Geography vs History

[Davetello]

There's some overlap between the two subjects, clearly, but which do you prefer and why?

[Netkeeper]

History by a long shot. Geography is boring and I'm bad at it anyway.

[Davetello]

I love geography. Contrary to what lots of people think, it's not really about maps, places, capital cities etc. Well, it is, but it's about far more than that. It's also about climate change, environment, biodiversity, social structures within cities and countries, urban decay, how cities juxtapose rich and poor etc, and how all these relate to one another. You have human and physical geography.

I'm a big fan of history as well, and of course all of these sorts of subjects are interrelated.

By the way, I opted for geography at school, when we had to select subjects to study at the higher level. I wanted to pick history too but they were both part of the same block.

[MikeandRaph87]

I am a history teacher though geography does fall under my social sciences certification. History by far fascinates me. Geography is the study of location and includes aspects of sociology. History includes a vast array of interesting information from any country or time period. History is easier to teach and find a way to interest students while geography is hard to go beyond maps and textbooks.

[Davetello]

I am a history teacher though geography does fall under my social sciences certification. History by far fascinates me. Geography is the study of location and includes aspects of sociology. History includes a vast array of interesting information from any country or time period. History is easier to teach and find a way to interest students while geography is hard to go beyond maps and textbooks.

Yeah, agree with lots of that. Geography is wide-ranging but clearly not as vast as history. You're bang on about social science as well - geography is part of my social science degree.

[Netkeeper]

My biggest hurdle with Geography is memorisation of locations. My sense of direction is so bad that I might as well not have one at all. ...Not that History and all of its dates and numbers is much better, but at least the subject itself is more entertaining than it is frustrating for me.

[Davetello]

My biggest hurdle with Geography is memorisation of locations. My sense of direction is so bad that I might as well not have one at all. ...Not that History and all of its dates and numbers is much better, but at least the subject itself is more entertaining than it is frustrating for me.

I get ya. It's not always easy to maintain your bearings with geography.

On a minor note, have you ever played Mario's Time Machine or Mario Is Missing? They deal with history and geography respectively, and were a fun play back in the day. They got poor reviews but I enjoyed them as far as "edutainment" games so.

[CyberCubed]

History is interesting because its basically a story. Where humans came to be, and what every country did over time. Basically people killing each other in wars for thousands of years.

[Davetello]

History is interesting because its basically a story. Where humans came to be, and what every country did over time. Basically people killing each other in wars for thousands of years.

Good post. I do find it funny how obsessed you are with war and murder though :) I am too.

I'm doing a course on empires now. It's something I always wanted to study in more depth. You guys' history is inextricably linked with empire - many of your ancestors are Europeans (from the Old World).

[CyberCubed]

Basically if you like watching TV shows, reading comics, or stories in anything...I don't see why you wouldn't like history.

Its basically a real-life story of people and everything that has happened. Also since in real life the world is full of gray's since there are no real "good guys" or "bad guys" in the real world...except maybe Hitler, so all the other world leaders were motivated by shades of gray.

Although I am most interested in history from about 1700 to present, I also like really ancient history, like before the year 1000. Its so fascinating to think of early man and how we just started. Its hard to believe how long it took humans to come to be, especially since this is not just the year 2014...modern humans have been around for what...maybe 10,000 years? This really should be the year 10,014. Haha.

[Davetello]

Basically if you like watching TV shows, reading comics, or stories in anything...I don't see why you wouldn't like history.

Its basically a real-life story of people and everything that has happened. Also since in real life the world is full of gray's since there are no real "good guys" or "bad guys" in the real world...except maybe Hitler, so all the other world leaders were motivated by shades of gray.

Although I am most interested in history from about 1700 to present, I also like really ancient history, like before the year 1000. Its so fascinating to think of early man and how we just started. Its hard to believe how long it took humans to come to be, especially since this is not just the year 2014...modern humans have been around for what...maybe 10,000 years? This really should be the year 10,014. Haha.

Mostly a good post again. I knew that history interested you when you created the 'glorious time period' topic.

As you imply, history is the source of everything, really. Without history we would have no reference point for the present and no past to learn from and try to build on. It truly is all-encompassing.

But to take geography to its base level (places and monuments etc), without land and towns and cities there would be no site for all of these historical events to be shaped. That's why history, geography, sociology, environmentalism etc are all wonderfully interrelated and can't really exist without each other. They can't exist in isolation.

[Leo656]

History for sure. All things are connected and everything repeats. There's so many patterns if you know where to look, and if you study the past, you can absolutely predict the future. It's like a super-power you can actually give yourself. I used to murder that class and I never even did any homework, I just paid attention. Like most things, a lot of it has since been nudged out of my memory by comic books, but I can recall a lot of it sometimes.

Like you said, Dave, there's plenty of overlap between the two. I'm pretty good at remembering What Happened and Why, and less good at remembering Where, though, so there ya go. :)

[Davetello]

Fair enough mate. I think it's fair to say that both subjects are brilliant but the consensus so far is that history is superior.

