Physical Geography

by Arnold Guyot

American Christian History Institute

This is a reprint of the 1885 edition of this book. It serves as a companion to the section on teaching geography in James Rose’s A Guide to American Christian Education (American Christian History Institute). It is also quoted and referred to in Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History, although it is not required for that book. I am not knowledgeable enough to critique the geographic content of the book, and I assume it is accurate, although there are certainly more recent discoveries that would shed more light on some topics (such as earthquakes and plate tectonics.) When he ventures away from geographical facts, the content of the book becomes debatable. I am bothered by Guyot’s approach to"The Human Family"—the white Caucasian is held up as the ideal with every other race as inferior. He also makes a few generalizations about continents and historical movements that I consider to be more philosophical than factual. When reading Guyot, we must keep in mind the time period and culture from which he wrote, since some of his ideas seem out of step with contemporary thought.