Book Reviews and Notices : New Compass of the World. EDITED BY HANS W. WEIGERT, VILHAJAL MUR STEFANSSON, AND RICHARD E. HARRISON. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1949. Pp. xix, 375. $5.50.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200434
• Published date: 01 December 1949
• Author: H. Bowman Hawkes
• Date: 01 December 1949
• Subject Matter: Articles

650
New Compass of the World. EDITED BY HANS W. WEIGERT, VILHAJAL
MUR STEFANSSON, AND RICHARD E. HARRISON. (New York: The Mac-
millan Company. 1949. Pp. xix, 375. $5.50.)
This excellent symposium on political geography is presented by
nineteen internationally recognized authorities in the fields of geography,
history, political science, economics, and sociology. Twenty-three papers
are grouped into five major chapters as follows:
1.
The first set of four papers considers the Arctic and Antarctic
spheres. The authors feel that the &dquo;Compass&dquo; of world interest continues
to point poleward. The well planned steady sweep poleward of the
Soviets is contrasted with the intermittent trickle northward of the in-
habitants of Canada and the United States.
2. The second chapter is composed of seven papers dealing with
&dquo;The Heartland and the Expansion of the U. S. S. R.&dquo; Weigert makes
a critical analysis of MacKinder’s Heartland concept. He points out that
although MacKinder revised his 1919 ideas as American power grew,
geopolitics and the global concept presented by MacKinder in his ori-
ginal work have by no means lost their significance.
3.
In this unit the compass of interest is directed to the New Fron-
tiers in Central Europe. The authors highlight the rise of the German
Reich, the ever-shifting boundaries of central Europe, and the geopolitical
problems arising from the collapse of Fortress Europe.
4. The fourth chapter treats the lifelines of nations that connect
strategic areas of the world. The tone of the chapter is aptly expressed
in these words: &dquo;The term strategic base looms large in the political
geography of today. No analyses of strategic bases can avoid discussing
problems which are of vital importance to the national security systems
of the remaining great powers. Their invisible frontiers are overlapping
everywhere. It is in those areas that more and more cradles of future con-
flict have come into being and threaten the...