Historical geography 1923965 219603426 2008-06-16T01:16:32Z Sardanaphalus 427947 updating link using [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]] {{Unreferenced|date=November 2006}} '''Historical geography''' is the study of the [[Human geography|human]], [[Physical geography|physical]], [[Fictional geography|fictional]], theoretical, and "real" geographies of the past. Historical [[geography]] studies a wide variety of issues and topics. A common theme is the study of the geographies of the past and how a place or region changes through time. Many historical geographers study geographical patterns through time, including how people have interacted with their environment, and created the cultural landscape. Historical geography seeks to determine how cultural features of various societies across the planet emerged and evolved, by understanding their interaction with their local environment and surroundings. For some in the United States, the term ''historical geography'' has a more specialized meaning: the name given by [[Carl O. Sauer|Carl Ortwin Sauer]] of the [[University of California, Berkeley]] to his program of reorganizing cultural geography (some say all geography) along regional lines, beginning in the first decades of the [[20th century]]. To Sauer, a landscape and the cultures in it could only be understood if all of its influences through history were taken into account: physical, cultural, economic, political, environmental. Sauer stressed 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. Regional specialists remain in academic geography departments to this day. But some geographers feel that it harmed the discipline; that too much effort was spent on data collection and classification, and too little on analysis and explanation. Studies became more and more area-specific as later geographers struggled to find places to make names for themselves. These factors may have led in turn to the [[Quantitative revolution#The 1950s Crisis in Geography|1950s crisis in geography]], which raised serious questions about geography as an academic discipline in the United States. This sub-branch of [[human geography]] is closely related to [[history]] and [[environmental history]]. == External links == * [http://www.openhistory.net A Dynamic Map of the World Cities' Growth] {{Human geography}} [[Category:Human geography]] [[Category:Historical geography| ]] [[ca:Geografia històrica]] [[de:Historische Geographie]] [[el:Ιστορική γεωγραφία]] [[es:Geografía histórica]] [[ko:역사지리학]] [[hr:Povijesna geografija]] [[lt:Istorinė geografija]] [[ja:歴史地理学]] [[pl:Geografia historyczna]] [[ro:Geografie istorică]] [[ru:Историческая география]] [[zh:历史地理学]]