The Theory of Environment / An Outline of the History of the Idea of Milieu, and Its Present Status, part 1

by Armin Hajman Koller

[187]. His general theory is stated on pp. 39–42, 53–71, 79 f., 89, 99 f., 102–60. Chapter 7, pp. 161–90, is a general discussion of the geographical environment of the “Civilisations Fluviales,” followed successively by a detailed treatment of “Le Nil” (ch. 8, pp. 191–234), of “Le Tigre et L’Euphrate” (ch. 9, pp. 235–78), of “L’Indus et Le Gange” (ch. 10, pp. 279–319), of “Le Hoang-Ho et Le Yangtse-Kiang” (ch. 11, pp. 320–66).

[188]. W. D. Babington, Fallacies of Race Theories as Applied to National Characteristics (Longmans, Green & Co., 1895).

[189]. N. Y., Scribner, 1893, 290 pp.

[190]. For the rôle of the physical milieu in American history, cf. also: Justin Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, The Struggle in America between England and France: 1697–1763 (Boston & N. Y., 1898) [influence of geography over history during colonization and settlement]; Frederick Jackson Turner, Rise of the New West: 1819–1829 (N. Y. & London: Harper & Brothers, 1906) [vol. 14 of The American Nation, A History, ed. by A. B. Hart, in 27 vols. In the Author’s Preface, p. XVII, Turner remarks: “In the present volume I have kept before myself the importance of regarding American development as the outcome of economic and social as well as political forces.” And, he should have added, of geographical environment. Vide especially the first half of his book for the working out of his milieu idea]; James Bryce, The American Commonwealth, (2 vols., new ed., completely revised, N. Y.: Macmillan, 1910–11) [see vol. 2, ch. 91 (pp. 449–68), “The home of the nation,” for a statement of the influence of physical conditions on American history]; E. C. Semple, American History and Its Geographic Conditions (Boston & N. Y.: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1903, 435 pp.) [regarded, I believe, as one of the best treatises on the subject]; A. P. Brigham, Geographic Influences in American History (Boston: Ginn, 1903, 355 pp.) Social Forces in American History (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1914, 325 pp.)

[191]. See Ripley, “Geography and Sociology” (1895), p. 637; and Ripley, The Races of Europe (1899), pp. 4 ff.; for titles of their writings on this subject, cf. ibid., pp. 4–6 nn., and “Geogr. and Soc.,” pp. 654 f.

[192]. 8 vols., N. Y., Dodd, Mead & Co., 1902–7.

[193]. See Bryce’s article in Helmolt’s Hist. of the World, vol. 1, p. XL.

[194]. “Anderseits wieder hat ja Helmolt in seinem geschichtlichen Sammelwerke im Geiste Ratzels den Versuch gemacht, ein Gesamtgeschichtsbild auf geographischer Grundlage aufzubauen, so daß kein Teil der Ökumene aus der Weltgeschichte ausgeschlossen bleibt.”—L. Gumplowicz, Der Rassenkampf (2 .... Aufl., 1909), p. 403 (Anhang).

[195]. “... die bisherigen Weltgeschichten waren gar keine Geschichte der Welt oder auch nur unserer Welt, sondern einzig eine solche der Kulturnationen. Mit dieser Gepflogenheit hat Helmolts Werk in ebenso glücklicher wie origineller Weise gebrochen, indem es zum ersten Male die Länder- und Völkerkunde in den Dienst der Weltgeschichtsdarstellung hineinzog.”—From a review of the first ed. of Helmolts Weltgeschichte (1899) in the “Braunschweigische Landeßeitung” (February 4, 1908), quoted in the prospectus of the second German edition.

[196]. History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1913).