The unity of geography in the USA and the USSR

Summary The discipline of geography, both ancient and new, is periodically subject to centrifugal tendencies, threatening its integrity and cohesion as a subject. From very different traditions, this question of philosophical unity has lain at the heart of many controversies and re-examinations of the value and place of geography in the Soviet Union and the United States in recent years, both as an academic subject and with respect to its practical applicability. This article attempts a comparative and personal view of what has happened to geography, mainly over the last quarter of a century, in these two countries, focussed on this unity question.