39-615: Jacques Élisée Reclus ( French: [ʁəkly] ; 15 March 1830 – 4 July 1905) was a French geographer , writer and anarchist . He produced his 19-volume masterwork, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes ("Universal Geography"), over a period of nearly 20 years (1875–1894). In 1892 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for this work, despite having been banished from France because of his political activism. Reclus
78-481: A freelance journalist . He spent time in Ghana and wrote his first book about it. His second book, SDS , was about the radical 1960s group Students for a Democratic Society . The book "is still considered one of the best sources on the youth activist organization that helped define 1960s radicalism ." In 1968, he signed the " Writers and Editors War Tax Protest " pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against
117-584: A 1913 piece, Kropotkin, in admiration of Reclus, said that if anyone asked about the conflicts of the Middle East, that "I should merely open the volume of Elisée Reclus's Geographie Universelle L'Asie, Russe ..." Reclus had strong views on naturism and the benefits of nudity . He argued that living naked was more hygienic than wearing clothes; he believed that it was healthier for skin to be fully exposed to light and air so that it could resume its "natural vitality and activity" and become more flexible and firm at
156-403: A companion to Histoire d'un ruisseau . There he wrote nearly the whole of his work, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes , "an examination of every continent and country in terms of the effects that geographic features like rivers and mountains had on human populations—and vice versa." This compilation was profusely illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings. It was awarded
195-575: A half years as a tutor to the children of cousin Septime and Félicité Fortier at their plantation Félicité, located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) upriver from New Orleans . He recounted his passage through the Mississippi River Delta and impressions of antebellum New Orleans and the state in Fragment d'un voyage à la Nouvelle-Orléans , published in 1855. On his return to Paris, Reclus contributed to
234-525: A paper titled "The Four Traditions of Geography" appearing in the Journal of Geography . These traditions are: The UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems subdivides geography into three major fields of study, which are then further subdivided. These are: The National Geographic Society identifies five broad key themes for geographers: [REDACTED] Geography portal Kirkpatrick Sale Kirkpatrick Sale (born June 27, 1937)
273-503: A picture of human-nature interaction that we today would call bioregionalism . It showed, with more detail than anyone but a dedicated geographer could possibly absorb, how the ecology of a place determined the kinds of lives and livelihoods its denizens would have and thus how people could properly live in self-regarding and self-determined bioregions without the interference of large and centralized governments that always try to homogenize diverse geographical areas. In 1882, Reclus initiated
312-500: A public bet with Kevin Kelly that by the year 2020, there would be a convergence of three disasters: global currency collapse, significant warfare between rich and poor, and environmental disasters of some significant size. The bet was turned into a claim on the FX prediction market , where the probability has hovered around 25%. Sale and Kelly agreed that William Patrick would be the judge of
351-568: Is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography , the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" and the Greek suffix, "graphy", meaning "description", so a geographer is someone who studies the earth. The word "geography" is a Middle French word that is believed to have been first used in 1540. Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps , map making
390-406: Is actually the field of study of cartography , a subset of geography. Geographers do not study only the details of the natural environment or human society, but they also study the reciprocal relationship between these two. For example, they study how the natural environment contributes to human society and how human society affects the natural environment. In particular, physical geographers study
429-683: Is an American author who has written prolifically about political decentralism , environmentalism , luddism and technology . He has been described as having a "philosophy unified by decentralism" and as being "a leader of the Neo-Luddites ," an " anti-globalization leftist ," and "the theoretician for a new secessionist movement." Sale grew up in Ithaca, New York , where he later said he "spent most of my first twenty years there, and that has made an imprint on me—on my philosophy, social attitudes, certainly on my politics—that has lasted powerfully for
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#1732855796375468-413: Is that the mistakes are small as well." He went on to say, "If you want to leave a nation you think is corrupt, inefficient, militaristic, oppressive, repressive, but you don't want to move to Canada or France, what do you do? Well, the way is through secession, where you could stay home and be where you want to be." The convention received worldwide media attention. The convention's other co-sponsor,
507-687: Is the breakup of great empires. Some on both left and right call for smaller, less powerful government. In 2004, Sale and members of the Second Vermont Republic formed the Middlebury Institute which is dedicated to the study of separatism , secession , and self-determination . Sale is director of the institute. In 2006, Middlebury sponsored the First North American Secessionist Convention, which attracted 40 participants from 16 secessionist organizations and
