In large measure my interest in such questions arises from a reversal of intellectual influence in my own thinking. That journey began when I first embarked on the task of bringing the methods used by historians of scientific culture to bear on the history of geographical thought and practice. My concern was to place the development of geography, as both discourse and discipline, in the wider context of social and intellectual history. At some point along the way I began to wonder if influences might also move in the opposite direction. Could the craft competencies of the geographer, with interests in space and place, throw some light on the history of the scientific enterprise? This book is my attempt to answer that question