David Lowenthal on geography and its past

Abstract

Of the many hats David Lowenthal wore during his long life perhaps the most important was as a geographer. All his permanent academic positions were within institutions of geography. Undoubtedly, he could have moved to another discipline, but he remained a geographer. This paper aims to understand why geography was so alluring for him. It is divided into three parts. The first identifies four broad intellectual themes or interests that course through much of his substantive work: his polymathic inclinations; the centrality of history; the influence of the humanities; and a curiosity about the material environment and landscape. The second is about Lowenthal’s conception of the discipline of geography and why despite being pulled towards other disciplinary concerns he stayed loyal, notwithstanding significant reservations. And the last is about how he understood the discipline’s history which, while he rarely wrote about, he knew well, and partly explaining his more-or-less faithful attachment.