David Harvey (Geo-PhD #18) Traditional Cache

This cache is one in an ongoing series highlighting important figures in the history of the academic discipline of geography. If you complete this series, you might be ready to pass your qualifiying exams for a PhD in Geography!

David Harvey (1935-present) is known for being at the forefront of two different revolutions in 20th Century geography. In the 1960s, he was a major figure in the "Quantitative Revolution." a movement to using mathematical techniques to analyze the location and spatial arrangement of features on the earth's surface. His 1969 book Explanation in Geography became the key textbook of the quanitative revolution.

Shortly after Explanation was published, Harvey took a position at Johns Hopkins University. Observing the extreme poverty and inequality in inner-city Baltimore, he became skeptical of the ability of quantitative spatial analysis to solve real social problems. Searching for a better answer, he came upon the works of Karl Marx. In 1973, he published Social Justice and the City, a Marxist analysis of economic inequality between urban neighborhoods. This put Harvey at the forefront of the movement to apply critical social theory to pressing social problems.

Harvey has continued to analyze how the capitalist economic system arranges geographic space for its own benefit (and the detriment of people living under it). His Marxist perspective remains highly controversial among geographers, but his influence in moving the discipline away from dry mathematical analyses is widely recognized. It is also frequently remarked that his long white beard makes him look a bit like Karl Marx!

The cache you seek is a camo'ed pill bottle.