Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 4

The French School of Geography: Review La Gographie Franaise au Milieu du XXe Sicle by G. Chabot; R. Clozier; J.

Beaujeu-Garnier Review by: R. J. Harrison Church The Geographical Journal, Vol. 123, No. 2 (Jun., 1957), pp. 235-237 Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1791325 . Accessed: 13/07/2013 15:17
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 164.41.4.26 on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 15:17:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE

FRENCH

SCHOOL

OF

GEOGRAPHY

LA GfiOGRAPHIE AU MILIEU DU XXe SlfiCLE. Edited by FRANQAISE G. Chabot, R. Clozier and Mme. J. Beaujeu-Garnier. Paris: UInformation Gdographique etJ-B. Bailliere et Fils, 1957. 6*4 X91* inches; 333 pages that one half-century of scientific geography has elapsed, it is well to Now examine achievements, present trends and future prospects. The renaissance of geography owes much to the French, especially to Paul Vidal de la Blache. It was in 1915, just before his death, that Emmanuel de Martonne presented a first report on French geography to the San Francisco International Geographical Congress. Now, so shortly after the passing of de Martonne, to whom our generation of geographers owes so much for putting the " Ge " firmly into Geography, comes this comprehensive survey prepared for the Rio de Janeiro Congress. It is the work of thirty-eight con? some tributors who have written forty-two essays?some largely bibliographical, essentially philosophical. Two discuss the whole character, tendencies and organiza? tion of French geography, thirteen analyse French contributions to physical geo? graphy, eight review aspects of human geography, eleven examine French writings on continents or large countries, and the rest deal with applied geography, research facilities and resources, journals, cartography and the international bibliographies. Thus the scope is wide, and the editors are to be warmly congratulated on assembling such a valuable collection of analyses. They and the publishers even succeeded in publishing in mid-1956 a book dated 1957. How refreshing it would be if British publishers could emulate this! Professor Sorre and most of the senior contributors remind us that it was the comprehensive regional study that typified the French School and brought it fame. Many find sadness in the present paucity of such studies; others find continuing virility and distinction in the modern very specialized regional studies and in the many new aspects now being developed. Professor Cholley seems satisfied that French geography still unifies physical and human geography, though many here will challenge his statement (p. 14) that this is less true of Anglo-Saxon geographers. Indeed, geography in its undivided glory may be studied equally in the Faculties of Arts, Science and Economics in most British universities, and that has never been possible in France. Professor Baulig reviews the progress of geomorphology in France up to 1940, and Professor Jacqueline Beaujeu-Garnier describes the modern approach?the taking of field specimens into the laboratory, and their analysis and measurement therein to explain earth processes. Important work has been done on the decomposition of rocks and in climatic morphology, as the vast output on periglacial morphology has shown. Capot-Rey, writing on desert morphology, considers wind and the effects of humidity and frost as more important than mechanical erosion. The most resistant rocks are those that are the most impervious. Valleys and slopes were most developed not in the wettest or driest periods but in transitional ones. Tricart discusses glacial and periglacial geomorphology, stressing the preponderant part played by Quaternary periglacial phenomena in the evolution of the French landscape. Derruau gives details of recent work in volcanic morphology, especially in the explanation of forms through the study of magmas, new classifications of volcanic conglomerates and of volcanoes, and the processes of their erosion. Blanc reviews three main lines of research in karstic morphology: underground hydrology and morphology, the effects of different and alternating climates, and the great consequences to karstic regions in the Causses and in southern Ireland of a warm damp climate at the end of the Pliocene. On the other hand, a cold period arrested karst development. Veyret notes the present separation of research into wholly physical or wholly 16

This content downloaded from 164.41.4.26 on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 15:17:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

