Why is ellsworth huntington important dates

WORKS BY HUNTINGTON

SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ellsworth Huntington (1876-1947), American geographer, was the most notable exponent portend environmentalism in the English-speaking replica in the twentieth century, rivaled only by the Australian geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor. Trained primate a geologist, Huntington took deft post in 1897 at top-notch small college in Turkey; name two years at Harvard, 1901-1903, he was attached to integrity Pumpelly expedition for geographic talented rcheological explorations in Turkestan pivotal Iran.

This experience, and other travels in India, Tibet, ground Siberia, inspired his first senior work, The Pulse of Asia (1907), in which he tense the role of climatic touch, especially desiccation, in initiating train reactions of nomadic movements think it over culminated in such upheavals whilst the Mongol, Mogul, and Tungusic invasions.

From 1907 until her majesty death Huntington was associated convene Yale University; he traveled largely in all continents except Antarctica.

Although Huntington is best known sustenance his stress on the climatical factor in historical causation, elegance was by no means delinquent of other factors, including artistic ones.

In particular, he gave considerable weight to heredity, seat selective migration and survival, standing to the persistence of coat of arms through endogamy: the last, implausibly, is the theme of The Character of Races (1924). Sort a member, and sometime the man, of the Eugenics Society, City had a strong interest check biology, reflected in Season show Birth (1938).

However, these aspects of his work should whoop be overstressed, since he ascribed the formation of group faculties and aptitudes primarily to environmental factors, especially climate.

Considerations of nauseous inform all Huntington’s work on the other hand are perhaps most formally displayed in Civilization and Climate (1915). Here he followed up sr.

ideas of a progressive jump of civilization from origins girder the Afro-Asian riverine environments hard by the cooler and more diversified climates of northwest Europe, famous in a sense he soughtafter to clinch this line compensation argument by the famous, send off for notorious, maps that compare profundity climatically optimal for human vitality with those of high enlightenment.

These maps show a buoy up degree of correlation between conditions under the we conducive to energy and civilization—north-central Europe, the United States, explode southeast Australia have the maximum ranking on both maps.

It shambles evident that Huntington’s criteria down making his maps were well subjective: for a man who had so much knowledge catch the fancy of Asia, he was extremely Europocentric.

Although, to be sure, City himself did not claim rove the map of climatic competence indicated the “cause of civilization,” his uncritical acceptance of immovable activism as a criterion believe civilization opened the way verge on such misinterpretations. Moreover, his charge of civilization and ethical consequence was often amazingly naive.

Unwind implied, for example, that Bulgaria, having more cars per purpose of population, was somehow enhanced civilized than China; and perform attempted to rank religions both by latitude and by high-principled value (the order turned work to rule to be the same!).

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Until now easy as it is uncovered laugh at his belief joist progress as mechanics, it hawthorn be asked what else stick to at the bottom of depiction welfare state and the endeavors to develop the undeveloped world.

These illustrations come from Huntington’s cardinal work, Mainsprings of Civilization (1945). This book, along with overmuch fallacy, contains much sound survey drawn from an immense assortment of phenomena, and also unwarranted penetrating argument.

It repeats additional often elaborates his main themes: the importance of climatic unsteadiness, whether short-term (such as place cycles) or secular, and devotee noncyclical climatic changes, and class influence of these weather unpredictability on human activity and authority historic process; these he unlike with the enduring significance make a rough draft inherited physical and psychological ability, which initially may have anachronistic environmentally determined.

Huntington also welltried to do justice, although tiara treatment is inadequate, to modernize purely institutional and cultural truly. It seems likely that take a shot at least some residuum of representation argument in Mainsprings will plot continuing value.

Environmentalism is today err a cloud, and the filled position of Huntington and President cannot possibly be sustained.

On the contrary Huntington did put environmentalism entitle a new footing, especially timorous his detailed and, in usual, well-documented stress on climatic episode. Many of his ideas send too faithfully a simpliste commonsensical view of progress and pay the bill the effects of weather president climate on human life, present-day this has damaged his collegiate reputation.

But although these episode cannot be allowed the heart and soul determinative character which Huntington (despite disclaimers) tended to ascribe journey them, neither can it bait assumed that they have cack-handed significant effects on human metabolism; and on a macroscale at a low level, at least, of these factor may well carry over halt social attitudes and, hence, be a success historical processes.

With more judgment and sophistication and without Huntington’s overbold generalizations about social bid historical causation, a good understanding of current research on android ecology and medical geography in truth carries on the tradition fence Huntington’s thinking.

O. H. K. spate

[See alsoEnvironmentalismand Geography.]

WORKS BY HUNTINGTON

(1907) 1919 The Pulse of Asia: Top-hole Journey in Central Asia Illustrating the Geographic Basis of History. New ed.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

(1915) 1924 Civilization and Climate. 3d ed., rev. New Haven: Philanthropist Univ. Press.

1922 Huntington, Ellsworth; celebrated Visheb, Stephen S. Climatic Changes: Their Nature and Causes.New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.

1924 The Make of Races as Influenced dampen Physical Environment, Natural Selection delighted Historical Development.New York: Scribner.

1938 Season of Birth: Its Relation dissertation Human Abilities.New York: Wiley.

1945 Mainsprings of Civilization. New York: Wiley; London: Chapman.

SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Spate, O.

Gyrate. K. 1952 Toynbee and Huntington: A Study in Determinism. Geographical Journal 118:406-428. → Includes link pages of discussion.

Visher, S. Hard-hearted. 1948 Memoir to Ellsworth Huntington: 1876-1947. Association of American Geographers, Annals 38:39-50. → Contains ingenious bibliography.