Edward P. Hogan has done a considerable service for the people of South Dakota through writing The Geography of South Dakota, the first such volume in 78 years. It is a book that was long overdue, but such a project also needs the right person at the right place and the right time to author it

Berg, Donald J.

English

DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University

The Geographical Bulletin Volume 40 Issue 1 Article 10 1998 The Geography of South Dakota. Edward by P. Hogan Donald J. Berg South Dakota State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/thegeographicalbulletin  Part of the Geography Commons Recommended Citation Berg, Donald J. (1998) "The Geography of South Dakota. Edward by P. Hogan," The Geographical Bulletin: Vol. 40: Iss. 1, Article 10. Available at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/thegeographicalbulletin/vol40/iss1/10 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Active Journals at DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Geographical Bulletin by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@kennesaw.edu. techniques. This interactive exploration of Appalachia makes learning fun . The ac-tivities in the work book could easily be incorporated into classes to enrich courses in geography, sociology, political science, and economics. Wendy Shaw Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville The Geography of South Dakota. Edward P. Hogan. Sioux Falls, The Center for Western Studies, 1995. 190 pp., maps, diags., photos, refs. and index, $20.00, ISBN 0-931170-61 -3 Edward P. Hogan has done a consid-erable service for the people of South Da-kota through writing The Geography of South Dakota, the first such volume in 78 years. It is a book that was long overdue, but such a project also needs the right person at the right place and the right time to author it. Hogan came to South Dakota in 1967 as the newly appointed head of the re-constituted Department of Geography at South Dakota State University in Brook-ings. From his vantage point he was able to study the landscape of his adopted state and achieve an appreciation of its diversity-a theme of his latest book. The Geography of South Dakota con-sists of 15 chapters of varying lengths and complexity that systematically deal with the physical and human geography ofthe state. The format is conventional as Chap-ter One presents an overview ofthe state, followed by chapters focusing upon the state's terrain, its weather and climate phenomena, its biogeography and its wa-ter resources. Chapters Six through 13 concentrate on the state's human geog-raphy, beginning with the native Ameri-can cultures and concluding with the An-glo-European settlement of the area. Interim chapters explore agricultural pat-terns, mining developments, industrial and commercial geography, tourism and recreation and transportation geography. As a capstone of geographic exposition, Chapter 14 is devoted to the regions of 56 South Dakota and the final chapter looks into the state's future . Hogan's principal idea within the book was to take the main strength of geogra-phy-its ability to synthesize ideas, data and concepts from the various academic disciplines (such as history, sociology and economics}-and apply it to ex-pounding upon South Dakota's geo-graphical patterns, presenting a compre-hensive picture. In this regard the author fulfills his goal many times over as the reader certainly comes away with an overall view of the differences found across the state's landscape. The book is not encyclopedic, yet it is thorough in its various subject matter treatments. The Geography of South Da-kota is illustrated with 33 maps (some in color) plus diagrams, tables and several dozen photographs, both in color and black and white. An extensive bibliogra-phy with some 330 citations supports the text. The theme of the volume is the state's spatial diversity. In every chapter Hogan cites numerous examples of the physical and human variety found within South Dakota. He compares and contrasts the glaciated subtieties ofthe rolling plains of eastern South Dakota with the outlier of the Rocky Mountains found in the Black Hills region for example. The author an-alyzes the state's major urban area and juxtaposes it against the wide, open spaces of the northwestern area of the state. Along the way he introduces the reader to a number of not well known, but interesting to visit, locations. At the level of generalization that the author has attempted, the book will ap-peal to a broad spectrum of readership. It will be useful as a textbook at both the high school and collegiate levels. Yet, general readers will find much of interest concerning the state's geographical patterns. While the author's overall text is posi-tive, some constructive comments are in order. A few outmoded concepts were noted, especially in relation to soils ge-ography. Although the terms used are good for educational and illustrative pur-poses, a note should be added concern-1Berg: The Geography of South Dakota. Edward by P. HoganPublished by DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University, 1998ing the contemporary (U .S.D.A.) soil clas-sification system. A few errors of fact were found, as were several editorial er-rors . The maps in Chapter 8 (Agriculture) might have communicated better if a light overlay showing the county boundaries had been added. In sum, if the three principles of geo-graphic exposition (explain it, map it and pictorialize it) are applied to The Geogra-phy of South Dakota, Hogan has suc-ceeded in his task. The volume represents a worthwhile addition to anyone's library who is interested in the state's geogra-phy. The book is useful for a number of purposes and, no doubt, will be utilized in those endeavors. The people of South Da-kota have been well served by their State Geographer. Donald J. Berg South Dakota State University Physical Hydrology. S. Lawrence Ding-man. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall. 1994, 575 pp., maps, diagrams, tables, references, appendices, $90.00. ISBN 0-02-329745-X. As the public eye increasingly focuses on issues related to the use and quality of water, the science of hydrology expands from its position as an academic and en-gineering endeavor to one of prominance in people's everyday lives. With this ex-pansion comes the need for education, not only for hydrologists and geomor-phologists, but for biologists, botanists, earth scientists, climatologists, land man-agers, developers and policy makers. Wa-ter is a fascinating and complex sub-stance: not only is water itself a resource, but it is also a main pathway for energy and chemical transfer in the Earth-atmo-sphere system. Water-related textbooks face the daunting task of providing a wide range of physical, chemical, and statisti-cal understanding of hydrology to an equally diverse range of scientists and others, working in a variety of real-world settings, both social and natural. Ding-man's Physical Hydrology provides an ex-cellent overview of the processes of hy-drology, as well as the methods and pitfalls of putting that theoretical under-standing into practice. In Physical Hydrology, Dingman has captured the essential terminology, the-ory, and application of a wide range of hy-drologic issues. Chapters 1 through 3 es-tablish the setting for the rest of the text, discussing basic hydrologic concepts as well as climate, vegetation, and soils. Dingman devotes Chapters 4 through 9 to the properties and behavior of water in the full range of hydrologic compart-ments: precipitation, snow, soils, evapo-transpiration, ground water, and streams. Each chapter introduces the physical pro-cesses, discussing first the qualitative as-pects, then the quantitative means of measuring, estimating, or modeling that process. Dingman has skillfully culled the field of hydrology and with deceptive simplicity presents fundamental con-cepts, from snow metamorphism and tur-bulent energy exchange to regional ground-water flow and response hydrographs. The final chapter, Hydrol-ogy and Water-Resource Management, provides a useful summary of water qual-ity issues and general water management practices in the United States. The heavy quantitative emphasis, or physical approach, of the textbook gives rise to its greatest strength as well as its only weakness: this is not a book for the mathematically faint at heart. While Ding-man's text assumes a working familiarity with basic calculus, physics, and statis-tics, the quantitative discussions are well supported by worked examples, exer-cises, and appendices. Derivations of equations appear not in the text, but in side boxes, streamlining discussion. Step-by-step examples guide the reader through basic calculations, such as streamflow routing and approximating soil hydraulic properties. Most usefully, the quantitative sections also include dis-cussions of the types of equipment used and the errors associated with specific methods. Like many other hydrology textbooks, Physical Hydrology includes a computer disc to facilitate computations. Unlike other supplemental software, however, this disc contains templates set up on a simple spreadsheet, easily acces-57 2The Geographical Bulletin, Vol. 40 [1998], Iss. 1, Art. 10https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/thegeographicalbulletin/vol40/iss1/10

The Geography of South Dakota. Edward by P. Hogan

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The Geography of South Dakota. Edward by P. Hogan

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