American School of Thought

1. Jedidiah Morse - Father of American Geography.

2. W. Morris Davis (1850-1934 AD) - One of the founders of the ‘Association of American Geographers’ estd in 1904. Jefferson, Bowman, Huntington, Semple & Birmingham were some of his students. Coined the term ‘Ontography’ to denote the organic half of geography. He added subsequent, obsequent & resequent to Powell’s 3 types of rivers. Advocate of Darwinism

3. Mark Jefferson - Professor at the Michigan State normal college in Ypsilanti for 38 years. Never accepted the concept of determinism. Concept of ‘central place’, ‘primate city’ & ‘civilizing rails’.

4. Ellen Churchill Semple (1863-1932) - Disciple of Ratzel at Leipzig. Her first book was, ‘American history & its geographical conditions’. Her version of Ratzel’s Anthropogeographie was, ‘Influences of Geographical Environment’ Worked on Mediterranean region for about 20 years.

5. Ellsworth Huntington - Published, ‘The pulse of Asia’. Wrote, ‘Civilization & Climate’ in which he said that man’s civilization could develop only in regions of stimulating climate. His book, ‘Principles of Human Geography’ was a college textbook. Determinist in approach.

6. Isaiah Bowman - Thesis on ‘The geography of central Andes’. Pioneered boundary studies – ‘Guatemala-Honduras dispute’. Earlier determinist later possibilist.

7. Albert Parry Birmingham - Wrote ‘Geographic influences on American history’. He was critical of people making generalizations about climatic influences on humans.

8. Rollin D. Salisbury - Recognized as best teacher in the university. He published his ideas in ‘Physiography’.

9. Carl O Sauer - Activist of the possibilist ic movement . Protagonist of ‘Chorological Theme’. Published, ‘The morphology of the landscape’ in which he explained the concept of ‘Landschaft’. Did not deny