Toward Spatial Humanities: Historical GIS and Spatial History

The Spatial Humanities

by Les Roberts (Contributor), Thomas Thevenin (Contributor), Julia Hallam (Contributor)

The application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to issues in history is among the most exciting developments in both digital and spatial humanities. Describing a wide variety of applications, the essays in this volume highlight the methodological and substantive implications of a spatial approach to history. They illustrate how the use of GIS is changing our understanding of the geographies of the past and has become the basis for new ways to study history. Contributors focus on current developments in the use of historical sources and explore the insights gained by applying GIS to develop historiography. Toward Spatial Humanities is a compelling demonstration of how GIS can contribute to our historical understanding.

230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Les Roberts is the author of 15 mystery novels featuring Cleveland detective Milan Jacovich, as well as 9 other books of fiction. The past president of both the Private Eye Writers of America and the American Crime Writer's League, he came to mystery writing after a 24-year career in Hollywood. He was the first producer and head writer of the Hollywood Squares and wrote for the Andy Griffith Show, the Jackie Gleason Show, and the Man from U.N.C.L.E., among others. He has been a professional actor, a singer, a jazz musician, and a teacher. In 2003 he received the Sherwood Anderson Literary Award. A native of Chicago, he now lives in Northeast Ohio and is a film and literary critic."

Reviews

[Wendelle]

read 1/2, this book is a sampling platter of research papers that demonstrate the capacity of the GIS software to illuminate historical trends, through maps about the density of selected populations or infrastructures in certain areas over time. Examples include mapping the correlation between the expansion of rural railway lines in Britain and the intensification of cattle-raising and agriculture in railway-adjacent areas, and the mapping over time of segregation and African-American population density in Chicago after the Great Migration.