American Literary Geographies: Spatial Practice and Cultural Production

摘要

The editors' introduction sets an oddly negative tone: all things geographic and cartographic are sinister tools of empire. The valid points they do make are overshadowed by the overstatement of their case. In a glaring example they claim that 'Beginning in the 1820s geography became a popular entrance exam not only required of students making the transition into higher education but also as the institutional litmus test determining the prospective teacher's moral code' (p. 13). To back up this serious charge they quote one line from a single source, an 1821 advertisement for a Massachusetts teaching position: 'o person who is not qualified to teach geography, grammar and geometry, and not well recommended for his morals, &c. is forbid, under heavy penalties by law, to take charge of a school' (p. 23, n. 7). The editors do not indicate whether or not the italics were in the original, but it is clear that this out of context quotation does not back up their statement.