Nature, the Modern and the Mystic: Tales from Early Twentieth Century Geography

This paper explores the relationship between Geography, modernism and nature-mysticism in the early twentieth century through a detailed study of the writings of two geographers, Vaughan Cornish and Sir Francis Younghusband. It is argued that spiritual and mystical themes informed a significant part of modem Geography, yet that these have been largely ignored in geographical historiography. The themes of universalism, continuity and leadership in Cornish and Younghusband's attention to the mystical are examined, as are the 'risks' of such an attention for those concerned with the maintenance of order. Parallels are drawn between Cornish and Younghusband's modem spiritual Geography and contemporary 'Green' ideas, and the implications of this 'hidden' element of geographical modernism for the practice of a post-modem Geography are considered. It is argued that any such practice must attend to Geography's constitution as a very modem discipline of space and environment, and that any such attention should address the significant spiritual element in Geography's modernity.