Nostalgia, neglect and the necessity of a historicized geography

Abstract

In this article, I comment on Keith Lilley's (2011) contentions concerning a putative decay in geographical interest in the medieval period. It is argued that some of this decay is really a nostalgia not wholly warranted by the facts concerning the role of medieval geography in past and present geographical practice. It is further suggested that databases of historical studies show geographers are by no means unusual in concentrating disproportionately on periods more recent than the medieval, but the essay closes by welcoming and supporting Lilley's overarching advocacy of the need to retain a humane vision of geographical inquiry.

Enlightening choices: a century of Anglophone canons of the geographical tradition

“…Two distinguished medieval historical geographers have noted geography's decreasing preoccupation with its longer term past. 93 While such a 'temporal distance decay' function in fact applies more generally as has been noted, 94 and while it is also rather too easily exaggerated in its intensity given the recent proliferation of quality work on topics such as Ancient, Medieval and Byzantine geography, one can say that historians and literary students at least have easy access to original writings in English translations from antiquity onwards in both critical scholarly editions and affordable anthologies built from those editions, these latter forming a pedagogic bedrock for new scholars. For geography, the situation could not be more different, and the historical soil is more impoverished than the laments of two medievalists might imply, coming right up the profile as far as the early nineteenth century and applying not merely to 'fringe' figures but to those who have for a century formed the core of our geographical canons.…”

History and philosophy of geography II

“…As influences from cultural anthropology and histories of science have started to influence historians of geography more widely, there has been a resurgence of interest in narrative, specifically around issues of environment and landscape (Price, 2010;Driver, 2010;Daniels and Lorimer, 2012;Keighren andWithers, 2011, 2012;Withers and Keighren, 2011;Saldanha, 2011;McCormack, 2010). A set of commentaries has considered the time-horizons of geographical scholarship (Lilley, 2011;Mayhew, 2010Mayhew, , 2011Geary, 2011;Domosh, 2010). There have been broad attempts to revisit certain geographical concepts, such as territory (Elden, 2010(Elden, , 2011aPainter, 2010;Antonsich, 2011;Elden et al, 2011;Crampton, 2011) and abstraction (McCormack, 2012).…”