CHAPTER VII

THE CORRELATION OF HISTORY WITH OTHER STUDIES

It is easy to see that history is bound up with other studies in a variety of close connections. Sometimes history throws much light on geography or literature, or the latter studies contribute valuable aid to history.

When once the important and even vital connection between history and other studies is clearly seen, there is real difficulty in drawing accurately the line of separation between them. For example, geography and history are so closely bound together that in teaching either one of them the other must be considered. If we had no such independent study as geography, the geographical knowledge necessary to the understanding of a good course in history would give us a tolerably complete acquaintance with political geography. If history and geography were studied together, as indicated in the following passage from Carlyle, children might gain almost as much geographical knowledge as they do at present, without the independent study of geography. Carlyle says: "History is evidently the

Never read any

grand subject a student will take to. such book without a map beside you; endeavor to seek out every place the author names, and get a clear idea of the ground you are on; without this you can never understand him, much less remember him."

W. C. Collar says, "Historical instruction without the constant accompaniment of geography has no solid foundation, is all in the air."

Hinsdale says: "The earth is most interesting when considered in relation to its human uses. Geography provides man his sphere of life, and then finds its highest interest, not in its deserts or crags, its glaciers or cañons, but in its human elements. Political geography is nothing but a form of applied history.'

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Miss Salmon says: "The dependence of history upon the physical character of a country is evident when it is seen to what extent these conditions have determined those on which history is based. The beginnings of nations have been influenced by the existence of broad, fertile valleys, while very high or very broad mountain chains have, outside of America, decided national frontiers. The necessity for individual protection determined the sights of the hill fortress-towns of ancient Greece and of medieval Italy, as protection again has led to the choice of sites partly encircled by water, as Durham, Venice, Bern, and Constantinople; or for strength, as the towns

1 "How to Study and Teach History" (Hinsdale).

of Grenoble and Belfort; commercial reasons have placed towns at the junction of two rivers, as Mainz, Coblenz, and Lyons, or near the mouths of rivers, as Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Havre. Trade routes, military operations, terms of treaties, have all been conditioned by geographical features." 1

Not only the careful study of maps and historical charts for the fixing of the geographical stage of action is necessary, but the free sketching of maps on the blackboard by both teacher and pupil is the best means of giving clearness and perfect comprehension. This kind of geography is, if anything, better than political geography studied by itself, because it is an application of geographical knowledge to human necessities and a discovery of the reasons for the facts.

Hinsdale says further: "There are still other reasons for emphasizing geography in connection with history. Historical events that are not located by the pupil are neither understood nor remembered. History that is read without due attention to its theatre is too much like an imaginary account of similar transactions in the moon."

And again: "Careful study of a good map is the next best thing to visiting a historical locality in person. To a certain extent geography and history are but one study; and the effort now made in schools to study them in close connection is worthy of all 1 "Some Principles in the Teaching of History."

praise. Thus the memory is wholly dependent upon the associating activities of the mind. Without them nothing could be retained and nothing could be learned. Besides, contiguity of space is one of the most powerful of these activities. In view of these facts we need not enlarge upon the importance of the place-element in history."

On the other hand, history contributes to a vital interest in geography. It would hardly be an extravagant statement to say that the places of greatest geographical interest in the world are those that have been made memorable by historical events, such as Bunker Hill, Marathon, Gettysburg, the city of Athens, of Jerusalem, of London, of Boston, etc. What interest should we have in the geography of Scotland apart from its historical literature? What a glow of interest is thrown around the geography of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River by the canoe voyages of La Salle, Hennepin, Marquette, and Joliet Starved Rock is the most interesting geographical feature in Illinois. In New York State, the Hudson, Lake Champlain, and the central lake region have a hundred lively historical associations. On this point Hinsdale says: "Men toil and suffer to visit countries and places having little living interest. The Holy Places attract pilgrims because they have been made holy by devoted and self-denying lives. Moses is greater than Mount Sinai, Abraham than Palestine, Jesus than the Lake

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of Galilee. It is very true that back of the event lie causes, thoughts, feelings, and activities; but there is a certain tendency to look for them, and also the event itself, in the locality."

The yoking together of history and geography in the same lesson in history need not produce any confusion of mind as to which is history and which is geography. The lesson is primarily a history lesson, and the standpoint from which the geographical facts are viewed is historical. So long as the controlling historical idea of the lesson is kept clearly in mind, it makes no difference how many tributary geographical facts are drawn into the treatment.

In a geographical lesson, likewise, historical facts may be drawn in so long as they contribute to the better understanding of the chief geographical topic. Confusion arises only when the teacher is unable to keep a controlling idea or standpoint clearly in mind, but instead, shifts back and forth between history and geography.

History and literature are not less closely bound together and merged into one than history and geography. Many of the best products of historical literature are among the best sources of history. The Homeric poems are not historical in the strict modern sense, and yet no one would be disposed to deny the overwhelming influence which they exerted upon the strictly historical period of Greek life. It seems unquestionable also that we have in Homer the best