Gazing down on the field of historical geography from a lofty vantage point, the most obvious conclusion one can draw is that it is alive and well. Despite gloomy forecasts in the 1980s (Wyckoff and Hausladen 1985), the number of significant titles published in recent years and the consistency of historical geographic scholarship testifies to the vitality of this subdiscipline. Johns Hopkins, along with Texas, California, Chicago, and other university presses have released handsome and important contributions. Recently, the second and third volumes of the highly regarded Historical Atlas of Canada (Harris and Mathews 1987–93) have appeared; and Thomas McIlwraith and Edward Muller (2001) have revised the standard 1980s text on North American historical geography. The Journal of Historical Geography has a healthy backlog of manuscripts; The Geographical Review regularly features work from specialty group members; and Historical Geography has grown in size and substance. Although the number of academic job listings for historical geography may never challenge the opportunities in GIS, a sizable and energetic corps of practitioners is hard at work, whatever their individual job titles. The decade that has elapsed since Earle et al.’s (1989) review of the field (see also Conzen, Rumney, and Wynn 1993) has been particularly productive for historical geographers in terms of theory and approach. Studies framed by colonialism, capitalist development, postmodernism, feminism, and environmental history are all inherently interdisciplinary and add to the complex intellectual current in which historical geography finds itself. This diversity poses a particular problem for the authors of a chapter with panoramic intent. Like a bird’seye view of a nineteenth-century city, the most prominent structures, or themes, stand out in the foreground. Common dwellings, or the vast body of supporting literature, blend into a less distinct background pattern. Outstanding singular efforts rise like spires above the cluttered landscape. This chapter hopes to call attention to the scholarship found both along the main thoroughfares and the back streets in the bird’s-eye view, while also pointing out unique contributions. Anne Mosher’s (1999) outline of several major trends in historical geography scholarship provides the framework for this chapter.
