GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW ESSAY ON MANIPULATING THE EVIDENCE: A RESPONSE TO LOWENTHAL

In his review of a 2004 anthology of essays on the history of historic preservation in the U.S. for the Journal of American History, historian Richard Striner (2005, 1016) of Westminster College wrote, "The least satisfactory essay in the book is the essay by the geographer David Lowenthal...[who] indulges in sloppy overgeneralizations, either-or pronouncements, and inaccurate claims... [...]he seems to be averse to the documentary side of historical scholarship... whether the subject matter happens to be architectural history or any other kind of history." Later in his book, Livingstone again comments on Shaler's familiarity with Marsh's work, making the point I elaborated in my article: "Although the modern rediscovery of Marsh is attributed to Lewis Mumford, whose essay in The Brown Decades reputedly prompted Carl Sauer to resurrect Marsh's contributions, Shaler and other early conservationists were familiar with it during the latter part of the nineteenth century;" that is, after 1876 and continuing at least until 1891, if not later (Livingstone 1987, 322, note 23).