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Historic Illinois from the Air
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Texts on Techniques
academic climate, can such a book maintain its value against newcomers to the catalogue. The new edition of 'Research Methods', its sixth, maintains what, for many readers of this journal, may be its familiar structure. There has been a considerable amount of extra information added, and the authors have provided, as examples of good practice, new research examples. The introduction includes a discussion on the place of values in social research, the relationship between naive hypotheses and scientific ones, and criteria for evaluating social relations research. Examples are used throughout, and given the committed pro-society stance of the book, colleagues will not be surprised to find that many of these are familiar from their own field. Thus, the working example in the opening chapter is an investigation on crowded classrooms in inner city schools and their effect on educational achievement. The 'logic of research'--the relationship between measurement and theory; randomized experiments; quasi-experimental and survey research; the concepts of sampling--is the first main section of the book. The second covers the conduct of research-scaling, laboratory, field and survey research; and two full chapters on quentionnaire and interview techniques. Three further full chapters carry the story forward into 'natural settings'. Included under this heading are archival research, participant observation, and evaluation research as well as general fieldwork strategies. In this section, the authors maintain their high standards for research reliability and validity, and place stress on the ethics of observation. And they end the section asking can we afford not to do applied research? 'Does applied, and perhaps also basic, research not force us to consider whose purposes are being served by an intervention or an evaluation or even a research question? And m u s t we not usually choose sides'? (p. 348). And, after a section on data analysis--from coding through front-line statistics, meta-analyses--the book returns for a detailed discussion of ethical implications of research, written by Stuart Cook, which reviews ten types of questionable practices one might encounter in social research from coercion of people to participate, through deception, to leading participants to commit acts which diminish their self respect. How many of our courses give as thorough consideration of the ethics of research with real people? C.P.S.
H i s t o r i c I l l i n o i s f r o m t h e Air. By D. Buisseret.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990. 232 pp., £25.00. ISBN 0-226-07989-9. David Buisseret is the director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Centre for the History of Cartography in Chicago. He writes that he has been taking aerial photographs since student days in Cambridge and has combined this with his professional training as an historian in previous books on the history of Jamaica and of North America.
When you can see nothing on the ground, the patterns m a y well emerge from the air. This was the lesson borne in on David Buisseret when as a young man he flew low over the Nile Delta, and then, with the engines gradually failing (as he notes nonchalantly) lower and lower over the North African coast. From the air, the whole series of varied cultivation patterns became clear; and one might add, with it came a realization of the determining power of environment over behaviour. The range and quality of aerial images has continued to improve; we rely on satellite imagery for many descriptive analytic and predictive purposes, commercial, military and meteorological. But, as this book so triumphantly demonstrates, the lower level aerial photograph provides perhaps the richest source of data to the environmental psychologist and behavioural geographer. The book's technique (here applied to the State of Illinois, b u t clearly applicable to any region) combines satellite images, to give overall patterns; aerial photographs, to give the local patterns; historic and modern maps of the same areas; and low-level oblique photographs and period illustrations, to show detailed the features of each area. Thus, for example, in a section devoted to the development of the railways in Illinois, the author brings together explanatory text (on how economic, political and geographical factors focussed the rail network on Chicago), a map of the State's network as it expanded from 1845-1880 (which highlights the geographical constraints); contemporary detailed maps of railway building (witness to the commercial propaganda of the time); and presentday aerial photographs of the same areas. Geography shaped the overall direction of the lines; commercial pressures then meant that the railway pioneers sometimes cut straight through and disrupted existing settlements. More often, their coming re-oriented and reinvigorated the township; and the carefully chosen series of 19th century local maps shows this rapid development almost as clearly as would an animation. For the visual record the author has to draw upon
Texts on Techniques
is rich indeed: even small railway settlements seem to have expressed their local pride by having finely engraved early maps and photographs. And it is striking, in view of the thesis of this book, that patterns emerge most clearly from the air, that many of these early maps are, in reality, a crossbreed between a map and an imagined oblique view over the city, with prominent buildings and landmarks represented. It is unlikely that other writers would have quite such a rich source of historical documentation. Buisseret is fortunate that Illinois and, in particular, Chicago were developing at a time when mapping and photography had reached their mid-tolate 19th century height. Some of the historical images capture and freeze the area's development at major turning points. Thus, for instance, an extraordinarily detailed 'Bird's eye view of the Business District of Chicago, 1898'. From this, one can see the dominance on the waterfront of the Illinois Central tracks; the new elevated railway system defining the Loop; a dense
99
pattern of streetcars, 'which made travel to the closer suburbs quick and easy'; and no private cars as yet (an invention which, as later illustrations show, was to clog up travel in the city). The author's prime concerns are, as implied at the onset, t~ show how the geographical substrate shaped the history and development of an area. The uniqueness of the technique is the mixture of aerial photography and historical documentation brought imaginatively together. As J. B. Jackson once wrote, 'It is from the air that the true relationship between the natural and the h u m a n landscape is first clearly revealed'. Add to this 'new and valuable perspective of the world' the time series of contemporary views and pictures that are available from local historians, and the fourth dimension is added. This is a beautiful book in its own right; but should suggest to environmental researchers a set of new techniques for studying geography's impact on the development of societies and communities. C.P.S.
