The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950 [Paperback]

Susan Schulten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0226740560 | ISBN-13: 978-0226740560

In this rich and fascinating history, Susan Schulten tells a story of Americans beginning to see the world around them, tracing U.S. attitudes toward world geography from the end of nineteenth-century exploration to the explosion of geographic interest before the dawn of the Cold War. Focusing her examination on four influential institutions—maps and atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university, and public schools—Schulten provides an engaging study of geography, cartography, and their place in popular culture, politics, and education.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

University of Denver historian Schulten offers a well-documented account of how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography from 1880, when maps first became widely available, to 1950, the beginning of the Cold War. She focuses on four distinct presences within America's geographical community: university geographers, primary and secondary school geographers, the National Geographic and its editors, and commercial producers of maps and atlases. More academician than storyteller, Schulten writes unadorned prose; this style is effective, however, as she argues her major theme, that geography over this period directly reflected political and cultural ideology. Schulten's chronicle of the rise of the National Geographic under visionary editor Gilbert Grosvenor is insightful, especially when discussing the paradox created by Grosvenor's editorial policy of presenting readers "pleasant information," designed to provide "mental relaxation without emotional stimulus." This policy led the magazine to depict favorably what it designated as the "progressive" changes in Italy and Germany in the 1930s. Equally interesting is the discussion of the power of maps, "the silent arbiter(s) of power." Specifically, her analysis of the symbolic message embedded in the Mercator projection, that flat world map familiar to schoolchildren past and present picturing the United States safely centered between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, far from the mysterious East and troubling West, brings new perspective to the latent political statements maps make by their design. Another strength of this book is the richness of the historical and political record Schulten utilizes to explicate her major themes. Theory is wisely balanced by a hodgepodge of odd and interesting facts about maps, politics and American cultural trends.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The thesis of this work, as stated in its excellent introduction, is to weave together commercially produced maps, the work of the National Geographic Society, and academic and K-12 geography in an attempt to figure out how each has informed the U.S. public's idea of the world. Schulten (history, Univ. of Denver) discusses the place of geography in education as well as in popular culture and politics during the last two decades of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century and looks at how cartography turned from an elite craft into a mass-market production. Her focus on historical perspective rather than cartography means that occasionally her statements don't concur with a map librarian's view (e.g., her comment that most maps are found in atlases is incorrect unless she means that this is where most general users see maps). Recommended for public and academic libraries. Mary L. Larsgaard, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (December 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226740560
• ISBN-13: 978-0226740560
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,004,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb study on american spatial constructions August 21, 2010

By L. Davinha

Format:Paperback

S. Schultens book is a great choice for those who are interested in understanding how political, cultural and social imperatives shape ideas about geography and space and how those ideas influence American history and culture. Her study deals specifically with the role of mapmakers, academic and school geography and the National Geographic Society in influencing popular conceptions of global geography from the end of the XIX century up to the 2ş World War. These different institutions allowed Americans to make sense of a complex world, through the use of different spatial strategies.

A highly recommended book for those interested in mental maps, metageographies, and popular geopolitics and imagined geographies. Very well illustrated and abundant references and end notes.

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is fantastic! December 10, 2010

By Stephen D. Calhoun

Format:Paperback

This is a fantastic book for your coffee table. After purchase, imagine snuggling up with your significant other and leafing through a tome full of maps. After you are done with the tome, play a game of mental map imagery!The Marylanders: Without Shelter or a Crumb