The 100th Volume

Abstract

This issue represents a landmark in the American Geographical Society's long history: It is the centennial number of the Geographical Review. First published in 1859, the venerable journal went through a series of name and format changes through the years. With its most recent, and enduring, name change in 1916 it moved forward into the twentieth century and now stands upon a proud publication record (Wright 1952,194-195). (1) We want to pause in this special volume to highlight some of the journal's traditional strengths, and also to ponder its future. The Geographical Review editors, the members of its Editorial Board, and the AGS Councillors have composed short essays that will appear throughout the year. In this first issue we feature a pair of essays that consider how the Geographical Review has showcased landscape and place and the importance of the long-term perspective. These topics reflect on a few of the journal's more potent contributions to geographical scholarship and allow us to offer a retrospective view as we launch the centennial volume. The first essay showcases prominent publications on place and landscape that appeared in the journal during the past century and introduced some of the intellectual genetic material that runs through the DNA of more recent contributions. Our authors have also demonstrated the value of a longer-term perspective on geographical phenomena, although, as Andrew Sluyter observes, since the 1980s emphasis has shifted toward the recent past. Our Editorial Board has selected articles that proved particularly formative in their careers, and they offer observations on these influential works in a later issue. In the final issue of the year AGS Councillors will consider established geographical concepts and approaches and speculate on their place in future geographical scholarship. We are confident that a journal like the Geographical Review has a leadership role to play in the years ahead. As we begin a new century under this title, it makes sense to build on our established strengths while embracing new approaches and engaging fresh perspectives. At the seventieth anniversary of the Geographical Review, Editor Douglas McManis noted that hallmarks developed by his predecessors showed highest caliber scholarship, broad-ranging topical coverage, and accessible style of presentation (1976, 1). We seek not only to continue each of those qualities but also to expand the inventory of prominent attributes. In addition, we note the journal's dedication to empirically rich, field-based, and historically deep scholarship. The need for ground-truthed research, with temporal depth and drawn from countries around the globe, remains great. …