Geographical Text-Books and Geographical Teaching

Abstract

We are teaching the television generation in our college classrooms and if we can't beat' em, we should certainly join' em. Visual images can, indeed, be effective teaching tools in geography. Three uses of a “classic” concealed image of Jesus Christ in a melting snowfield are discussed. First, the image serves as an example of the geographer's search for spatial regularities. On a more interpretative level, the concealed image becomes a metaphor for the quasi-religious quest for scientific truth. If we aren't careful, this quest can devolve into Ideological explanation. Finally, the mysterious origin of the Jesus image is akin to an urban legend. Its origin may be used to illustrate the fallibility of scientific citation as can the image entitled “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law” incorrectly cited by the geographer William Kirk. Whether the Jesus image was a natural event or a product of human creation is an object lesson in the pitfalls of imputed intentionality.     

Geographical Notes

Abstract

This article describes the benefits of combining field-based learning within the context of a competitive setting in the geography curriculum. Findings and data are presented based on experiences gathered from teaching an upper-level university geography course that combined geographic techniques and theory into a game of capture-the-flag. Students analyzed a variety of geospatial data sources, using ArcMap Geographic Information System software, to prepare a series of maps for the game. Students reported a first-time understanding of many geographic skills that were previously ambiguous to them when the material was presented in a different format, such as lectures and labs.     

Geographical Reviews

A CENTURY OF BRITISH GEOGRAPHY. Edited by RON JOHNSTON and MICHAEL WILLIAMS. THE EUROPEANS: A Geography of People, Culture, and Environment. By ROBERT C. OSTERGREN and JOHN G. RICE. A COMPANION TO FEMINIST GEOGRAPHY. Edited by LISE NELSON and JONI SEAGER. MILITARY GEOGRAPHIES. By RACHEL WOODWARD. MEMORY AND THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL TRANSFORMATION IN PUBLIC SPACE. Edited by DANIEL J. WALKOWITZ and LISA MAYA KNAUER. THAILAND AT THE MARGINS: Internationalization of the State and the Transformation of Labour. By JIM GLASSMAN.     

Geographical Reviews

ISLANDS OF THE MIND: How the Human Imagination Created the Atlantic World. By John R. Gillis. A WORLD OF ISLANDS: An Island Studies Reader. Edited by Godfrey Baldacchino.     

Geographical Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: CREOLIZATION: History, Ethnography, Theory. Edited by Charles Stewart . THE IMPOSSIBLE LAND: Story and Place in California's Imperial Valley. By Phillip H. Round THE HORSE, THE WHEEL AND LANGUAGE: How Bronze‐Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. By David W. Anthony DELEUZE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE: Violence of the Text. By Mark Halsey . AMERICAN GREEN: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn. By Ted Steinberg . LAWN PEOPLE: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are. By Paul Robbins .     

Geographical Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: THOREAU's COUNTRY: Journey through a Transformed Landscape. By David R. Foster . VISIONS OF PARADISE: Glimpses of Our Landscape's Legacy. By John Warfield Simpson . CREATING COLORADO: The Making of a Western American Landscape, 1860–1940. By William Wyckoff . THE DAWN OF CONSERVATION DIPLOMACY: U.S.-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the Progressive Era. By Kurkpatrick Dorsey . ORGANIZING THE LANDSCAPE: Geographical Perspectives on Labor Unionism. Edited by Andrew Herod GREEN LAND, BROWN LAND, BLACK LAND: An Environmental History of Africa, 1800–1990. By James C. Mc Cann . RED CAPITALISM IN SOUTH CHINA: Growth and Development of the Pearl River Delta. By George C. S. Lin . PILLAR OF SAND: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? By Sandra Postel. xv THE CHACO MERIDIAN: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest. By Stephen H. Lekson .     

Geographical Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: CITIES AND RACE: America's New Black Ghetto. By David Wilson UNCOMMON SENSE: Understanding Nature's Truths across Time and Culture. By Anthony Aveni . COMMUNICATION AND EMPIRE: Media, Markets, and Globalization, 1860–1930. By Dwayne R. Winseck and Robert M. Pike . NUEVO ATLAS NACIONAL DE MÉXICO. Compiled by the Instituto de Geografía , Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México .     

Geographical Classics

Abstract

THE GEOGRAPHY OF CRIME AND VIOLENCE: A SPATIAL AND ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE. By Daniel E. Georges. Resource Papers for College Geography, Resource Paper No. 78-1. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Geographers, 1978. Pp. vii + 28, $2.50.

SOURCEBOOK ON THE ENVIRONMENT: A GUIDE TO THE LITERATURE. Edited by Kenneth A. Hammond, George Macinko, and Wilma 6. Fairchild. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Pp. x + 613, $20.00.     

Geographical Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: THE GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION IN AMERICA, 1880–1950. By Susan Schulten . LIFE IN THE TREETOPS: Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology. By Margaret D. Lowman . PRESERVING CULTURAL LANDSCAPES IN AMERICA. Edited by Arnold R. Alanen and Robert Z. Melnick . LONG DAY'sJOURNEY: The Steamboat & Stagecoach Era in the Northern West. By Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes . CHINA'sOLD DWELLINGS. By Ronald G. Knapp . xi and 362 pp.; ills., bibliog. A DOUBTFUL RIVER. By Robert Dawson , Peter Goin , and Mary Webb     

Geographical Reviews

CONSERVANCY: The Land Trust Movement in America. By RICHARD BREWER. CONTEMPORARY MEANINGS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY: From What to Why? Edited by STEPHEN TRUDGILL and ANDRÉ ROY. GAINING GROUND: A History of Landmaking in Boston. By NANCY S. SEASHOLES. CHANGING MINES IN AMERICA. By PETER GOIN and C. ELIZABETH RAYMOND. PLANTING NATURE: Trees and the Manipulation of Environmental Stewardship in America. By SHAUL E. COHEN. SEEING THE FOREST AND THE TREES: Human‐Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems. Edited by EMILIO F. MORAN and ELINOR OSTROM. LANDSCAPE AND IMAGES. By JOHN STILGOE.     

Geographical Reviews

WITH A CAMERA IN MY HANDS: William O. Field NATURAL HAZARDS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE. By BILL MCGUIRE, IAN MASON, and CHRISTOPHER KILBURN. POLITICAL ECOLOGY An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment‐Development Studies. Edited by KARL s. ZIMMERER and THOMAS J. BASSETT. INVENTING THE CHARLES RIVER. By KARL HAGLUND. COMMUNITY ON LAND: Community, Ecology, and the Public Interest. By JANEL M. CURRY and STEVEN MCGUIRE. THE TIGER AND THE PANGOLIN: Nature, Culture, and Conservation in China. By CHRIS COGGINS. LE PAYSAGE ANIMAL: L'homme et la grande faune: Une zoogéographié histo‐By XAVIER DE PLANHOL.