546-510: The Revue des deux mondes , the Tour du monde and other periodicals, a large number of articles embodying the results of his geographical work. Among other works of this period was the short book Histoire d'un ruisseau , in which he traced the development of a great river from source to mouth. During 1867 and 1868, he published La Terre; description des phénomènes de la vie du globe in two volumes. During
585-470: The Anti-Marriage Movement. In accordance with these beliefs and the practice of union libre ("free unions"), which was common among working-class French in the mid-to-late 1800s, Reclus allowed his two daughters to "marry" their male partners without any civil or religious ceremonies, an action causing embarrassment to many of his well-wishers. Reclus had himself entered a free union in 1872, after
624-650: The League of the South , has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center since 2000. According to Sale, "They call everybody racists. There are, no doubt, racists in the League of the South, and there are, no doubt, racists everywhere." The Southern Poverty Law Center later criticized The New York Times ' October 2007 Peter Applebome interview of Sale for not covering its allegations. Sale wrote
663-721: The Siege of Paris (1870–1871) , Reclus shared in the aerostatic operations conducted by Félix Nadar , and also served in the National Guard . As a member of the Association Nationale des Travailleurs , he published a hostile manifesto against the government of Versailles in support of the Paris Commune of 1871 in the Cri du Peuple . Continuing to serve in the National Guard, which
702-510: The Vietnam War . Subsequent books explored radical decentralism , bioregionalism , environmentalism , the Luddites and similar themes. He "has been a regular contributor to progressive magazines like Mother Jones and The Nation for the better part of his writing career". Sale donated 16 boxes of materials—typescripts, galley proofs, correspondence, etc.—for each one of his books to
741-546: The Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Committee William Hardy McNeill wrote about Sale: "he has set out to destroy the heroic image that earlier writers have transmitted to us. Mr. Sale makes Columbus out to be cruel, greedy and incompetent (even as a sailor), and a man who was perversely intent on abusing the natural paradise on which he intruded." However, McNeill also declared Sale's work to be "unhistorical, in
780-716: The Protestant college of Montauban . He completed his studies at the University of Berlin , where he followed a long course of geography under Carl Ritter . Withdrawing from France due to the political events of December 1851, as a young man he spent the next six years (1852–1857) traveling and working in Great Britain , the United States , Central America , and Colombia . Arriving in Louisiana in 1853, Reclus worked for about two and
819-458: The archives at Cornell University, where they are available for public inspection. In 2020, Sale moved to another village outside Ithaca. In his 1990 book, The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy , Sale argued that Christopher Columbus was an imperialist bent on conquest from his first voyage. In a New York Times book review, historian and member of
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#1732855796375858-590: The death of his first wife. In 1882 he also wrote Unions Libres , a pamphlet which detailed his anarchist and feminist objections to marriage. The French government initiated prosecution from the High Court of Lyon , arrested him and Peter Kropotkin as the International Association's organizers, and sentenced the latter to five years' imprisonment. Reclus escaped punishment as he remained in Switzerland. In
897-465: The gold medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 1892. An English edition was published simultaneously, also in 19 volumes, the first four translated by E. G. Ravenstein , the rest by A. H. Keane . Reclus's writings were characterized by extreme accuracy and brilliant exposition, which gave them permanent literary and scientific value. According to Kirkpatrick Sale : His geographical work, thoroughly researched and unflinchingly scientific, laid out
936-515: The growing influence and rise in prominence of scientific enquiry in Europe at the time of their painting in 1668–69. Subdividing geography is challenging, as the discipline is broad, interdisciplinary, ancient, and has been approached differently by different cultures. Attempts have gone back centuries, and include the "Four traditions of geography" and applied "branches." The four traditions of geography were proposed in 1964 by William D. Pattison in
975-419: The natural environment while human geographers study human society and culture. Some geographers are practitioners of GIS ( geographic information system ) and are often employed by local, state, and federal government agencies as well as in the private sector by environmental and engineering firms. The paintings by Johannes Vermeer titled The Geographer and The Astronomer are both thought to represent
1014-503: The old Northeast," but added "he attributes many of the nation's recent problems to the ascendance of the values and politicians of the region lying south of a line from San Francisco to the Virginia-North Carolina boundary." Sale "has written extensively and skeptically about technology," and has said he is "a great admirer" of anarchoprimitivist John Zerzan . He has described personal computers as "the devil's work" and in
1053-495: The outcome. Patrick stated that Kelly had won the bet. Sale then refused to acknowledge the loss, and did not pay the $ 1000 that had been previously agreed. Sale has been described as "one of the intellectual godfathers of the secessionist movement." He argues that the major theme of contemporary history, from the dissolution of the Soviet Union to the expansion of United Nations membership from 51 in 1945 to 193 nations today,
