1999 Volume 51 Issue 5 Pages 477-493
Anglophone historical geography continues to exhibit a strong focus on the intersections between environment and culture. The investigation of cultural landscapes, traditionally one of the most recognizable of subdisciplinary identifiers, is still well supported. Recent developments indicate some movement away from foundational interests and the introduction of an augmented range of intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary activity.
It is argued that the resultant alleged collision with environmental history may have been exaggerated, at least to the extent that the proposition has disguised other important convergences. The discussion then selects four overlapping types or zones of convergence which offer some proven potential for a resurgent historical geography: old and new liaisons between historical geography, physical geography and ecology; with cultural ecology and landscape; with revived heritage, identity and conservation themes; and with historiography.
This leads to a tentative conclusion suggesting that, despite the deliberate selectivity of this review article, the evidence seems to be indicating a high degree of activity which may have become overly-concentrated on the production of short journal articles. Supplementation with more extended monographs may now provide a better test of the capacity of modern historical geography to reach an intradisciplinary or interdisciplinary future.
