David N. Livingstone The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishers, 1993. First edition. 0631185860 viii/434 pages. Softcover volume, measuring approximately 6" x 9", displays light shelfwear. Binding is sound. Pages are clean and bright. "This is the first intellectual history of a subject which over the last five centuries has played a significant role in the development of Western civilization. The author describes the activities of the explorers and map-makers of Renaissance and early modern Europe; the role of geography during the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and the Darwinian Revolution; and the interactions between geography and empire building in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since 1945, activity in the subject has been intense. David Livingstone provides a critical account of the trends, developments and occasional revolutions by which geography has emerged as a multi-faceted discipline offering unique and revealing perspectives on a wide range of pressing social and environmental issues."