Chi fa geografia? Riflessioni su saperi scientifici e cultura diffusa dall’esperienza della Grande Guerra

What the history of geography is about. High and low culture in the years of the First World War. Abstract The First World War influenced the spread of culture, both in form and content. This phenomenon no less affects geography, with the alteration of the traditional balance between high and low geographical culture. Diversification of the protagonists and the heterogeneity of expressive forms becomes the characteristic of a radically transformed geographic landscape relative to the full, largely static and approved, picture of prior times. Taking inspiration from the empirical evidence of the profound structural changes in Italian geography, this article is focused on methodological issues, arriving at conclusions that there could perhaps also be extended to analyses of other historical periods: the need to overcome the narrow conception of the history of geography, which is focused upon the internal affairs of academia, in favour of a view which acknowledges the complexity of articulating geographical knowledge.