Geographers on Film

KENNETH C. MARTIS (b. 1945) March 2001 - raised in Toledo, Ohio - Slovak Eastern European upbringing, urban working class union family with Catholic values, large extended family, immigrant parents proud to be Americans - in grade school always loved to look at maps - chose University of Toledo for undergraduate study (1963-1968); lived at home and usually worked two jobs; commuted to school, majored in Education: desired to teach to have summers for travel; Economic Geography taught by Robert Ketron sold him on geography - almost had enough hours in five years to be a geography major; grateful to unofficial advisor and life long mentor, Don Lewis (Ohio State Ph.D.) - Advanced ROTC, had option for active duty or further education for a MA degree - wanted to get away from Toledo; best TA scholarship came from San Diego State, some best years of his life: influence of the exciting young faculty of Phil Pride, Imre Quastler, Richard Wright, Larry Ford, Bob O'Brien; James Blick (UCLA Ph.D.) chaired MA thesis - ferment of the 1960s: in California (1968) the level of protest was more intense than Toledo - graduated with M.A. and off to the Army and unknown fate as Military Police (MP) officer at Ft. Bragg - most of MP class sent to Vietnam, but remained in NC for two years - after discharge went to Michigan for Ph.D. - had long interest in politics, history, and geography - George Kish, Hungarian Jew, was the political geographer at UM and fit perfectly with a non quantitative background and interests - influences on Kish: Nazism, Anti-Semitism, André Siegfried, Father of Electoral Geography, and Institute of World Affairs - Kish's impact: put forth the idea of mapping Congress; few had ever done it, i.e. mapping congressional elections, critical votes, committee assignments, or other variables worthy of analysis - took courses in political science and natural resource policy - grateful for the powerhouse UM Geography Department of Kish, Barney Nietschmann, Waldo Tobler, Gunner Olson, John Kolars, Don Deskins, and John Nystrum - dissertation on the spatial aspects of roll call voting behavior in Congress - why Michigan lost geography? - on to West Virginia in 1975; the early years: great young geographers began to build the Department, led my Harley Johansen, Ray Young, Graham Rowles, John Pickles, Frank Calzonettii, Robert Hanham and Greg Elmes; Department specializes in GIS, GIS and Society, Social Theory, and Economic Development, now a top new PhD program - WVU: 80-90 undergrad majors, 30-40 Masters and 12-15 PhD candidates - influences of the Huntington Library, Frederick Jackson Turner, and Ray Allen Billington - disciple of the Turnarian School (mapping of data) of American History - specialty is the U.S. Congress - objective: to uncover legislative behavior in ways not thought of by non-spatial thinkers - life long research agenda "Mapping Congress" - comprises several major works: the first base work Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts 1789-1983, New York: The Free Press, 1982, and second (the mapping of every election) Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress: 1789-1989, New York: Macmillan, 1989 - influence of Ralph Ehrenberg, head of the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress (LC), Ray Smock the Historian of the U.S. House, and Dick Baker, Historian of the U.S. Senate - origin of the two major parties - his 1989 exhibit: "Tides of Party Politics: Two Centuries of Congressional Elections," opened in the Madison Building of the LC, it ran for six months - example of a critical role-call: NAFTA vote changed the economic geography of USA - most important contribution: "Mapping Congress: Developing a Geographic Understanding of American Political History"