Systematic Political Geography

Abstract

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.. Clark University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic Geography. Bhutan: A Physical and Cultural Geography, by PRADYUMNA P. KARAN. 103 pp.; photos., maps, diagrs., ills., bibliography, appendix, index, 1:253:440 map in pocket. University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, 1967. $17.50. 14 x 101 inches.Professor Karan has produced the first regional geography devoted to the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, until 1960 ''the most closed country in the world." The approach is that of a general survey. In the first 85 pages are found chapters on exploration, evolution of the kingdom, the contemporary political scene, the physiographic setting, climate, vegetation and soils, economic patterns, cultural patterns, transport, trade and economic development, and prospects and problems. The appendix contains a list of proper names, the texts of principal treaties and documents relating to Bhutan, and a glossary.From beginning to end the volume is a visual treat. The handsomely bound cover bears a striking color plate of the Thinmbu Valley. Interspersed throughout the text are somie 90 photographs, 21 in color, which do justice to the beauty of the Himalayan landscapes. Also accompanying the text are 23 maps, most of them page sized; enclosed in a pocket is a four-color relief map at the scale of approximately 1:250,000. Further adding to the richness of illustration are a number of decorative sketches.Professor Karan has but partly succeeded in his wish "to analyze and interpret the principal physical and cultural elements of Bhutan's geography with emphasis on the changing political and economic patterns. ' He deserves credit for producing an unusually well-illustrated and readable introduction to Bhutan which assembles mnost of the available, if still limited, geographic knowledge. The text, which in general must be classified as interpretative description rather than analysis, together with the abundant maps and illustrations, succeeds in conveying to the reader a vivid impression of Bhutan.As a compendium, however, the work suffers somewhat from a lack of synthesis and balance. Individual sections are to a large degree independent of one another; unifying themes other than that of social and economic change are few and geographic relationships are not always well developed. The themes of social and economic change and development problems might have been better elaborated had the author chosen to make more extensive comparisons with Nepal, a Himalayan kingdom on which Dr. Karan has previously published extensively and which would appear to offer interesting similarities and contrasts.Topics emphasized in the book are understandably those for which there...

Region and regionalism – a political‐geographical approach

“…De Blij correlates growing political sophistication with increase of the importance of central places and the centralization of political power (Blij 1967).…”

“…The expansion of political authority beyond tribal limits was usually a response both to economic and political factors. In many of tribal states that achieved prosperity, it was the felicitous location of the tribal headquarters that provided the impetus (Blij 1967). The growth of farreaching trading connection gave this central places an influence beyond the tribal confines and encouraged military operations to secure trade routes.…”