The Council at Work

Abstract

Through analysis of census data, these lessons cover geographic concepts dealing with migration and population change in the United States. Students discuss the historical push and pull factors of immigration to the United States. By focusing on the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants, students look at the geographic concepts of assimilation, discrimination, and time-decay. Students also create graphs and maps to examine the recent increase in the United States Hispanic population and geographic patterns of Hispanic settlement.     

The Council at Work

Abstract

This paper attempts to illustrate certain important concepts in the field of cultural geography through the study of a very popular phenomenon—Rock and Roll music. The roles that the White and Black rural South and various American cities played as culture hearths and centers of culture contact are discussed along with the effects of mass migrations and mass media on American musical tastes and styles. Rock and Roll is looked at from a diffusionist point of view in that throughout its evolution, various places played important parts as “way stations” as certain American musical styles gradually spread from rural southern shacks to New York recording studios.     

The Council at Work

Abstract

The George J. Miller Award for Distinguished Service Committee has selected truly “A Person for all Seasons.” The recipient of this year's award favors the tropics, but has had rich experiences in the middle and high latitudes as well. The approach to geographic analysis which this year's recipient espouses has a rough but recognizable parallel in De Bello Gallico: “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres” (referring, obviously, to the recipient's A-V-T association). Although never a general—and here I presume Julius Caesar was—this person has chaired, ruled, flown, edited, directed, presided, superintended—and in each case earned a title appropriate to the service. But in two distributaries of endeavor where much of the time no formal title is granted, this year's award recipient has truly excelled: serving the profession and teaching students.     

National Council at Work

Abstract

Remote Sensing for Resource Management by C.J. Johannsen and J.L. Sanders, eds. Ankeny, Iowa: Soil Conservation Society of America, 1982. xx and 665 pp., figs., graphs, tables, photos, apps., refs., glossary, and index. $45.00 cloth.

Where the Grass Is Greener: Living in an Unequal World 2d ed. by David M. Smith Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.386 pp., figs., graphs, tables, maps, app., biblio., and index. $7.50 paper.

Common Landscape of America, 1580 to 1845 by John R. Stilgoe New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1982. xi and 429 pp., illus., photos, refs., biblio., and index. $29.95 cloth.

The Design of Suburbia: A Critical Study in Environmental History by Arthur M. Edwards London: Pembridge Press, 1981. viii and 281 pp., figs., il-lus., photos, refs., biblio., and index. $32.50 cloth.

The Soviet Union: A Systematic Geography by Leslie Symons, ed. Totowa, New Jersey: Barnes &; Noble, 1983.266 pp., figs., graphs, tables, photos, maps, and index. $28.75 cloth; $18.75 paper.

Living Under Apartheid: Aspects of Urbanization and Social Change in South Africa by David M. Smith, ed. Winchester, Massachusetts: Allen &; Unwin, 1982. The London Research Series in Geography 2. xiii and 256 pp., figs., graphs, tables, maps, biblio., and index. $35.00 cloth.