AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY AND THE PROGRESS OF THE NEW SOUTH IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE*

ABSTRACT. This article examines how National Geographic Magazine's coverage of the U.S. South contributed to the production of an exalted American national identity. The framework of internal orientalism is employed to explain the role of the South as an internal other in the national discourse and to show how even positive representations of the South are often implicated in this othering. In the pages of National Geographic, the New South's progress is measured by the steps it takes away from the Old South. In highlighting the improvements made within the South, the articles provide subtle hints that the legacy of segregation, intolerance, racism, and poverty continues to haunt the region. The articles set up a spatial distinction that construes these evils as inherently southern problems, which implies that however far the New South moves away from the problematic legacy of the Old South, it will never quite reach the American ideal.     

THE IDEOLOGY OF EMPIRE IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE'S COVERAGE OF THE PHILIPPINES, 1898–1908

ABSTRACT. Between 1898 and 1908 the National Geographic Magazine reported copiously on the territorial acquisition and U.S. colonial administration of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. The pages of the magazine provide an intriguing window on connections between the emergence of geography as an organized profession and the expanding sphere of U.S. control of overseas territories. The overall picture reveals a shift from bold calls for direct economic exploitation of the natural resources and labor power of the Philippine Islands to more platitudinous justifications for U.S. control, based on moral responsibility and the ostensibly objective imperatives of “scientific” development.     

GEOGRAPHIC GEOMORPHOLOGY IN THE EIGHTIES

The geomorphic sciences will continue to be dynamic in the coming decade. Among other developments, there is a trend toward increased dependence on field reserch, more realistic expectations from reserch tools, a resurgence of interest in man-land relations with a renewed dependence on the historical approach, a reinvestigation of morphogenetic regions, study of planetary surfaces other than earth's, and involvement with applied problems, as well as cooperation and collaboration with scientists in related fields. The greatest need is the development of connections between academic and nonacademic geographers at all levels.     

THE EXPANSION METHOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR GEOGRAPHIC RESEARCH*

Geographic phenomena and our models of them are closely linked to the spatial-temporal contexts in which they are observed. The expansion method is a procedure that incorporates contextual effects into mathematical models. More importantly, it is the basis for a movement by some geographers away from the classical spatial science paradigm. The evolving paradigm associated with the expansion method represents a reformulation of the way in which geographers think about and use models, and is consistent with a more realistic perspective on the nature of geographic inquiry.