The Rise of Geography at Northwestern University: Leadership, Expansion, and Interdisciplinarity

In the immediate decades following the end of World War II, Northwestern University rapidly and unexpectedly emerged as an important node in American geography. Prior to 1945, Northwestern did not have an independent geography department, but by 1965 Northwestern had become a preeminent center of geographic thought. This paper examines how Northwestern became a substantial producer of academic geographers and of interdisciplinary geographic thought/methods, focusing on the period from 1945–1965. The piece reflects on how this period at Northwestern reshaped geography in the United States more broadly in the second half of the twentieth century. Through an examination of the faculty and graduates of the program, this paper explores how Northwestern provided fertile ground for the continuation of existing, and the innovation of new, geographical traditions.