Welsh Journals

BOOK REVIEWS 'British Geography 1818-1945', edited by Robert W. Steel, Cambridge University Press, 1987, 189 pp. This volume provides a valuable contributicn to the history of the development of the subject based largely upon the personal experience of nine geographers whose professional life has spanned the greater part of this period, together with chapters from two post-1945 trained academic geographers. It provides a fascinating account of the events between two World Wars when a relatively small band of British geographers made conscious and courageous decisions to ensure the expansion of and a sound future for geographical studies. They provided an essential stimulus for the subject at a critical period and gave tremendous support to various societies, journals, oonferences and above all to new generations of younger geographers, many of Ø ncw occupy posts in our Universities and Polytechnics. The book ranges widely across the subject. T.W. Freerran examines the geographical writings of the inter-war years, the birth and development of various gecjgrajíiical journals and the influence of French, German and American academics. E.G. Bowen considers the growth of the subject within the University of Wales, where a zoologist and anthropologist, H.J. Fleure, together with a succession of distinguished geologists, among them O.T. Jones, A.E. Trueman and T. Neville George, promoted the cause of geography. Fleure's influence spread to Northern Ireland where in 1929 a pupil of his, E. Estyn Evans, arrived to build a new 'school' in the Fleure tradition. Elia M.J. Campbell provides a succinct account of the evolution of geographical studies at Birkbeck College, where for the period in question the developments will always be associated with J.F. Unstead and Eva G.R. Taylor. The former developed a complex system of classification of regions, while pramoting the value of field studies. The latter pioneered the investigation of the hitherto unexplored Tudor, Stuart and Hanoverian periods, specialising in the development of geographical thought and the application of mathematics to ocean navigation. She also made considerable, if sometimes controversial, oontributions to the scheme for a National Atlas and post-war planning proposals. R.W. Steel provides a valuable introduction to the volurre and considers the rise of the Oxford School or Geography from its beginnings under the powerful influence of H.J. Mackinder, A.J. Herbertson, Kenneth Mason, J.N.L. Baker and Nora E. MacMunn, and with strong support from Sir John Nyres. The chapter reveals a facet of geographical life, common within Universities between 1918 and 1945, and quite unknown to present day undergraduates and not a few staff there were few texts, which ensured reading outside the subject (a call made repeatedly in 1988, but largely ignored!), and an almost total lack of laboratories, map libraries, cartographic and technical services, vehicles, technicians and secretaries. The sound achievements made at Oxford and elsewhere in the development of the subject owe much to the dedication of a small number of academics cheerfully prepared to accept the pressure of very heavy work loads, far in excess of those enjoyed by most academic geographers today, and to find the energy and enthusiasm to battle for the