ABSTRACT
We have already devoted considerable space in volume 2 and in chapter 1 of the present volume to the oversimplified Davisian assumption of a common tectonic pattern of sudden, short uplift followed by prolonged downwearing, as well as to its critics. Of the latter, there were none more powerful than Albrecht Penck and his son, Walther. In 1894 Albrecht Penck provided geomorphologists with their first unified text, Morphologie der Erdoberfläche, which has been referred to several times previously in this volume and later will furnish certain morphometric aspects for discussion in chapter 11. Similar in historical position, age and status, Albrecht Penck (1858-1945) constantly invites comparison with W.M.Davis (1850-1934). Their careers, however, were strikingly different. Davis began with strong geographical leanings and only in later years did he produce his best geomorphology; Penck was a superb young geomorphologist but became increasingly enmeshed in a racially dominated human geography which had disastrous consequences.
