The decline of geography in academia is easy to understand: we live in an age of ever-increasing specialization, and geography is a generalist's discipline. Imagine the poor geographer trying to explain to someone at a campus cocktail party (or even to an unsympathetic adminitrator) exactly what it is he or she studies.
"Geography is Greek for 'writing about the earth.' We study the Earth."
"Right, like geologists."
"Well, yes, but we're interested in the whole world, not just the rocky bits. Geographers also study oceans, lakes, the water cycle..."
"So, it's like oceanography or hydrology."
"And the atmosphere."
"Meteorology, climatology..."
"It's broader than just physical geography. We're also interested in how humans relate to their planet."
"How is that different from ecology or environmental science?"
"Well, it encompasses them. Aspects of them. But we also study the social and economic and cultural and geopolitical sides of--"
"Sociology, economics, cultural studies, poli sci."
"Some geographers specialize in different world regions."
"Ah, right, we have Asian and African and Latin American studies programs here. But I didn't know they were part of the geography department."
"They're not."
(Long pause.)
"So, uh, what is it that do study then?

Ken Jennings

Tags: politics economics geography political-science geology sociology



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Dreams are our only geography—our native land.

Dejan Stojanovic

Tags: wisdom poetry dreams geography literature quotes thoughts land poetry-quotes literature-quotes dejan-stojanovic



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Eratosthenes, the mapmaker who was the first man to accurately measure the size of the Earth, was a librarian.

Ken Jennings

Tags: science geography librarian eratosthenes



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L'Avion est une machine sans doute, mais quel instrument d'analyse! Cet instrument nous a fait découvrir le vrai visage de la terre. Les routes, en effet, durant des siècles, nous ont trompés. Nous ressemblions à cette souveraine qui désira visiter ses sujets et connaître s'ils se réjouissaient de son règne. Ses courtisans, afin de l'abuser, dressèrent sur son chemin quelques heureux décors et payèrent des figurants pour y danser. Hors du mince fil conducteur, elle n'entrevit rien de son royaume, et ne sut point qu'au large des campagnes ceux qui mourraient de faim la maudissaient.
(Terre des Hommes, ch. IV)

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Tags: geography flying



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London opens to you like a novel itself. [...] It is divided into chapters, the chapters into scenes, the scenes into sentences; it opens to you like a series of rooms, door, passsage, door. Mayfair to Piccadilly to Soho to the Strand.

Anna Quindlen

Tags: geography similes cities london literary-london metropolis urban-geography



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Geography and mileage mean nothing. Separate is a single word that covers all distances that aren't together.

Rivera Sun

Tags: inspirational friendship love geography distance literature-quotes



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The aim of the research is to determine what groups can be drawn up as a result of regular association of place-names. A further step is to consider whether such groups have a geographical significance. This was accepted by Palmer as a reasonable hypothesis; Wilson argued the case for it by considering possible ways in which information to be recorded on the tablets was received by the scribes. Underlying this work is the assumption that groupings may have a geographical basis, but it has still to be shown that this is a reasonable assumption.

Jennifer K. McArthur

Tags: geography classification decipherment linear-b mycenology statistical-analysis



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A guerra é a forma de Deus en­si­nar ge­o­grafia aos ame­ri­ca­nos.

Ambrose Bierce

Tags: war usa geography ignorance united-states-of-america



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Do you understand the sadness of geography?

Michael Ondaatje

Tags: sadness geography



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I like geography best, he said, because your mountains

Brian Andreas

Tags: geography secret secrets mountains mountain boundaries river rivers secret-of-life paying-attention no-boundaries personal-boundaries the-biggest-secret jared-wheat



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