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Article: Great Geographers: Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley.
- Article from:
- Focus on Geography
- Article date:
- March 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 American Geographical Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In this series for Focus on Geography, I am providing short biographies of "Great Geographers," scholars of the past who have made important contributions to our understanding of the world in which we live. I take a loose definition of geographer, because I think it is silly to establish sharp disciplinary boundaries and even sillier to refuse to cross them. As geographer Halford Mackinder wrote in 1887, "The truth of the matter is that the bounds of all the sciences must naturally be compromises. Knowledge ... is one. It's division into subjects is a concession to human weakness." (1) In this contribution to the series, I introduce two eminent and closely connected ...