At the present time, geography may be compared to one of Rodin’s statues in which we see a beautiful figure as it were struggling to escape from the marble in which it is imprisoned. So the geography of to-day is in the act of escaping from the matrix of mere facts in which it has been too long imprisoned. It is now displaying itself as a great unity in the making of which all the sciences have played their part.
But even in this general survey of recent developments two other sets of facts must be touched upon. We have given fifty years as the period within which most of what is distinctively modern in geography has developed. It must not be forgotten that within the same period there has been a remarkable renewal of interest in geographical exploration. Roughly speaking, within this period Africa has ceased to be an unknown continent; the innermost recesses of Asia have been largely explored; the Arctic and Antarctic areas have yielded many, though by no means the whole, of their secrets; a great deal of exploration has been done in America as a whole, as well as much detailed survey work in the United States and Canada; the oceans have been investigated by successive series of expeditions. Generally it may be said that in its broad outlines our knowledge of the world has been completed, so that geographical science is free to pass from the mere collection of raw material to the higher task of arranging, classifying, and making deductions, as well as to the more detailed surveys which are still necessary.
The other point of interest is that the last fifty years have seen an enormous increase in the facilities for travel, a fact which has led to a great increase in the number of people to whom geography appeals. The decade between 1830 and 1840 saw the beginning of two great series of guide-books, Murray’s Handbooks and Baedeker’s Guides, whose importance for the travelling public can hardly be over-estimated. The first “Baedeker” was a little guide to the Rhine, and since it was first published this firm of publishers has not only extended its field of operations over nearly the whole world, but has issued a constant stream of new editions, which for the most frequented tourist regions are practically annual. That great tourist agency whose name is now a household word began operations in the early forties, and like the firm of Baedeker has now taken the world as its sphere of action. We may say, then, that during the course of the nineteenth century, travel, previously a pastime of the rich, was brought within the reach of very moderate purses. This democratisation of travel is still going on, and in certain recent visits of British working men to Germany and elsewhere we may perhaps see the beginning of a process which will eventually bring some amount of journeying abroad within the reach of all.
As yet the effect upon geography of this increase in travelling has been chiefly to enhance popular interest in the science, rather than to enrich it, for the vast majority of “popular” travel books have added little, if anything, to the sum total of knowledge. But this is partly because geographical teaching has hitherto been badly organised, and the greater number of travellers have started on their journeys without having been taught what to observe or how to observe. There are already indications that this condition of affairs is passing away, and that the traveller of the future will start better equipped, and will demand in his guide-books a new point of view. Starting from a higher level he will bring back more from his travels.
Meantime it should be noted that some knowledge of the generalisations laid down by geographers during the course of the last half century adds enormously to the interest of travel, both at home and abroad, and that for this reason, if for no other, geography is worth study by all.
In the following chapters we shall look, so far as possible, at those aspects of the subject which make the widest appeal, and which are best fitted to enable the ordinary man to understand his surroundings, whatever they may be, and so aid him in that delicate task of adjustment which, consciously or unconsciously, is the task of every living thing. As limitations of space involve a similar limitation of subject-matter, it has been thought best to lay most stress upon the conditions which prevail in Europe and North America, the areas which have been most thoroughly studied. Europe has the special interest that it has given origin to the type of civilisation which has most profoundly modified the earth’s surface. This limitation cannot, however, be made rigid, for it is of the essence of the modern standpoint that no area can be understood without reference to the world at large. The geography of Europe no less than of North America is determined by the position of the respective continents on the surface of the globe, and cannot be understood without a consideration of this position and its implications. The standpoint adopted here is frankly anthropological, that is, the world is considered as the home of man, its physical peculiarities being regarded as interesting chiefly in their relation to man and his activities.
Finally, we may note that the development of the subject within recent years has been such that it is quite impossible, even within the limitations already laid down, to give a complete survey of the subject. All that will be attempted, therefore, is to suggest some of the lines along which research is proceeding most actively at the present time, special stress being laid upon those aspects of the subject which are not as yet fully treated in the smaller text-books. The list of books of reference at the end will, it is hoped, enable those interested to fill in the blanks which such a scheme necessarily leaves.