.

The Fifteenth International Congress held in Amsterdam, July 18-28, constituted the outstanding event in the field of geography for the year 1938. A thousand geographers gathered from the various countries of the world, among them more than seventy from the United States, to hold the most successful meeting in the history of the International Geographic Union. Ten sections — Cartography, Physical Geography, Oceanography, Human Geography, Economic Geography, Colonial Geography, Historical Geography and History of Geography, Geographical Landscape, Methodology and Education, and Biogeography — had been organized, and each section held its own meetings. Special sessions of all the members were also arranged. The papers had been prepared in advance, abstracted, and summarized in a single volume entitled 'Reports.' They have also been published in full in ten different volumes entitled 'Proceedings.' These several publications are valuable.

The meeting was opened officially on July 18, when Rear Admiral Hjr. G. L. Schorer, and Dr. J. R. Slote-maker de Bruine, the Minister of Instruction, Arts, and Sciences, representing Queen Wilhelmina, welcomed the members of the Congress. Sir Charles Close of Great Britain, President of the Congress, responded, and gave the opening address. He also introduced the chiefs of the German. United States, French, Italian, and Polish delegations.

Besides the sessions at which the papers were presented, the Congress included six major excursions, one before and five after the sessions of the Congress. An outstanding feature of the entertainment was an evening excursion to an old feudal castle and park about 200 kilometers south of Amsterdam where dinner was served.

The new president of the International Geographical Union is Prof. E. de Martonne of Paris, and the new Secretary-General is Prof. P. L. Michotte of Louvain, Belgium. Sir Charles Close, the retiring president becomes first vice-president and represents Great Britain. Dr. C. H. Birdseye of the United States Geological Survey Topographic Sections replaced Dr. Isaiah Bowman as vice-president representing the United States. The place of meeting for the next International Congress in 1942 was left to the new executive committee. Belgium invited the next meeting, but because the Union has an unwritten law not to hold successive congresses in contiguous lands the invitation could not be accepted.

In December the National Council of Geography Teachers and the Association of American Geographers held their meetings simultaneously in Boston and Cambridge. The 25th annual meeting of the National Council was held at the Parker House, on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 27-28, President J. R. Whitaker of the University of Wisconsin presiding. The guest speaker the afternoon of the first day was Dr. W. W. Atwood, of Clark University, who presented a travelogue. 'From Cape Town to Mombasa,' illustrated by remarkable moving pictures of the country which he had traversed the preceding summer. At the annual dinner the distinguished service award was presented to Dr. George J. Miller, editor of the Journal of Geography. Dr. George B. Cressey of Syracuse University gave the dinner address. 'The Changing Siberian Landscape.' Dr. Edwin J. Reeder of the University of Illinois was elected president to succeed J. R. Whitaker.

The 35th annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers was held in the Institute of Geographical Exploration, of Harvard University. It opened Tuesday afternoon. Dec. 27. The program was divided into a series of sections on special topics, beginning with 'The City of Boston,' continuing with 'Methodology,' 'Surface Features,' 'Urban Geography,' 'River Development of the Nashville-Chattanooga Area,' 'Geomorphology,' 'Geography and History,' 'Climatology and Hydrology,' 'Land Utilization,' and other subjects. The annual symposium, in which members only take part, was held on Wednesday evening in the lounge of the Harvard Faculty Club. The discussion centered about the geography of the New England region. The 35th annual banquet, held at the Parker House in Boston on Thursday evening was followed by the presidential address by Vernor C. Finch of the University of Wisconsin, on 'Geographical Science and Social Philosophy.' Two field excursions were conducted, one to the Babson Institute for the inspection of the giant relief model of the United States, under the leadership of Dr. Wallace W. Atwood, Jr., and another to the Custom House tower and downtown Boston under the direction of Dr. Derwent S. Whittlesey.

Among the special papers presented was a report on the 15th International Geographical Congress at Amsterdam in July, given by Dr. Claude H. Birdseye, who was later elected president of the Association of American Geographers for the ensuing year; others included 'Geographical Factors in the Distribution of Typhus Fever in the United States' by W. B. Brierly of Clark University: 'James Weddell Revealed as a Fake Explorer of the Antarctic' by Prof. W. H. Hobbs of the University of Michigan: 'The Farm Price of Wheat in the United States in Relation to the Major Routes to Market' by Prof. Nels A. Bengtson of the University of Nebraska.

More than 300 geographers attended the Association meetings, and a large number took part in the programs and discussions. The increased general attendance indicated the growing interest in geography.

Publications.

The National Geographic Magazine remains, as it has been for many decades, the medium whereby geographic interest is popularly created and maintained among a wide range of readers throughout the country, as well as in some measure among professional geographers and geography teachers.

