In this speech delivered at the 1984 meeting of the Association of American Geographers, the president of the National Geographic Society (NGS) discusses what geography needs to stay on its feet as an independent and useful discipline and what the NGS is doing to support geography. (RM)

Reprint of a presentation to the National Council of Geography Teachers in 1952 stating that a fundamental error in popular thought about geography is that the land masses of the continents are the basic divisions of the world. Analyzes the U.S. world position and claims the United States has a responsibility for the world's future. (NL)