Regional Geography of the United States as Exploration and Discovery: Moving toward Reconstructing Regional Geography

Abstract

Regional geography plays an important role in providing a frame of reference for examining and explaining the nature and characteristics of various regions on different regional scales. Since the 1960s, the study of regional geography has been declining as fractionalization, specialization and diversification became apparent in the discipline of geography. As a result, it is time to reevaluate and reconstruct the disappearing subfield of regional geography. A new way of studying United States regional geography is proposed in this paper by applying four approaches of cultural geography: 1) nature and human; 2) origin and dispersal; 3) region and landscape; and 4) time and change. After the arrival of Columbus in the late fifteenth century, the world of Native Americans was largely altered as three economic-cultural regions were established as a result of the Atlantic migration. Those were: the northwestern European peasant economic-cultural region formed in the northeast; the plantation economic-cultural region in the southeast; and the Iberian cattle ranching economic-cultural region in the southwest. During the late nineteenth century, the northwestern European peasant economic-cultural region expanded to cover the entire United States. From the beginning of the twentieth century through the end of the 1960s, the American way of living and production was established, contributing to homogeneity and prosperity. After experiencing the social upheaval of the 1960s, a multi-ethnic and divided America emerged in the 1970s. In order to illuminate the regional geography of the twenty-first century, the United States needs to be viewed as the world's museum. In the regional geography of the United States, there exist fascinating research frontiers, which should attract geographers who are in search of exploration and discovery.