Progress: Geographical Essays

"The connection between geography and progress is fundamental," writes Robert Sack in the introduction to the present volume. Touching on both moral and material progress, six of the world's leading geographers and environmental historians explore differing aspects of this connection. Thomas Vale discusses whether progress is discernible in the natural realm; Kenneth Olwig examines fundamental changes that occurred to the notion of progress with the rise of modernity, while David Lowenthal and Yi-Fu Tuan discuss recent geographical changes that have resulted in an increasing societal disenchantment and anxiety. Nicholas Entrikin looks at progress as "moral perfectibility, and its connection to democratic places," a theme which Robert Sack further explores by prescribing ways in which geographers and citizens can evaluate and create places that increase our awareness of reality in its variety and complexity.

Contributors: J. Nicholas Entrikin, University of California-Los Angeles; David Lowenthal, University College, London; Kenneth Olwig, University in Trondheim, Norway; Robert David Sack, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Yi-Fu Tuan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Thomas R. Vale, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"The connection between geography and progress is fundamental," writes Robert Sack in the introduction to the present volume. Touching on both moral and material progress, six of the world's leading geographers and environmental historians explore differing aspects of this connection. Thomas Vale discusses whether progress is discernible in the natural realm; Kenneth Olwig examines fundamental changes that occurred to the notion of progress with the rise of modernity, while David Lowenthal and Yi-Fu Tuan discuss recent geographical changes that have resulted in an increasing societal disenchantment and anxiety. Nicholas Entrikin looks at progress as "moral perfectibility, and its connection to democratic places," a theme which Robert Sack further explores by prescribing ways in which geographers and citizens can evaluate and create places that increase our awareness of reality in its variety and complexity.
Contributors: J. Nicholas Entrikin, University of California-Los Angeles; David Lowenthal, University College, London; Kenneth Olwig, University in Trondheim, Norway; Robert David Sack, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Yi-Fu Tuan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Thomas R. Vale, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Author Biography::Robert David Sack is Clarence J. Glacken and John Bascom Professor of Geography and Integrated Liberal Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of Homo Geographicus: A Framework for Action, Awareness, and Moral Concern and Place, Modernity, and the Consumer's World: A Relational Framework for Geographical Analysis, both available from Johns Hopkins.

Edmund Bunkse

This is a very original book that represents the intellectual maturing of geography as a field of study. It is timely, not only in the originality of its views, but in their universality. This is not a book written by specialists for specialists, but an open, unlimited dialogue.

Robert David Sack is Clarence J. Glacken and John Bascom Professor of Geography and Integrated Liberal Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of Homo Geographicus: A Framework for Action, Awareness, and Moral Concern and Place, Modernity, and the Consumer's World: A Relational Framework for Geographical Analysis, both available from Johns Hopkins.