For the professional geographer, or for the scholar and scientist in related fields, the Geographical Review, official organ of the American Geographical Society, retains its place of first importance. Embracing the whole field of geography and occasionally including material from related fields as well, the Geographical Review probably holds first place among such publications the whole world over. Under the able editorship of Dr. Gladys Wrigley, it presents only the most carefully selected and the most authoritative geographical papers. Its contributors are from all countries of the world and represent fields of geographic interest as wide apart as Antarctic exploration and national maps of the United States. Not only does it present annually a great body of original research and exploration, but it presents all the significant events of geographical interest and value, and reviews critically the new books that appear in the field.

Economic Geography — like the Geographical Review a quarterly publication — confines its field of material to the subject matter suggested by the title. The various phases of land utilization and agriculture, of manufacture, of trade and transportation, and of such allied fields as having a bearing upon economic problems, form the subject matter of the magazine. It draws a great deal of its material from all parts of the world, but a major part comes from North America, as do most of its contributors.

The Journal of Geography, now in its 37th year, remains the particular organ of the teachers of geography of the United States. As is natural in such a publication, many of its articles relate to methods and technique of teaching — how to use the various devices by which the interest of children may be aroused and maintained in geographic subjects. A great deal of attention is devoted to the promotion of satisfactory grade-school teaching, both in the factual material presented and the discussions of methodology. The text is kept at high-school and grade-school level in most of the articles, though now and again an important major contribution in some regional or topical field is distinctly of college quality.

The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers issues annually a year-book that summarizes the activities of its members, and treats of the region included within its own territory. The Texas Geographic Society issues the Texas Geographic Magazine, chiefly concerned with its own territorial problems. The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, now in its 35th year, not only publishes much geographic literature of value and interest, but also represents the activity of a municipal group interested in the field of geography.

In addition a great number of publications in fields more or less closely allied to geography, issue their own magazines. These include Foreign Affairs, the organ of the Council of Foreign Relations, which deals with problems and questions in connection with the foreign relationships of the United States; Pacific Affairs, issued by the Institute of Pacific Relations and concerned primarily with the situation in lands bordering the Pacific; The Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, published by Northwestern University; and many other similar magazines.

Geography and Economics.

In many fields the principles and technique of geography are being applied to practical problems. Much of the work of the Soil Survey is distinctly geographic in character. Soil conservation work involves fundamentally a large part of the material which the geographer has for many years monopolized as his own. The relationships of terrain, climate, natural vegetation, and other physical and biological factors to the processes of soil formation and development, as well as similar geographic relationships between soils and the life that they support directly or indirectly, have long been considered an essential part of geography. The present great interest in soil conservation and land planning emphasizes the need of geographic information and the value of geographic technique in field and office work. The yearbook of the Department of Agriculture for 1938, Soils and Men, is in many respects a geographic treatise, as whole sections of its subject matter are distinctly geographic in origin and character. It constitutes an exhaustive and comprehensive treatise on the whole subject of soils science and soils economy. (See also SOIL CONSERVATION.)

Much of the work of soil conservation is similarly geographic in character, and the numerous publications which have appeared during 1938 have had a distinct geographic savor. Miscellaneous Publication No. 321 'To Hold This Soil' is a striking example of the application of geographic principles to the control of soil erosion and the conservation of soil fertility.

In Canada, too, applied geography is a part of many of the projects which are being carried on by the Canadian Government for the exploitation and development of the resources of that vast country. Canadian Frontiers of Settlement, a series of nine volumes which will present the results of as many research projects in Canada, has already been issued in large part, seven volumes having appeared. This great series was organized by Dr. Isaiah Bowman, formerly director of the American Geographical Society and now president of Johns Hopkins University, in cooperation with the Canadian Government. The editors are W. A. Macintosh for Canada, and W. L. G. Joerg representing the American Geographical Society. When the series is completed it will constitute one of the most important studies of the land economy of a country that has ever appeared.

Another equally important series, 'The Relations of Canada and the United States,' is being prepared under the direction of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Economics and History, and a number of its important volumes, nine in all, have appeared. Two more are scheduled for early publication. These volumes include geographic material associated with history, and are of tremendous importance to the future association of the United States and Canada in social, economic, and political activities.

Cartography.

One of the most important contributions to geographic literature in 1938 was General Cartography by Dr. Erwin Raisz, instructor in cartography, Institute of Geographical Exploration at Harvard University. It constitutes the first American contribution of importance in this underlying phase of geography, and represents a milestone in the progress of American geographical study. It is likely to open up a great field of development in cartographic science in the United States.