[Leo656]

Well, maybe easier on the whole to grasp for some folks.

[Davetello]

Well, a lot of history is narrative and fact. Geography overlaps more easily with sociology (human geography) and the environment (physical geography). So lots of it is based around theory - it's not really quite as easy to learn things or memorise. Just my take.

[Leo656]

Geography also being more fluid, while history, while sometimes open to interpretation, is more simple fact. Like, topography changes, broders change, climates change, ecosystems change, but when Stuff Happens, it stays that way as far as the bare facts of what, where, when, and why. :)

They're pretty joined at the hip, though. I personally was always just better at straight-up History. But then, in high school I had three years of History (I had to repeat one year because it was first period and I was constantly, constantly late :lol:) and only one year of Geography, so I'm sure exposure has a lot to do with it, too. :)

[MsMarvelDuckie]

I agree, Leo. History was always one of my strong subjects, too. In high school, we had a combined history/literature course (I was in an advanced learning program called LEAP) that was really interesting. We learned how literature and history were linked through various time-periods and countries, and had projects and literary reading assignments based on the period of history we were studying. Awesome class!

My favorite time periods are ancient Greece/Rome, Egypt, and Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Basically all the really ancient stuff. Druids, henges, and pagan Britain also fascinate me. Might be my family lineage has something to do with it- I'm primarily of Irish/English/Scottish descent. With some French and German thrown in for good measure. (But I claim my Irish blood over everything else, since it can be traced as far back as 1100's.)

That leads me to a question for you guys. What about family history? Geneology is basically the study of the history of one's own family through time. Where it came from, what events shaped it or it was involved with, even famous family members who helped shape history itself. What do you all think of family history?

[Candy Kappa]

History, but it's also fascinating to watch how kingdoms and countries have changed through the centuries.

[pennydreadful]

I wasn't very good with either geography or history in school; mainly because the way it was taught just bored me so I didn't apply myself. Now that I'm not in school, I have a much keener interest in history and sociology etc because I'm able to go for the parts that interest me.

That leads me to a question for you guys. What about family history? Geneology is basically the study of the history of one's own family through time. Where it came from, what events shaped it or it was involved with, even famous family members who helped shape history itself. What do you all think of family history?

I tend to think that while it's useful, it has a very big flaw in that it doesn't account for people having affairs. On paper, my ancestry should be 100% Irish... but my great-grandmother actually had an affair with a fly-by-night fellow of Italian descent (which is how she got pregnant with my grandmother)... and none of that's on paper.

So yeah, I understand its purpose but as I said, I do think it's got a fairly big flaw in that it can't account for everything in a persons' genealogical background.

[BubblyShell22]

I was never interested in either subject in school as they always bored me, but I do realize both are important. History is knowing what happened and why it happened while geography is about knowing where places are and how to get there as well as how the countries were started. Family history is also important because it's interesting to see where you come from and how your family tree started.

[slashpieturtlemix]

I tend to like history more unless the other is about anything Roman. I was a pretty bright bulb with history. I probably should have majored in it since I was finishing college level history courses with 100 and 99 A averages but my true fascination is with anything ancient. I love my ancient history. Anything Roman, Chinese, Greek, Egyptian or Persian and I am all for it!

[Prowler]

History sucks until you get a good teacher. Many people hate history due to terrible teachers. Math and philosophy suffer a lot with this as well. I love history because you need to know the past to understand the present. I like looking back and see how things have changed over the years. Plus, it's fun to discuss different interpretations of history with others and how our perceptions change as time moves on from a particular event. Not to mention history is very linked to other fields of my interest such as anthropology and linguistics. Gotta know history to know the latter ones.

As for my favorite periods... well, I like a lot of them. From Ancient Greece, Egypt and Ancient Rome(pre-Christianity) to the Age of Discovery and Japanese history after the Europeans made contact with them for the first time. Also WW1 and WW2, ofc.

Any Civilization, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron and Total War players here, by the way?

As for geography, well I've always been pretty good at pointing countries in the map and knowing their capital cities, but geography has much more to it than just that. It's also interesting to know what's the meaning of GDP, how a nation develops, its birthrates and deathrates, etc. And of course, it's important to know how to point stuff on a map if you like history. Imagine studying WW2 and thinking the USSR borders the UK :lol:

As elitist as this sounds, I find it odd how so many people are really terrible at geography. And by terrible I mean REALLY terrible. I don't think less of someone from not being able to point Vanuatu on the world map, but how can you have completed HS or university and not know that Paris is the capital of France, per example? How is that even possible? If someone doesn't know that then I shudder to think what else they might be ignorant about.

I always got complimented on my geography skills, bu I honestly don't feel happy about most people not being good at knowing capital cities and pointing countries on the map. They'd know it if they actually cared about it more.

[ssjup81]

Hm, both can be useful, but I find Geography to be more useful, especially if you aspire to travel. It's embarrassing going to other countries and then not being able to even locate where you are on a map....and if you are traveling, it's nice to use what you learned in Geography.

I used to be really good with both history and geography as a kid...but not so much now.

