Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
milk, beef catle, and meat. In sum, in the Côte-d'Or at the turn of the
century, the proximity to rail transport facilitated, to a varied degree, the
shift from wheat cultivation to livestock farming.
The same advantage held more or less true in the French department
of the Allier and in the English county of Derbyshire.
36
In Dorset the
role of railways in farmers' adjustments to difficult market conditions
was signiicant, if complex, in wheat production. W hether these paterns
held true in other French and British regions and in the two countries
generally are maters next on our agenda.
Conclusion: A Reflection on Spatial History
This chapter tries to illustrate how HGIS, geographic thinking, and spa-
tial statistics, in the good company of traditional forms of historical nar-
rative and analysis, are key ingredients in the making of spatial history.
The story presented here of globalizing agricultural markets, intensify-
ing international competition, expanding rail transportation, and in-
creasing agricultural change offers a sketch of a far-reaching historical
transformation. Some important features, to be sure, are there, thanks
to GIS and spatial analysis. In spatial history, however, HGIS works best
as a junior partner. Given the data, it can help identify problems and
facilitate their examination. But, like other tools in the historian's kit, it
cannot frame problems that are worth investigation. Nor does it generate
interpretations and meanings. Its complexities carry a risk. Because the
preparation of georeferenced data and the learning of the technology can
take a great deal of time, practitioners of HGIS often get caught up in the
methods and give too litle atention in their papers and publications to
substantive results. We practitioners should do a beter job interpreting
and communicating our discoveries to make clearer why HGIS is worth
the effort.
A related imperative is to recognize both the limits of HGIS and the
importance of complementary sources and approaches. If GIS technol-
ogy were to drive the investigation, one might easily overlook records
documenting the lived experience of nineteenth-century farmers, their
wives, sons, and daughters, the observations and opinions of journalists
like Jefferies, or the testimony of farmers before the British and French