236

THE FRENCHSCHOOLOF GEOGRAPHY

human aspects of mountain geography. Describing studies of the pre-Alpine furrow and of the Limousin, he suggests that controversy has been mainly upon the relative parts of erosion and of the now more favoured factor of structure in explaining land forms. As between the work of water and of ice, most now favour the latter. On the human side, there have been many studies of population, of elections, and of power and industry. Guilcher, so well known to us for his work in the British Isles, characterizes research of a few workers in coastal morphology as being directed mainly to con? temporary processes and forms. He gracefully acknowledges the lead of Steers, Lewis, Schou, Nielsen and Hansen, and describes work on the Gironde, Loire, Senegal and French Guinea river estuaries; and on spits, taking account of dominant local winds, maximum fetch in narrower seas, and of swell in wider oceans. Research has also been directed to chemical, physio-chemical and to biological factors in coastal erosion; to coral reefs and beaches. Guilcher also contributes a chapter on oceano? graphy, and contributions by Peguy on climatology, Gachon on pedology, Birot on plant geography and Parde" on fluvial hydrology complete the chapters on the more purely physical aspects. Beaujeu-Garnier and George are the outstanding French pioneers in population geography. The latter has developed a means of calculating optimum or economic densities, and both are making, or have made, regional and general studies of popula? tion. Perpillou reports on political, social, economic and technical explanations of nucleated rural settlements, while increased freedom and technical efficiency are factors which have promoted dispersion. Rarely is one type found exclusively, both have ebbed and flowed in time. Chabot explains recent efforts to define and systematize urban geography. New prospects have been opened up by studies of towndistricts, individual roads, bus routes, railway stations, the distribution of markets and cinemas, and of town-country relationships. Champier suggests that the word "geopolitics" should be retained to mean, as in the original definition of Kjelen, "the science of the State as a geographical organism, of the State in Space," and that political geography would then be the study of all other incidences of politics on geography. Not only would this further divide a branch of human geography but it would seem to exclude the study of the influence of geographical factors on policies. Historical studies are to the fore in agricultural geography, while in industrial geo? graphy most published work has been either on all industries in a region, on one industry nationally, on the characteristics of an industrial region, or on the subject as a whole, e.g. P. George, 'Geographie industrielle du monde.' General studies in transport geography have been made by Capot-Rey, Sorre and Journaux, whilst other studies have been devoted to roads, railways and ports. Dion, in a short contribution, describes his teaching of historical geography at the College de France as "retrospective human geography" which, starting from the beginning of the Railway Era, pushes its researches sufficiently far into the past to explain those varied forms of man's work which are still to be seen on the land. It is this latter point which, according to Dion, distinguishes the historical geographer Dion insists upon the vital r61e of history in from the historian. Nevertheless, us from determinism. Why, he asks, are the vine and olive regarded as shielding indicators of Mediterranean climate and vegetation, when in fact they were spread by Greek colonization and Roman conquest ? As elsewhere, French geographers and their professional bodies are taking an increasing part in planning. Some, like Blanchard, seek further recognition; others, like Sorre, feel that scientists should pursue science alone; others, with Le Lannou, take a middle course. Giraudoux regards a geographer as an "ensemblier," and Chabot has compared his function with that of a general medical practitioner who coordinates the work of specialists. Those of us who have studied and lectured in French universities in past years will

This content downloaded from 164.41.4.26 on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 15:17:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

HILL-SHADINGIN THE NEW QUARTER-INCH ORDNANCE SURVEYMAP

237

recall that equipment was often mediocre. It is good, therefore, to read of the generous grants now given by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique to departments for the purchase of research equipment, to teachers and students under? taking research in France and abroad, to journals and publications (such. as this volume under review), to professional meetings, to libraries and to map and photo? graphic collections. French geographers are now quite handsomely subsidized at home and on missions abroad. Here then is another geographical stock-taking akin to * American geography: inventory and prospect.' Comparison of the contents of these volumes reveals the weaknesses of French geographers in their scientific and economic training, and so in their low output in climatology, in true economic geography, in medical geography, in the teaching of air photo interpretation and in cartographical techniques. But in the other great fields they retain their vigour and strength. Why is this, and what lessons have the French to teach us all ? They are the importance of their intensive literary and historical training, of their devotion to the regional method and to minute field work, and of their competence in both physical and human aspects, as well as in general geography. Like the American volume, these forty-two essays provide a most useful bibliography as well as an examination of a brilliant school. R. J. Harrison Church

HILL-SHADING ORDNANCE

IN

THE

NEW SURVEY

QUARTER-INCH MAP

FIFTH SERIES MAP: Sheet 10, North Wales and Lancashire. QUARTER-INCH Chessington: Ordnance Survey, 1957. 1:250,000; 25I2X3i1a inches; 2s paper flat; $s paper folded; ys linen mounted, folded in covers first sheet of a new map series?the Quarter-Inch Fifth Series, Sheet 10? The was published by the Ordnance Survey in May. The sheet covers North Wales and Lancashire, and it is planned to publish the remaining sheets covering Great Britain during the next five years to replace completely the present Fourth Edition. In its design, the map differs from the Fourth Edition in many respects. To conform with continental practice and the requirements of air navigation, the scale has been altered from 1 /253,44c, or one quarter-inch to one mile, to the scale of 1 lz$o,ooo; but, as the change is slight and will not be apparent to the general user, the more con? venient title of "Quarter-Inch" Map is being retained for the present. Again, the amount of detail shown has been greatly reduced when compared with the Fourth Edition, in the knowledge that for more detailed reference there will exist an up-todate One-inch Map and within a few years a new Half-Inch Map. And thirdly, the method of depicting the relief of the ground has been altered. Hypsometrical or layer tints have been retained, but, as these layer tints change at the same interval as the contour interval, the experiment of omitting the contour lines is again being tried, as was done in the "Ten Mile" Topographical Map, with the object of lightening the appearance of the map without taking away any of its value, while hill-shading has been added to give a more readable picture of the relief of the ground, which should help the less expert map reader. "Hill-shading" can be defined as the addition of shadows to give the optical illusion of a third dimension, making hills stand out in relief. The shadows can be regarded as those which would be east on an imaginary relief model of the ground when illuminated by parallel rays of light from a selected direction or directions. In this map, the light is assumed to be from the north-west at an angle of 450 with the horizon.

This content downloaded from 164.41.4.26 on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 15:17:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi