In any edited volume most credit is due to the individual authors. The
present case is no exception and we as editors have done little apart
from serving as coordinators for a group of friends and colleagues. For
once, the responsi- bilities are shared. We feel that the collection
gives a fair representation of the activities at the frontier of human
geography in North America. Whether these premonitions will be further
substantiated is of course to be seen. In the meantime, we take refuge
in Vico's saying that "doctrines must take their beginning from that of
the matter of which they treat". And yet we also know that new
treatments never lead to fmal ends, but rather to new doctrines and to
new beginnings. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge those publishers
and authors who have given permission to reprint copyrighted materials:
Association of American Geographers for Leslie J. King's 'Alternatives
to a Positive Economic Geography', Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, Vol. 66,1976; Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd. for Yi-Fu
Tuan's 'Space and Place: Human- istic Perspective', in Christopher Board
et al. (eds. ), Progress in Geography, Vol. 6, 1974; Economic Geography
for David Harvey's 'Population, Resources, and the Ideology of Science',
Economic Geography, Vol. SO, 1974; Institute of British Geographers for
David Ley's 'Social Geography and the Taken-for-Granted World',
Transactions of the Institute of British Geogra- phers, Vol. 2, 1977;
and North-Holland Publishing Company for Allen J.