The Geographical Tradition by David Livingstone (review)

The Geographical Tradition David Livingstone Cambridge, MA: Blackwell’s, 1992 Reviewed by DAVID HOOSON University of California, Berkeley T h is IS A MASTERLY and stimulating sweep through more than five centuries of the collection and interpretation ofknowledge which can be called geographical in the broadest sense ofthe term. Its breadth is combined with a lack of dogmatism which is refreshing and a re­ fusal to succumb to the temptation to tailor the narrative to fit a particular blueprint for what geography should be today. The sub­ title, “Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise,” suggests succinctly that the author tries to avoid grinding a particular axe, but to identify a few themes, periods, movements and individuals which have contributed in significant ways to our “enterprise.” The narra­ tive is embedded throughout in the history ofideas and science, within the general historical context, and is written in a sprightly style which is a pleasure to read and raises questions constantly without neces­ sarily supplying answers. Along with the notion of a “contested” (but nonetheless purposeful and exciting) enterprise is the idea of a continuous “conversation” about the nature of the world and our­ selves, with the inevitability of conflict, pluralism and yet continuity as a many-sided “tradition.” The heart of Livingstone’s argument is that “geography changes as society changes and that the best way to 166 HOOSON: Review of The Geographical Tradition 167 understand the tradition to which geographers belong is to get a handle on the different social and intellectual environments within which geography has been practised.” Thus the themes range from the “Age of Reconnaissance” in the 15th century to the 20th-century clashes over quantification and theory, via magic, maps, clockwork systems and the Great Designer, Imperialism, Regionalism, and Environmentalism. Livingstone can hardly, and does not, make any claim to comprehensiveness, so that many worthy geographers do not appear in the text and little is said about traditions outside the Anglo-American world, at least in the modem period. In the latter, only a few geographers are accorded extended individual treatment, notably Mackinder, Geddes, and Fleure in Britain, and Shaler, Davis, and Sauer in America. However many others are mentioned briefly at appropriate occasions, alongside very many non-geographers, and the fifty-page bibliography makes the book very useful as a springboard for further reading. It will not replace previous histories of geography, which have been more narrowly conceived, with much more detail about individual geographers and their lineage and influences. But for those of us— teachers and students—who revel in the scholarly overview, where geographical ways of thought and styles are placed confidently and often provocatively in the “situated messiness” of intellectual and social history, this book is a delight. Although Livingstone steadfastly eschews “presentism” and pre­ scription for the future orientation ofthe field, he does allow himself, on the last page, the nearest thing to “conversational” conclusion: “Fragmentation of knowledge, social differentiation, and the ques­ tioning of scientific rationality have all coalesced to reaffirm the importance of the particular, the specific, the local. And in this social and cognitive environment a geography stressing the salience ofplace is seen as having great potential.” Back to square one, it might be said, but with a difference—and after an exhilarating journey! ...