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History of Geography

Chapter 2: PREFACE
By Sir John Scott Keltie
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About This Book

The authors present a concise chronological survey of the development of geographical knowledge, beginning with prehistoric navigational instincts and ancient map-making, moving through Greek and Roman conceptions, the medieval and Renaissance transformations, and the age of overseas expansion that reshaped global maps. Chapters examine the discovery of new lands, exploration of polar regions, advances in surveying instruments and cartographic theory, and nineteenth-century research in Africa, Asia, Australia, and the poles. Concluding sections consider the professionalization and scientific methods that transformed geography into a modern discipline, and include a short bibliography and illustrative maps.

PREFACE

This is not a history of geographical exploration, though the leading episodes in the advance of our knowledge of the face of the Earth are necessarily referred to in tracing the evolution of geography as a department of science. That is the object of this volume as one of a series dealing succinctly with the history of the various sciences. We are not concerned to discuss whether Geography is entitled to be considered as a science or not. It is hoped that in the attempt to tell the story of its evolution up to the present day it will be evident that it is as amenable to scientific methods as any other department of human knowledge, and that it performs important functions which are untouched by any other lines of research. I use the first person plural because I am greatly indebted to Mr. O. J. R. Howarth in coming to my help after I had accumulated much of the material, but was seriously delayed owing to a great increase in my official duties. The greater share of whatever merits the book may possess ought to be awarded to Mr. Howarth.

I am indebted to Mr. E. A. Reeves’s interesting little book on Maps and Map-making for many of the illustrations.

J. Scott Keltie.

July 2, 1913.