Geography Unbound: French Geographic Science from Cassini to Humboldt

by Anne Marie Claire Godlewska

Overview

At the end of the eighteenth century, French geographers faced a crisis. Though they had previously been ranked among the most highly regarded scientists in Europe, they suddenly found themselves directionless and disrespected because they were unable to adapt their descriptive focus easily to the new emphasis on theory and explanation sweeping through other disciplines.

Anne Godlewska examines this crisis, the often conservative reactions of geographers to it, and the work of researchers at the margins of the field who helped chart its future course. She tells her story partly through the lives and careers of individuals, from the deposed cabinet geographer Cassini IV to Volney, von Humboldt, and Letronne (innovators in human, physical, and historical geography), and partly through the institutions with which they were associated such as the Encyclopédie and the Jesuit and military colleges.

Geography Unbound presents an insightful portrait of a crucial period in the development of modern geography, whose unstable disciplinary status is still very much an issue today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226300467
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	01/15/1999
Series:	The Chicago History of American Civilization Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	451
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Geography's Crisis
One: The Nature of Eighteenth-Century Geography: Cartographic and Textual Description
Two: Geography's Loss of Direction and Status
Part Two: Reaction and Continuity
Three: Universal Description
Four: The Powerful Mapping Metaphor
Five: Handmaiden to Power
Part Three: Innovation on the Margins
Six: Explaining the Social Realm
Seven: Innovation in Natural Geography
Eight: Tough-Minded Historical Geography
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
Godlewska/Geography Unbound-contents 1

Editorial Reviews

Godlewska (geography, Queen's University, Canada) examines the nature of the decline and dormancy of geography in France that began at the end of the 18th century, and investigates the survival of the weakened field through a momentum more structural and circumstantial than substantive. Adopting a biographical approach, she explores how the crisis influenced the ideas, writings, and careers of French innovators in human, physical, and historical geography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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