Geography in Britain after World War II: Nature, Climate, and the Etchings of Time

Abstract

Contemporary anxieties about climate change have fueled a growing interest in how landscapes are formed and transformed across spans of time, from decades to millennia. While the discipline of geography has had much to say about how such environmental transformations occur, few studies have focused on the lives of geographers themselves, their ideologies, and how they understand their field. This edited collection illuminates the social and biographical contexts of geographers in postwar Britain who were influenced by and studied under the pioneering geomorphologist, A. T. Grove. These contributors uncover the relationships and networks that shaped their research on diverse terrains from Africa to the Mediterranean, highlighting their shared concerns which have profound implications not only for the study of geography and geomorphology, but also for questions of environmental history, ecological conservation, and human security.