Albert Demangeon (13 June 1872 – 25 July 1940) was a Professor of social geography at the Sorbonne in Paris for many years.
He was an educator, a prolific author, and in the 1930s was the leading French academic in the field of human geography.
He was a pioneer in the use of surveys to collect information on social questions.
Albert Demangeon was born on 13 June 1872 in Cormeilles, Eure, France.[1]
His parents were not well off but Albert was an outstanding student and won admission to the École Normale Supérieure in 1892.
There he became interested in geography and in the teachings of Paul Vidal de La Blache.
He graduated in geography in 1895 and became a teacher in a secondary school.
He later was employed in the École Normale Supérieure preparing students for the Agrégation.[2]
Demangeon presented his thesis on Picardy in 1905, considered a model of a regional monograph.
He obtained a teaching post at the University of Lille.[2]
He collaborated with Antoine Vacher, Joseph Blayac and others on their Dictionnaire-manuel illustré de géographie (1907).
The book received hostile reviews, and Demangeon seems to have accused Vacher of sabotaging the project.[3]
From 1911 he taught in Paris at the Sorbonne.
During World War I (1914–18) Demangeon served in the geographical corps of the army and drafted memos for the army staff.
Towards the end of the war he was a member of the committee studying preparation for peace.[2]
The "section géographique française" helped define the policies that France would follow after the war on territorial arrangements.[4]
Demangeon returned to the Sorbonne after the war.[2]
He was Professor of economic geography at the Faculty of Letters from 1925 to 1940.[1]
He served on the editorial board of the Revue d'Histoire Moderne, which was relaunched in 1926.[5]
By 1927 he was one of the directors of Armand Colin's Annales de Géographie.[6]
Demangeon was noted as a university teacher, and also contributed to primary education.[2]
He was responsible for a well known collection of secondary school textbooks.[7]
In the mid-1930 he taught at the École des hautes études commerciales de Paris (HEC).
One of his students was the future economist Albert O. Hirschman, who recorded that he gave "brilliant lectures", and used large and colorful maps to illustrate his themes of commerce and trade between geographical regions, and the resulting economic rivalries.[8]
Demangeon acted as an arbitrator in social conflicts at the time of the Popular Front (1936–38).[2]
Demangeon's daughter Suzanne married the geographer Aimé Vincent Perpillou (1902–76), who also became a distinguished economic geographer.[9]
Albert Demangeon died on 25 July 1940 in Paris, France.[1]
Work
Demangeon was a prolific author.
His pre-war work focused on physical regional geography, but later he also wrote on larger topics including several volumes of the Géographie Universelle published under the direction of Paul Vidal de La Blache and Lucien Gallois.
At the Sorbonne he turned from physical to human geography.[2]
He avoided theoretical work, and did not write a book about the general subject of human geography, although his writings on the subject were published after his death in Problems of Human Geography (1942).[2]
This collection of his main articles covered a broad spectrum of human geography topics.[7]
Demangeon was interested in the interactions of man and nature, and also in history, although he felt that geography must remain a distinct subject.[2]
He wrote in 1906, "To explain the geographical phenomena of which man has been the witness or contriver, it is necessary to study their evolution in the past with the aid of documents."
Later he defined three principles for the study of human geography:[10]
It should avoid determinism. Causes are always complex and involve human initiative and choice.
It should be based upon a territorial unit. To understand and describe regional units is one of the main objectives of geographical study.
It must consider not only the present day. The idea of age and of evolution is indispensable. Without it, the reason for what exists often escapes us.
Lucien Febvre (1878–1956) co-authored The Rhine, Problems of History and Economy (1935)
Demangeon's 1905 study of Picardy had a strong historical element, reflecting Vidal de la Blache's emphasis on the role of man in changing the face of the earth.
Also in 1905 he produced a valuable guide to the National Archives for the use of geographers.[11]
He cooperated with historians, and coauthored The Rhine, Problems of History and Economy (1935) with Lucien Febvre.[7]
He studied current issues such as colonialism, globalization, the Great Depression and German ambitions.[2]
His Le déclin de l'Europe (1920) was published in the US in 1921 under the title America and the Race for World Domination.
It argued that Europe was deeply in debt and exhausted by the war, with reduced agricultural and industrial output, and low birth rates.
The US and Japan had expanded their industries, replaced Europe's exports with their own, and were owed huge sums in exchange for the supplies they had shipped to Europe during the war.[4]
Demangeon wrote several studies of cities, but was more interested in the country, and also in economics.[2]
Throughout his career Demangeon was interested in spatial variations of farmsteads.[12]
He presented a famous study of rural houses to the 1st International Congress of Folklore in 1937.[7]
His two-volume work France Économique et Humaine, published posthumously in 1944 and 1948, surveyed the rural life and economy, road, railway and canal routes and their traffic, coastal and inland towns, industry and Paris.[13]
There are in-depth surveys of agriculture, towns and industry for each region.
Throughout the work there is a historical flavour with references to evolution of land use, development of routes, evolution of industry, changes to urban area.[14]
Demangeon used a precise vocabulary and linked observed facts in order to formulate new questions.
He made use of questionnaires to investigate patterns as early as 1909.
