Influences on the American Geographer Samuel Griswold Goodrich

Samuel G. Goodrich, one of the greatest of the “second generation” of American geographers, was one of the most amazingly prolific writers of the 19th century. His influence upon education in America through the improvement of school textbooks was significant and comprises the concluding section of the article. The main body of this paper is devoted to the events and individuals who influenced Goodrich: his upbringing and religion, various European scholar s and writers, the emergence of American publishing, the first generation of American geographers, and one fellow member of the second generation of American geographers.