Regional geography in the Computer Age: a further commentary on 'The Highest Form of the Geographer's Art'

The 1981 Presidential Address to the As- sociation of American Geographers by John Fraser Hart, entitled "The Highest Form of the Geographer's Art," is a spirited defense of re- gional geography and a call back to the fun- damentals of the discipline. It has doubtless been read with glee by those who have stood their ground against the onward march of the quantitative revolution, and with distaste or disdain by those who have embraced the new faith or who are too young to have known any other. The paper is at once stimulating and infuriating, containing as it does a blend of fundamental truth and potentially damaging misconception. However, both the strengths and shortcomings of Hart's argument provide fertile ground in which to cultivate new ap- proaches to regional geography, which avail themselves of the technological and intellec- tual advances of the past 20 years.