Historical geography
Studies geographic phenomena and cultural features over time.
Historical geography is a field of geography focused on how geographic features and patterns shift over time. It functions as a synthesizing discipline, drawing on topics and methods shared with history, anthropology, ecology, geology, environmental studies, literary studies, and other areas. While the bulk of research in this field falls under human geography, it also includes studies of geographic change that are not mainly caused by humans. This subject frequently appears in school and university curricula for geography and social studies, and scholars in over forty countries are currently active in it.
This subfield of human geography is closely linked to history, environmental history, and historical ecology. It aims to understand how cultural features of different societies around the world arose and evolved by examining their interactions with local environments and surroundings. More recent work has adopted non-traditional methods, including botany and archaeology.
In its early stages, historical geography was hard to pin down as a subject. A textbook from the 1950s quoted an earlier definition calling it an "unsound attempt by geographers to explain history." The textbook’s author, J. B. Mitchell, firmly placed it within geography, stating that "the historical geographer is a geographer first last and all the time." By 1975, the first issue of the *Journal of Historical Geography* broadened the field’s reach, describing it as encompassing "the writings of scholars of any disciplinary provenance who have something to say about matters of geographical interest relating to past time."
In the United States, the term historical geography was used by Carl Ortwin Sauer of the University of California, Berkeley, for his program to reorganize cultural geography—and some say all geography—along regional lines, starting in the early 1900s. For Sauer, a landscape and its cultures could only be understood by considering all historical influences: physical, cultural, economic, political, and environmental. He emphasized regional specialization as the only way to gain enough expertise on different parts of the world. Sauer’s philosophy largely shaped American geographic thought in the mid-20th century, and regional specialists still work in academic geography departments today. However, some geographers argue this approach harmed the discipline, as too much eff
- field
- Geography
- subfield
- Historical geography
- key_figure
- Carl Ortwin Sauer
- major_journals
- Journal of Historical Geography, Historical Geography
- major_institutions
- Historical Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers, Historical Geography Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society
- current_scope
- Research performed by scholars in more than forty countries
Lore & Background
In its early days, historical geography was difficult to define as a subject. A textbook from the 1950s cited a previous definition as an 'unsound attempt by geographers to explain history'. 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 the Journal of Historical Geography had widened the discipline to a broader audience, including scholars of any disciplinary provenance who had something to say about matters of geographical interest relating to past time.
In the United States, the term historical geography was used by Carl Ortwin Sauer of the University of California, Berkeley for his program of reorganizing cultural geography along regional lines, beginning in the first decades of the 20th century. Sauer stressed that a landscape and its cultures could only be understood if all influences through history were taken into account: physical, cultural, economic, political, environmental. He emphasized regional specialization as the only means of gaining sufficient expertise on regions of the world. Sauer's philosophy was the principal shaper of American geographic thought in the mid-20th century.
Reader's Guide
Historical geography matters because it provides a framework for understanding how cultural features of societies emerged and evolved through interaction with local environments. The discipline synthesizes methods from history, anthropology, ecology, geology, and other fields, making it a crucial bridge between the humanities and natural sciences. Its development reflects ongoing debates about the proper scope and methods of geography itself. The early difficulty in defining historical geography, and the later expansion of its audience through the Journal of Historical Geography, show how the field has evolved from a contested subdiscipline into a recognized area of inquiry. Carl Sauer's regional approach shaped American geography for decades, though some geographers later felt that too much effort was spent on data collection and classification, and too little on analysis and explanation. This contributed to the 1950s crisis in geography, which raised serious questions about the discipline in the USA. Today, historical geography remains a major component of school and university curricula, with research conducted in more than forty countries, and its practitioners continue to use both traditional and non-traditional methods such as botany and archaeology.
Did You Know?
- Historical geography shares topical and methodological similarities with history, anthropology, ecology, geology, environmental studies, and literary studies.
- A 1950s textbook cited an earlier definition of historical geography as an 'unsound attempt by geographers to explain history'.
- Carl Ortwin Sauer of the University of California, Berkeley used the term historical geography for his program of reorganizing cultural geography along regional lines.
- Current research in historical geography is being performed by scholars in more than forty countries.
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