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LA GEOGRAPHIE DE RAOUL BLANCHARD
Author(s) -
Hamelin LouisEdmond
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
canadian geographer / le géographe canadien
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.35
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1541-0064
pISSN - 0008-3658
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0064.1961.tb01922.x
Subject(s) - geographer , meaning (existential) , character (mathematics) , field (mathematics) , period (music) , historical geography , principal (computer security) , history , art history , sociology , geography , cartography , human geography , social science , art , epistemology , philosophy , aesthetics , mathematics , geometry , computer science , pure mathematics , operating system
RÉSUMÉ Raoul Blanchard, one of the Honorary Presidents of the Canadian Association of Geographers, has certainly made a most voluminous contribution to geography. His writing alone covers 15,000 pages, much of it on French Canada. He has also enjoyed a remarkable professional career: his teaching, mainly at Grenoble, France, and his concurrent research on the Western Alps and on the heartland of French Canada each in themselves constitute an outstanding achievement. In the province of Quebec, Blanchard's influence on the development of the field of geography has been profound. The principal concern of this article is with Blanchard's concept of a geographer. This consideration necessitates an evaluation of Blanchard's definition of geography, the specific character of his “schools,” the class of people he wrote for, as well as an examination of his methods of teaching, of research. and of writing. To do this, the writer reviews Blanchard's books with the following: questions in mind: What is Blanchard's meaning of the term “géographie régionale” of which he is said to be a “maitre”? Does he, during his career of sixty years, keep the same approach to his science? Is he the “perfect geographer,” or simply an outstanding representative of a glorious period in the history of French geography?