Ralph Hall Brown 의 역사지리학 = Historical Geography of Ralph Hall Brown

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Ralph Hall Brown, an American geographer and a son of William and Nellie Leavitt Brown, was born on January 12, 1898 in Ayer, Massachusetts. His professional career started in 1925 when he received his Ph.D. degree in Geography and Economics from the University of Wisconsin. As a geographer, he taught at the University of Minnesota in 1929 and worked till his death. Brown died of a heart attack in St. Paul, Minnesota on February 23, 1948, when he was 51 years old. He left his wife, Eunice, and three children behind him.
During the less than 25 years of his professional life, Brown's contribution to geography was remarkable through teaching and in writing, both in quality and in quantity. He also played an important role in the development of the Association of American Geographers as a Councillor from 1933 to 1935, as a Secretary between 1942 and 1945, and as an editor of Annals from 1946 to his death. Especially as a historical geographer, he is remembered for his two major works, Mirror for Americans, 1943, and Historical Geography of the United States, 1948.
For the first part of his career, Brown was not a historical geographer. Rather he was an economic geographer with a background in economics. He, however, chose historical geography as his major subfield in the mid 1930s. He defined historical geography as the regional geography of the past. His research, therefore, focused on the reconstruction of the past American regions based on contemporary, eyewitness documents. To reconstruct geography of the past he used mainly cross-sectional approach.
His approach to historical geography was not original in his field, but in the United States Brown was the first scholar who did such research. Through his two books, he expressed his concept of and attitude toward historical geography characterizing by the use of a variety of original sources, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary maps, published and unpublished. In his first book, Mirror for Americans, he invented an imaginary author to reconstruct the Atlantic seaboard as a certain place, in the early 1810s as a certain time. The author wrote the book with the thought, the style of presentation, the maps and illustrations, and even the language, of that time.
His second and last book, Historical Geography of the United States, is a good example in representing his importance to historical geography rather than his first book. At that time, and for the present time, or even the future, this book is one of the most important references in understanding not only the historical geography of the United States, but also the early American period. Brown wrote this book as a text of historical geography of the United States. In fact, this is the first and only book which reconstructed the Unit States of the past, up to now. Therefore, the book has been used as a text or a major reference book to teach historical geography of the United States.
The book contains six parts, dealing with a particular area at a critical formative period in its development and in that of the United States in each part. In this book, he used research methods such as the perceptual approach and cross-sectional approach and techniques using contemporary, primary sources and taking field trips which later historical geographers followed of historical geography. As a result, the book is regarded as a landmark in the development of American historical geography.
Even though he did not initiate a school of historical geography, Ralph Hall Brown is respected for the quality of his scholarship, his continuous publications, and his contribution to the Association of American Geographers. Brown is remembered as a pioneer in modern American historical geography and as a major twentieth century geographer in the United States.