In the 1930s he used questionnaires in large surveys for a 1939 study of foreigners in French agriculture.[7]
The surveys, sponsored by the Rockefeller Institute, gathered information on rural habitat, the organization of farms and the use of foreign farm labour.[2]
Albert Demangeon (1933), Paris, la ville et sa banlieue, Paris: Bourrelier, p. 62
Albert Demangeon; Lucien Febvre (1935), Le Rhin. Problèmes d'histoire et d'économie, Paris: Armand Colin, p. 304
Albert Demangeon; Alfred Weiler (1937), Les maisons des hommes de la hutte au gratte-ciel, Paris: Bourrelier, p. 127
Albert Demangeon (1942), Problèmes de géographie humaine, Paris: Armand Colin, p. 408
Albert Demangeon (1946–1948), La France économique et humaine, Géographie universelle, vol. VI, 2nd & 3rd volumes, Paris: Armand Colin, p. 900
Pre-war 1895–1912
Léo Claretie; Albert Demangeon (1895), Galerie française. Eure, Paris: Curel, Gougis et Cie
Albert Demangeon (1905), Les Sources de la géographie de la France aux Archives nationales, Paris: Bellais
Albert Demangeon (1910), "Impressions d'Irlande", Bulletin de la Société normande de géographie, Rouen: A. Lestringant
Albert Demangeon (1911), Eléments de Géographie par l'image, Paris: Librairie de l'Enseignement
Albert Demangeon (1912), Esquisse géographique de la région du Nord, Lille: C. Robbe
Post-war 1930–1939
Albert Demangeon (1931), Troisième rapport de la commission de l'habitat rural, préparé pour le congrès international de géographie, Paris, 1931, Florence: Bureau du secrétariat Général
Albert Demangeon (1932), "Excursion B 1. L'ouest de l'Ile-de-France et la Normandie", Congrès international de géographie. Paris, 1931, Orléans, Paris: H. Tessier, Armand Colin
Albert Demangeon (1932–1938), France, métropole et colonies, Paris: Librairie de l'Enseignement : Camille Sauty
Albert Demangeon; Charles Robequain (1933), L'Afrique du Nord genres de vie et peuplement, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
Albert Demangeon (1933), Les pays du Nord: vie industrielle et urbaine, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
Albert Demangeon (1933), Les pays du Nord: paysages, vie rurale, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1933), Région parisienne: Paris, environs, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
Albert Demangeon; Charles Robequain (1933), L'Afrique du Nord régions et paysages, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1933), Paris et l'agglomération parisienne: Paris, environs, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
Albert Demangeon (1934), Paris et le département de la Seine, Paris: Bourrelier
Albert Demangeon; Charles Robequain (1934), L'Indochine française: les montagnes, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
Albert Demangeon; Charles Robequain (1934), L'Indochine française: les plaines, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon; Charles Robequain (1935), L'Afrique Équatoriale Française, Paris: Camille Sauty
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon; Charles Robequain (1935), L'Afrique Occidentale Française, Paris: Camille Sauty
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1935), Les pays de l'Ouest: paysages et vie rurale, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1935), Les pays de l'Ouest: vie maritime et urbaine, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1935), Provence, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1935), Les Alpes l'économie alpestre, Paris: Camille Sauty
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1935), Massif Central, Paris: Librairie de l'enseignement
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1935), Le Midi méditerranéen: Languedoc, Roussillon, Corse, Paris: Libr. de l'enseignement, Camille Sauty
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon; Charles Robequain (1936), États du Levant. Colonies d'Amérique et du Pacifique. Établissements de l'Inde. Djibouti, Paris: Camille Sauty
Albert Demangeon; André Meynier (1936), Géographie générale, Amérique, Australasie, Coulommiers, Paris: Brodard et Taupin, Hachette
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon; Charles Robequain (1936), Madagascar. La Réunion, Paris: Camille Sauty
Albert Demangeon; Aimé Perpillou (1937), Géographie générale, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon; Aimé Perpillou (1937), Asie. Insulinde. Afrique: Classe de cinquième, Paris: Hachette
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1937), Les Pays de la Loire, Paris: Camille Sauty
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1937), Les pays de la Saône et du Rhône, le Jura, Paris: Camille Sauty
André Cholley; Albert Demangeon (1937), Les pays du Sud-Ouest, Paris: Camille Sauty
Raymond Aron; Albert Demangeon; Jean Meuvret (1937), Les sciences sociales en France: enseignement et recherche, Paris: P. Hartmann
Albert Demangeon; Louis François (1938), La France, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon; André Meynier (1939), L'Europe, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon (1939), Types de peuplement rural en France
Albert Demangeon (1939), Géographie. L'Économie française, Coulommiers, Paris: Brodard et Taupin, Hachette
Albert Demangeon; Georges Mauco (1939), Documents pour servir à l'étude des étrangers dans l'agriculture française, Paris: Hermann
Later works
Albert Demangeon; Louis François (1941), Géographie. La région méditerranéenne, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon (1946), France économique et humaine, Paris: A. Colin
Albert Demangeon (1946), Géographie, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon (1946), Géographie. La Région parisienne, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon (1948), Géographie économique et humaine de la France. Tome second..., Paris: A. Colin
Albert Demangeon; Aimé Perpillou (1948), Le Monde moins l'Europe, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon; Louis François (1949), La France et la France d'outre-mer, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon; Aimé Perpillou (1949), Le Monde, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon; Louis François (1952), L'Union française: France et Outre-mer, Paris: Hachette
Albert Demangeon; Aimé Perpillou (1952), Géographie humaine, Paris: Hachette
