Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Geography: the world
is our stage
What is geography? An initial answer to this question can be
obtained by discussing the essence of geography and identifying
its distinctive characteristics. Some of this essence was captured
by T. S. Eliot when he wrote:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know this place for the fi rst time.
T. S. Eliot,
Little Gidding
(1942)
One essential characteristic of geography that emerges in this
quotation is the desire to discover more about the world in which
we live; to record its many parts, ceaselessly to encounter the
strange and new, and yet always to return to our roots, to the
place we have chosen to call home. So much of the history of
geography and so many of the great landmarks in the history of
civilizations have had their beginnings in this thrust to explore
and to understand.
Echoes from the past
A brief look at the historical record shows that geography has
always been important. Writing in 58
BC
, Julius Caesar recorded
