1: What is Geography?

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Geography is a discipline capable of helping those who know how to use it to better understand a variety of subjects and topics. Geography is a set of tools that help you ask questions, see patterns in data, solve problems and communicate solutions.

The popular afternoon television show Jeopardy is probably the most common way Americans are exposed to geography. This is a huge problem for the discipline of geography because although Jeopardy does more than any other medium to advance geographic knowledge among Americans, it advances our understanding of Geography down a dead-end street. A typical geography question on Jeopardy might ask contestants to identify the capital of Nebraska or a mountain range in Switzerland. Professional geographers rarely ask questions of that sort. Jeopardy, because it constantly puts a spotlight on “geography as subject”, effectively reinforces old-fashioned notions about geography as trivia, and in the process leads many Americans to believe that geographers mainly memorize maps, weather patterns, and capital cities. Of course, some amount of memorization of facts is necessary, but to think it’s the focus of Geography is like thinking Historians only memorize dates, and English majors spend all their time preparing for spelling bees.

A game board with categories: The Continents, Notable Women, Famous French Restaurants, Name That Instrument, Silicon, Lighting Up Chemistry. The board shows varying dollar amounts from $200 to $1000. — Figure 1-1: Far too many people equate Geography with trivia, undermining a real understanding of what geography is as a discipline. Source: Wikimedia.

For generations, in America, K-12 curricula and the accompanying textbooks have echoed the unfortunate focus upon geography-as-trivia promoted by TV game shows. As a result, the much more accurate notion of “geography as a discipline” has been all but eliminated from the American imagination.

Subsequently, college students rarely consider geography as a major. Many, including high school guidance counselors, do not even realize that one can major in geography at most universities. Students, parents and even faculty outside of your Geography Department often are unaware that geography provides students and scholars with a robust set of analytical tools that can be applied to many topics of interest, and lead to lucrative career paths in a stunning array of private industries, non-profits and with many public agencies.

One of the primary goals of this text is to introduce readers to an updated, viable version of geography. Hopefully, students will come to think of geography primarily as a discipline that permits those who have mastered it to study virtually any topic that takes place. By the end of the semester, students using this text should begin to be able to: 1) see the world like a geographer, 2) ask questions like a geographer, 3) solve problems like a geographer and 4) communicate like a geographer....and maybe you’ll learn some old-school geography trivia to defeat friends at Jeopardy!

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