Abstract
THE first part of this work was published about nine years ago, and is still highly valued by all who care to study geography and anthropology from strictly scientific points of view. The present volume will also be found worthy of the author's reputation as one of the foremost authorities on all questions relating to the connection between man and the physical conditions by which he is surrounded. In the first part Dr. Ratzel deals with the habitable part of the globe, tracing the process by which man has taken possession of it, indicating the development of his ideas regarding it, and noting the characteristics of its northern and southern borderlands and of its vacant spaces. The second part he devotes to various aspects of statistics, discussing, among other things, the relations between density of population and degrees of civilization. In the third part are considered the traces and works of man on the surface of the globe—a subject which leads the author to treat of cities and their importance as historical centres, of ruins, roads and other means of communication between communities, and geographical names. The fourth and last part relates mainly to ethnographical questions, including questions as to the diffusion of ethnographical characteristics, and the origin of ethnographical affinities. The work is not only full of thought and learning, but has the advantage of being written in a fresh, clear, and vigorous style.
Anthropogeographie.
Zweiter Theil. “Die Geographische Verbreitung des Menschen.” Von Friedrich Ratzel. (Stuttgart: J. Engelhorn, 1891.)
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Our Book Shelf. Nature 45, 557 (1892). https://doi.org/10.1038/045557a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/045557a0