1092-696: The past opened personal appearances by smashing one. During promotion of his 1995 book Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution , Sale debated with Newsweek magazine senior editor and technology columnist Steven Levy "about the relative merits of the communications age". Sale has a comprehensive knowledge of what is called the American Songbook (Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and movie tunes 1910–1960) and
1131-720: The rest of my life." Sale's brother, Roger Sale , was a literary critic and a professor of English at the University of Washington . He graduated from Cornell University , majoring in English and history, in 1958. He served as associate editor and editor-in-chief of the student-owned and managed newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun . Sale was one of the leaders of the May 23, 1958, protest against university policies forbidding male and female students fraternizing and its in loco parentis policy. Sale and his friend and roommate Richard Fariña , and three others, were charged by Cornell. The protest
1170-488: The same time. He also argued that from an aesthetic point of view, nudity was better: naked people were more beautiful. His principal objection to clothing was, however, a moral one; he felt that a fixation with clothing caused excessive focus on what was covered. In 1894, Reclus was appointed chair of comparative geography at the Free University of Brussels , and moved with his family to Belgium . His brother Élie Reclus
1209-537: The sense that [it] selects from the often cloudy record of Columbus's actual motives and deeds what suits the researcher's 20th-century purposes." In McNeill's opinion, Columbus' advocates and detractors present a "sort of history [that] caricatures the complexity of human reality by turning Columbus into either a bloody ogre or a plaster saint, as the case may be." Gaddis Smith of the Council on Foreign Relations journal Foreign Affairs described Sale as "no apologist for
Élisée Reclus - Misplaced Pages Continue
1248-529: Was active in the folk revival of the 1960s with Peter Yarrow, Pete Seeger, and the Clancy Brothers, but has said that he does not "care much for" pop music after that era. For example, "he once heard a 'racket' in a nightclub during his left activist days in the 1960s from some 'young man' everyone told him was a 'big deal.' That 'young man' turned out to be Bob Dylan ." Kirk recalls that "he'd never heard anything so awful in his life." In 1995, Sale agreed to
1287-554: Was at the university already, teaching religion. Élisée Reclus continued to write, contributing several important articles and essays to French, German and English scientific journals. He was awarded the 1894 Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society . In 1905, shortly before his death, Reclus completed L'Homme et la terre , in which he rounded out his previous works by considering humanity's development relative to its geographical environment. On 11 March 1858, he
1326-467: Was born at Sainte-Foy-la-Grande ( Gironde ). He was the second son of a Protestant pastor and his wife. From the family of fourteen children, several brothers, including fellow geographers Onésime and Élie Reclus , went on to achieve renown either as men of letters , politicians or members of the learned professions. Reclus began his education in Rhenish Prussia , and continued higher studies at
1365-621: Was described as the first gathering of secessionists since the American Civil War . Delegates issued a statement of principles of secession which they presented as the Burlington Declaration. In October 2007, The New York Times interviewed Sale about the Second North American Secessionist Convention, co-hosted by the Middlebury Institute. Sale told the interviewer, "The virtue of small government
1404-464: Was described in Fariña's 1966 novel, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me . In 1958 he collaborated with Thomas Pynchon on an unproduced futuristic musical called Minstrel Island . Sale worked initially in journalism for the leftist journal New Leader , "a magazine founded in 1924 in part by socialists Norman Thomas and Eugene Debs ," and The New York Times Magazine , before becoming
1443-496: Was influenced by Léon Metchnikoff 's book La civilisation et les grands fleuves historiques , to which Reclus contributed a foreword. Reclus advocated nature conservation and opposed meat-eating and cruelty to animals. He was a vegetarian . As a result, his ideas are seen by some historians and writers as anticipating the modern social ecology and animal rights movements. L'Homme et la terre ( The Earth and Its Inhabitants"), 6 volumes: Geographer A geographer
1482-669: Was initiated in the regular Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge Les Émules d'Hiram , affiliated to the Grand Orient of France. His brother was just initiated and took part in his masonic baptism. He remained at the initial degrees of the Masonic spiritual path. Reclus married and had a family, including two daughters. He died at Torhout , near Bruges , Belgium. Reclus was admired by many prominent 19th century thinkers, including Alfred Russel Wallace , George Perkins Marsh , Patrick Geddes , Henry Stephens Salt , and Octave Mirbeau . James Joyce
1521-474: Was then in open revolt, Reclus was taken prisoner on 5 April into Fort Quélern . On 16 November he was sentenced to deportation for life. Because of intervention by supporters from England, the sentence was commuted in January 1872 to perpetual banishment from France. After a short visit to Italy , Reclus settled at Clarens, Switzerland , where he resumed his literary labours and produced Histoire d'une montagne ,
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