William H. Tillinghast, John K. Wright, and some antecedents of American humanistic geography

The antecedents of twentieth century humanistic geography in America lie in part in the cultivation of geography by classicists, historians, librarians, and other nineteenth and early twentieth century humanistic scholars and writers. One of them, William H. Tillinghast, a Harvard College librarian trained both in classics and history, wrote an exemplary essay in the 1880s on ‘The Geographical Knowledge of the Ancients’ that provided a model analysis of early Western geographic ideas anticipating that of John K. Wright in the 1920s. Institutional analysis suggests their common rootage in an evolving Harvard ‘school’ of humanistic geography based in history and classics, the product both of a sequence of mentor/disciple relationships and a broader institutional environment shaping Wright's early concepts concerning the history of geography. 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.     

William Howard Taft,the 1908 Election,and the Future of the American Presidency

Although the first presidential election where both major party candidates (William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan) hit the campaign trail, the election of 1908 is a neglected election. When scholars do address it, they typically focus on retiring incumbent president Theodore Roosevelt and his role therein. This article turns the focus away from Roosevelt, and also Bryan, and places it firmly on Taft, a reluctant candidate. Taft's role in 1908 is important because his very reluctance to embrace the changing expectations of the presidency helps to highlight the tensions between the old and new ways of campaigning and, more broadly, the traditional and modern presidencies.

The article first addresses Taft's decision to abandon his “front-porch” campaign. Taft's initial inclination toward a front-porch campaign reveals well his more traditional approach to the election and to the presidency in general, just as his decision to abandon this plan and “stump” for votes reflects his submission to developing trends and expectations. Second, the article examines the changing role of technology, this election being the first to feature phonograph recordings of the candidates, which would then be sold—and played—across the country. Third, the tours and speeches of Taft in the 1908 general election take center stage. The spectacle of these tours offers further evidence of the changing contours of American politics and presidential leadership, especially in elevating the personalities of the candidates. Finally, the 1908 election is examined from the standpoint of American political development and presidential history.     

Murder by Index Card: William Colby and the American Tradition of Atrocity Denial

John Prados . Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby . New York : Oxford University Press , 2003 . Pp. xvii, 380 . Illustrations, notes, index. $ (cloth).