hel sha rie Sing uch a iory OFcome and gone, ‘Their every dopisas wise ‘Solomon, ‘warren 1A nanny Al Thi’ Pot 1 fled engeh, [Hisory and Geography] cown ‘oirreading with dsigheand prof; apne, hey] threaten och with certain hipwreck, x wren, Comesapi (640) THE GEOGRAPHY BEHIND HISTORY W. GORDON EAST, ma. Bt WW: NORTON & COMPANY New York LondonGeography as an Historical Document Ad te ae ings ht come na to he view ‘Ofilppers doe wn rads codex ough sce, bia “Eves today, if only by its more deamatic intervention, a relentless ‘ture makes us painfully aware ofthe uneasy terms on which oman {groupe occupy and ote the surice of the earth, The common, boast that man has become master of his world has a hollow sing when we real the recurrent floods and famines which ace che pessants of northern Ching, the devastating floods in che Netherlands fn 2933, the more recent destruction by earthquakes of villages in Ian ‘1957 and 1960, de assertion that in Central Altea "the desert i on the move the widerpread soil eosion in parts of Afia and in the Middle Wet of che United Stace, and finaly, che continual ehreat of Arought which hangs over the great grain lands of the world—alike inte United States, Canada, and South Rusia. These nd similar Ihappenings ox forebodings serve to emphasise the fact that, even for peoples which have reached high evls of material culture, the physical fnvitonmene remaine a veritable Pandor’s box, ever ready to burst ‘open and eo sattcr is noxious contents, And if iti clear that we ‘anaot today, with al our rsoures of science, technique, and motive power, erade or control all the dangers and dificulis which are Implicit in our habia, ow much mote severe and forbidding, must these have Been in eave tages of human history, when men were illequipped to try and adapt the physical sage | So much so, chat in ins beginning, i is ofen id, history is all geography, for we know that, ata primitive sage of culate and for countess millennia, fl lived on the surance ofan omnipotent nature which they had lleThe Gogh bind Erg power citer t9 molly o¢ to exploit In che coune of hia Rowe fey ve as ily tocol tes ea eoplesn difeee parte of the ear socede, by tadeanding in making beter ae ee adjustments to it ° ae woul be mieading to eninge the gcopphy behind hc dolly interns ofthe dasa epads a hich it pays conn? leading par I isnot 0 sch by is move volewe manfortons = ecarthqakes nd vol ruption ond its cans and te ods aby the exprosion of is owl sverylay econ tate fica enviroment Tels mu on aman sory fe aso th lowever etnies roi geography inde above ll he sy of picnic pele eve a ‘hat way and to what estee is envroanent alte ery. For the comments who, flowing the lead given by praia piilosopers of ancient Gres, sought to epi he anid om: lies of itr phenomena in tong of 2 angle cor scopy, this qusion vas cay solved. This geogapbil dena ‘nim, soa, which fund ta te dienes i feogephil endawneat ffom pice o pasa vibe master hey to hte has sos for ome tine fund tte suppor, and Ac], Tope, ‘who rsated ine inthe coune of» general dscusion of fread ‘stn, had no dle tn shwing adequacy Bet f we ee ct wey oe» cpio ton of hizery, what the prope place to be sage to geography inthe eudy of httoy? : sa “The chim of geal be hardin the oun istry rs ‘nthe im bass that lone ie compensa ad ently, by sown methods and tegi, he sring of man acti ata fist the pre cares of tasting eve nove tolocalsebutakooinfuese pcs fhe arn, Te fait tnalogy beeween geography and soc he age a the data in sever respects mieaing, for wheres pay en beat ay sage pees of ts parla aru tbe oune of tory ex sever betel una the va and change ft ing ory ps as or ened bef ete a ‘drat chanel aes manicotti all unity of place, time, aud action. ve Tnshor nstadyig che fesepable phy eting thor, the * A.J Toye, A Sn of Hoty, vol} 984) PR 0-7 Gesgraphy ca Hire Decent geographer studies one of the clement which make up the compound, story: he examines one ofthe stands from which history is woven. Hee docs not aser foolishly that he can detect, stil les expan all the intricate and confused patterns of the apestry, He does art, how ‘ever thatthe phyieal environment, like che wicket in eiket, owing to its particulate from place to place and from time to time, bas some beating on the course of the game, Before we dicast more filly che contbution which geography can ofr to history, we may pause to inquire what i the nature of history itself. In his ambitioes task to unfold and interpret human thought and action as these were ever changing in place and in tie, ‘he fstorian slice eiemally on the literary recor, incompletely and sporadiealy though thie has survived. But—as he continually enlarged the field of his investigations from the deeds of kings and heroes snd fom the fortunes of Kingdoms and empices tothe everyday hfe of "the mere uncounted folle'—the historian has ben compelled ro make swe, not without prot, ofthe collateral work of other socal scientists, such as the arehaeologis, the anthropologist, and che experts in linguistic ad place-name sudy. Since for certain periods and ares the literary and other historical data are scanty of concting, and since, however adequate the reeoed, writen history, despite every precaution of care and honey, most rece in some measure the [ptsonal outlook and imerpreation of che historian; and since, 00, very generation should and does write its own hstory—for these and simular reasons, a ctic might saggest that, as Goethe's Faust put it and {ts Napoleon profsed, ‘hitory is he inveation of historias” Some hiscorians, notably A. J. Toyabec, believe, however, that che evens of hiseory conform to pattems, or poses 3 inherent rationality, which ‘exist independently of the historan's mind, On the other hand, HLA L, Fer, who was no lew ented to pronounce judgment on {his philwophic sue, found in history ‘no plot chythin or pate, but only a series of emergencct, the play of the contingent and unforseen’ In any ease, whatever theory of history we may adopt, ‘we muse agree thata great deals now known about the pas, especially bout the lst 6000 years of So during which civilised ie exited in Certain pats of the earth, We need not, following Dr Inge in a ‘ynical mood, gree thatthe thing that we know about the past may be divided into chose which probably never happened, or those which Aonotmach matter,” Rather we must be iypresed by the great mas of acetained Knowledge which has been, and is being consinuall, 3