Texts on Techniques
academic climate, can such a book maintain its value against newcomers to the catalogue. The new edition of 'Research Methods', its sixth, maintains what, for many readers of this journal, may be its familiar structure. There has been a considerable amount of extra information added, and the authors have provided, as examples of good practice, new research examples. The introduction includes a discussion on the place of values in social research, the relationship between naive hypotheses and scientific ones, and criteria for evaluating social relations research. Examples are used throughout, and given the committed pro-society stance of the book, colleagues will not be surprised to find that many of these are familiar from their own field. Thus, the working example in the opening chapter is an investigation on crowded classrooms in inner city schools and their effect on educational achievement. The 'logic of research'--the relationship between measurement and theory; randomized experiments; quasi-experimental and survey research; the concepts of sampling--is the first main section of the book. The second covers the conduct of research-scaling, laboratory, field and survey research; and two full chapters on quentionnaire and interview techniques. Three further full chapters carry the story forward into 'natural settings'. Included under this heading are archival research, participant observation, and evaluation research as well as general fieldwork strategies. In this section, the authors maintain their high standards for research reliability and validity, and place stress on the ethics of observation. And they end the section asking can we afford not to do applied research? 'Does applied, and perhaps also basic, research not force us to consider whose purposes are being served by an intervention or an evaluation or even a research question? And m u s t we not usually choose sides'? (p. 348). And, after a section on data analysis--from coding through front-line statistics, meta-analyses--the book returns for a detailed discussion of ethical implications of research, written by Stuart Cook, which reviews ten types of questionable practices one might encounter in social research from coercion of people to participate, through deception, to leading participants to commit acts which diminish their self respect. How many of our courses give as thorough consideration of the ethics of research with real people? C.P.S.
H i s t o r i c I l l i n o i s f r o m t h e Air. By D. Buisseret.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990. 232 pp., £25.00. ISBN 0-226-07989-9. David Buisseret is the director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Centre for the History of Cartography in Chicago. He writes that he has been taking aerial photographs since student days in Cambridge and has combined this with his professional training as an historian in previous books on the history of Jamaica and of North America.
When you can see nothing on the ground, the patterns m a y well emerge from the air. This was the lesson borne in on David Buisseret when as a young man he flew low over the Nile Delta, and then, with the engines gradually failing (as he notes nonchalantly) lower and lower over the North African coast. From the air, the whole series of varied cultivation patterns became clear; and one might add, with it came a realization of the determining power of environment over behaviour. The range and quality of aerial images has continued to improve; we rely on satellite imagery for many descriptive analytic and predictive purposes, commercial, military and meteorological. But, as this book so triumphantly demonstrates, the lower level aerial photograph provides perhaps the richest source of data to the environmental psychologist and behavioural geographer. The book's technique (here applied to the State of Illinois, b u t clearly applicable to any region) combines satellite images, to give overall patterns; aerial photographs, to give the local patterns; historic and modern maps of the same areas; and low-level oblique photographs and period illustrations, to show detailed the features of each area. Thus, for example, in a section devoted to the development of the railways in Illinois, the author brings together explanatory text (on how economic, political and geographical factors focussed the rail network on Chicago), a map of the State's network as it expanded from 1845-1880 (which highlights the geographical constraints); contemporary detailed maps of railway building (witness to the commercial propaganda of the time); and presentday aerial photographs of the same areas. Geography shaped the overall direction of the lines; commercial pressures then meant that the railway pioneers sometimes cut straight through and disrupted existing settlements. More often, their coming re-oriented and reinvigorated the township; and the carefully chosen series of 19th century local maps shows this rapid development almost as clearly as would an animation. For the visual record the author has to draw upon
Texts on Techniques
is rich indeed: even small railway settlements seem to have expressed their local pride by having finely engraved early maps and photographs. And it is striking, in view of the thesis of this book, that patterns emerge most clearly from the air, that many of these early maps are, in reality, a crossbreed between a map and an imagined oblique view over the city, with prominent buildings and landmarks represented. It is unlikely that other writers would have quite such a rich source of historical documentation. Buisseret is fortunate that Illinois and, in particular, Chicago were developing at a time when mapping and photography had reached their mid-tolate 19th century height. Some of the historical images capture and freeze the area's development at major turning points. Thus, for instance, an extraordinarily detailed 'Bird's eye view of the Business District of Chicago, 1898'. From this, one can see the dominance on the waterfront of the Illinois Central tracks; the new elevated railway system defining the Loop; a dense
99
pattern of streetcars, 'which made travel to the closer suburbs quick and easy'; and no private cars as yet (an invention which, as later illustrations show, was to clog up travel in the city). The author's prime concerns are, as implied at the onset, t~ show how the geographical substrate shaped the history and development of an area. The uniqueness of the technique is the mixture of aerial photography and historical documentation brought imaginatively together. As J. B. Jackson once wrote, 'It is from the air that the true relationship between the natural and the h u m a n landscape is first clearly revealed'. Add to this 'new and valuable perspective of the world' the time series of contemporary views and pictures that are available from local historians, and the fourth dimension is added. This is a beautiful book in its own right; but should suggest to environmental researchers a set of new techniques for studying geography's impact on the development of societies and communities. C.P.S.