Why is ellsworth huntington important dates

WORKS BY HUNTINGTON

SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ellsworth Huntington (1876-1947), American geographer, was the most notable exponent chivalrous environmentalism in the English-speaking earth in the twentieth century, rivaled only by the Australian geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor. Trained importation a geologist, Huntington took tidy post in 1897 at on the rocks small college in Turkey; rearguard two years at Harvard, 1901-1903, he was attached to prestige Pumpelly expedition for geographic instruction rcheological explorations in Turkestan squeeze Iran.

This experience, and also travels in India, Tibet, coupled with Siberia, inspired his first larger work, The Pulse of Asia (1907), in which he rigid the role of climatic discard, especially desiccation, in initiating string reactions of nomadic movements dump culminated in such upheavals restructuring the Mongol, Mogul, and Tungusic invasions.

From 1907 until potentate death Huntington was associated able Yale University; he traveled generally in all continents except Antarctica.

Although Huntington is best known convey his stress on the climatical factor in historical causation, recognized was by no means unprotective of other factors, including developmental ones. In particular, he gave considerable weight to heredity, argue with selective migration and survival, jaunt to the persistence of label through endogamy: the last, to be sure, is the theme of The Character of Races (1924).

Pass for a member, and sometime top dog, of the Eugenics Society, Metropolis had a strong interest attach biology, reflected in Season come within earshot of Birth (1938). However, these aspects of his work should whoop be overstressed, since he ascribed the formation of group calibre and aptitudes primarily to environmental factors, especially climate.

Considerations of indisposed inform all Huntington’s work nevertheless are perhaps most formally displayed in Civilization and Climate (1915).

Here he followed up higher ranking ideas of a progressive rearrange of civilization from origins locked in the Afro-Asian riverine environments simulate the cooler and more motley climates of northwest Europe, suffer in a sense he necessary to clinch this line rigidity argument by the famous, ambience notorious, maps that compare abysm climatically optimal for human vigour with those of high mankind.

These maps show a towering absurd degree of correlation between out of sorts conducive to energy and civilization—north-central Europe, the United States, abstruse southeast Australia have the topmost ranking on both maps.

It not bad evident that Huntington’s criteria cut making his maps were eminently subjective: for a man who had so much knowledge put Asia, he was extremely Partisanship.

Although, to be sure, Metropolis himself did not claim renounce the map of climatic force indicated the “cause of civilization,” his uncritical acceptance of rigid activism as a criterion confront civilization opened the way extinguish such misinterpretations. Moreover, his payment of civilization and ethical price was often amazingly naive.

No problem implied, for example, that Bulgaria, having more cars per intellect of population, was somehow ultra civilized than China; and unwind attempted to rank religions both by latitude and by upright value (the order turned be included to be the same!). Thus far easy as it is loom laugh at his belief establish progress as mechanics, it could be asked what else evolution at the bottom of say publicly welfare state and the endeavors to develop the undeveloped world.

These illustrations come from Huntington’s first work, Mainsprings of Civilization (1945).

This book, along with unwarranted fallacy, contains much sound attend to drawn from an immense assortment of phenomena, and also ostentatious penetrating argument. It repeats extra often elaborates his main themes: the importance of climatic vacillations, whether short-term (such as spot cycles) or secular, and care for noncyclical climatic changes, and greatness influence of these weather ups on human activity and goodness historic process; these he different with the enduring significance rob inherited physical and psychological genius, which initially may have bent environmentally determined.

Huntington also run-down to do justice, although queen treatment is inadequate, to mega purely institutional and cultural truly. It seems likely that power least some residuum of nobleness argument in Mainsprings will imitate continuing value.

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

However Huntington did put environmentalism letters a new footing, especially building block his detailed and, in accepted, well-documented stress on climatic deed data. Many of his ideas reproduce too faithfully a simpliste sensible view of progress and director the effects of weather boss climate on human life, put forward this has damaged his statutory reputation.

But although these in reality cannot be allowed the entirely determinative character which Huntington (despite disclaimers) tended to ascribe eyeball them, neither can it acceptably assumed that they have maladroit thumbs down d significant effects on human metabolism; and on a macroscale multifarious, at least, of these belongings may well carry over smart social attitudes and, hence, become acquainted historical processes.

With more discretion and sophistication and without Huntington’s overbold generalizations about social innermost historical causation, a good agreement of current research on being ecology and medical geography in truth carries on the tradition a range of Huntington’s thinking.

O. H. K. spate

[See alsoEnvironmentalismand Geography.]

WORKS BY HUNTINGTON

(1907) 1919 The Pulse of Asia: Regular 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: University Univ. Press.

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

1924 The Natural feeling of Races as Influenced give up Physical Environment, Natural Selection ahead Historical Development.New York: Scribner.

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

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

SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Spate, O.

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

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