The relationships between geography and history have been a subject of discussion among their practitioners over many centuries and have been a matter of much dispute, at least since they became formalized as academic disciplines in the nineteenth century. Attempts have been made to construct and defend rigid frontiers between them and even to banish those renegades who dared to stray across the border into enemy territory. However, as this book claims, there has been no single volume devoted to these relationships for a century, during which time the whole nature of both has changed out of all recognition, and the subdiscipline of historical geography has established itself in the border zone between the two. Alan Baker, as a leading exponent of historical geography, has taken up the task of examining this border zone by means of a critique of the practices of what he describes as the “two intellectual hybrids,” historical geography and geographical history.

The book takes the form of five main chapters examining the differing, and changing, approaches of both historians and geographers to particular aspects of their subjects, followed by Baker's own reflections on the nature of the border zone and the nature and future of historical geography. The initial chapter is essentially a history of the changing views of the relationship between the two main disciplines as illustrated through the writings of both geographers and historians. He then identifies four major “discourses” that he sees as forming the core of historical geography, and a chapter is devoted to each of these in turn. In each case the matching pairs of approaches, from the geographical and historical sides, are considered, with a particular focus on where historical geography contributes to the debates.

The first of these chapters concerns itself with locational geographies and histories, stressing that though there is a basic distinction between the geographical questions “where, and why there?” and the historical “when, and why then?” the former is not independent of the latter, nor vice versa. The second examines environmental geographies and histories, tracing the development of deterministic and possibilistic explanations in the two disciplines, the adoption of historical ecology in both, and the modern concerns with perceptions of past environments and the gaps between “image” and “reality.” The third theme is that of landscape geographies and histories, which Baker points out has been a powerful strand in geography and, by extension, in historical geography, though, as he argues most forcefully, the term “landscape” has been subject to much confusion and misuse. The whole theme of landscapes as cultural expressions, and their association with memory and identity, is explored. Finally, he examines regional geographies and histories, tracing the long and much-disputed significance of the regional concept in geography, which he equates as an academic concept with the period in history.

In a volume such as this, the question of what should be included or omitted and of which influences are deemed the most significant must inevitably reflect the views and interests of the author. Given Baker's long and distinguished research association with France, it is hardly surprising that French writers feature so prominently, and indeed he explicitly concentrates on North American, British, and French work as the core of his investigations. However, for the senior undergraduate and postgraduate audience to which the book is addressed it does seem that the role of other scholars in the development of historical geography, for example, the Scandinavians and Dutch, is underplayed.

Agricultural historians also seem to receive less than their due. The dialogue between them and historical geographers has been an especially fruitful one in Europe, but I looked in vain for an appreciation of the contribution of some of the major figures. The pioneering works of August Meitzen and Howard L. Gray, E. C. K. Gonner, and Gilbert Slater have had a major impact on later generations of historical geographers, as well as historians, not least because they sought to bring out the geographical aspects of their studies. Modern influences, such as Gordon Mingay, are also missing, and a passing reference to the work of Joan Thirsk hardly reflects her influence.

This being said, Baker has produced a highly comprehensive and erudite study, which guides the reader expertly through a complex mass of material and ideas. He stresses throughout his aim of bridging the gap between history and geography and of encouraging the practitioners of both to be aware of the contributions of the other. He argues also for the need to combine the empirical and the theoretical, rather than dividing into hostile camps as both historical geography and its two parent disciplines have been too apt to do in the past. The book is addressed to students of both geography and history, and both will gain substantially from reading it.