[Davetello]

Thanks for all your posts, liked reading them.

Prowler and ssjup - yeah, it can be pretty embarrassing when people don't know basic geographical facts. I once knew someone who thought that Europe was a country within the continent of the United Kingdom. Seriously.

[pandaderek]

I got my first degree in History. Its study can not leave out geography, anthropology, and many other fields, to give an estimated identity of something, someone, society, time period, or event. It's just the most important study for identity.

I hold history as the highest subject, past philosophy, my main discipline, because of the social aspect. I enjoy the arts that historians study, especially, the arts of the marginalized people of societies. They have the most appealing views of the world, to me. Like, I don't care for how Donal Trump experiences the world as I would KRS-One. The reality show that Donald Trump made would have no appeal to how I would be able to develop an identity of its society, but, the music KRS-One has made would...if I was a historian 1,000 years in the future. Or, I don't care for how the King William III viewed the world, through his politics, as I do Vincent van Gogh, through his paintings.

Although, I do think geography is important, as well. Especially, when it comes to renewable energy and building things, like cities. Like, Temecula, CA is a terrible place to build a big city, which they're doing, because it's in the valley...the smog from the cars can not climb over the mountains, therefore, the people living there are living in an environment, where the smog in the air is of higher percentage than big cities not located between mountains, which results in health issues and lowered life span.

Also, geography is important for how terrible European colonies divided up the Middle East...which is why there's so many conflicts, there.

[Davetello]

I got my first degree in History. Its study can not leave out geography, anthropology, and many other fields, to give an estimated identity of something, someone, society, time period, or event. It's just the most important study for identity.

I hold history as the highest subject, past philosophy, my main discipline, because of the social aspect. I enjoy the arts that historians study, especially, the arts of the marginalized people of societies. They have the most appealing views of the world, to me. Like, I don't care for how Donal Trump experiences the world as I would KRS-One. The reality show that Donald Trump made would have no appeal to how I would be able to develop an identity of its society, but, the music KRS-One has made would...if I was a historian 1,000 years in the future. Or, I don't care for how the King William III viewed the world, through his politics, as I do Vincent van Gogh, through his paintings.

Although, I do think geography is important, as well. Especially, when it comes to renewable energy and building things, like cities. Like, Temecula, CA is a terrible place to build a big city, which they're doing, because it's in the valley...the smog from the cars can not climb over the mountains, therefore, the people living there are living in an environment, where the smog in the air is of higher percentage than big cities not located between mountains, which results in health issues and lowered life span.

Yeah, that's a good post. I agree mainly.

I too find the perspectives of subordinate or marginalised people fascinating. They're the ones with the most interesting stories to tell, to research.

[Wesley]

I prefer History. A lot of interesting events happened in the past.

[Davetello]

I prefer History. A lot of interesting events happened in the past.

Yep. I like temporal mechanics...the way that the present becomes the past and the future becomes the present.

[snake]

Love History. Everything about it.

[Wesley]

Yep. I like temporal mechanics...the way that the present becomes the past and the future becomes the present.

I like that, too. There's a tv programme called Reeling in the Years that looks back at the most notable Irish and international events from 1962 to 2009. It's amazing that the decades that I grew up in are now in the past.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

I don't like geography at all. I'm not interested in climates and terrain and stuff like that.

History on the other hand, I absolutely love. I love finding out about ancient medicines and old wars and battles. I find those extremely fascinating.

[Davetello]

I was learning about the Russian empire today. Very interesting stuff, although my attention span is a bit off. But I'd highly recommend people looking into it if that's their thing. My assignment is to compare and contrast this Russian land empire with the maritime empires of Britain and Spain. Really interesting stuff and worth reading about online, for those of you who love history.

[pannoni1]

I love both of these, and basically is where vs. when in its simplest definition, with the what and who used to identify and the why and how to interpret. I've always preferred Geography by far over history growing up and still do to a degree today (I even audtioned for the National Geography Bee in middle school, but lost in the school's finals), and in fact got my BS in that subject, but have grown to like history more, however history has lots of controversy that geography lacks in that it can be a more touchy subject, cheifly with the religious and political opinions that are frequently the subject of debate. That said in my home library, it really shows as I have nearly a thousand National Geographic issues dating back to 1918 (I'd rather upgrade to CD since most made since 1960 aren't that collectible), along with numerous Britannica Books of the Year mostly from 1940 to 2010, with some World Almanacs in addition. As TMNT fans, what this series has presented should help us to be more familiar with their namesakes (the Italian Renaissance, Japanese history, European cultures from the vacation in Europe sideseason, various time travel stories).

[Davetello]

Well, I have been reading more about colonialism - beyond the superficial level. I have to say that it's some very disturbing material. We all know it was brutal, but when you actually read graphic descriptions of what went on it simply depresses you. I have to write an essay on it this week but I'm finding the material very, very troubling.

[Davetello]

Reading about the Spanish conquests of the Aztec and Inca empires, and the formation of the New England colonies is well worth it, folks. Obviously most of us know something about these subjects on a superficial level, but on a deeper level they're fascinating.