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In the shadow of Vidal de la Blache: letters to Albert Demangeon and the social dynamics of French geography in the early twentieth century

2003; Elsevier BV; Volume: 29; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1006/jhge.2002.0460

1095-8614

Hugh Clout,

Migration, Health, Geopolitics, Historical Geography

In the early years of the twentieth century Paul Vidal de la Blache and his disciples were actively promoting geography as a distinct science and its propagation in schools and universities in France. A large collection of letters received by Albert Demangeon between 1904 and 1917 casts light on the social dynamics of the protégés of Vidal who produced the first generation of French regional monographs. Correspondents emphasised the challenge of writing a substantial doctoral thesis, often on a part-time basis, and expressed anxiety to secure a university position. The power of Vidal and of Lucien Gallois in shaping the scholarly trajectories of Demangeon and his contemporaries, and involving them in theGéographie Universelle , emerges clearly. Letters received during World War I conveyed not only tragic accounts of mutilation and death among geographers but also offered remarkable examples of academic and personal optimism. Through their teaching and publications Demangeon and de Martonne would ensure that Vidalian orthodoxy influenced the practice of geography in French schools and in most French universities.