astronomy

Wilbur Zelinsky

Wilbur Zelinsky is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wilbur Zelinsky rather than just read about it. In short: Wilbur Zelinsky (December 21, 1921 – May 4, 2013) was an American cultural geographer. He was most recently a professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University.

Key takeaways

Wilbur Zelinsky belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wilbur Zelinsky to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wilbur Zelinsky from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wilbur Zelinsky (December 21, 1921 – May 4, 2013) was an American cultural geographer. He was most recently a professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University. He also created the Zelinsky Model of Demographic Transition.

Background and education Zelinsky was born in Chicago to Russian immigrants Louis Zelinsky and Esther Mastoon. Zelinsky attended and graduated from Edwin G. Foreman High School. Zelinsky received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in 1944, his Master's Degree from the University of Madison, Wisconsin, and returned to UC Berkeley for his PhD in 1953 where he was a student of Carl Sauer.

Scholarship Zelinsky made numerous geographical studies of American popular culture, ranging from the diffusion of classical place-names to spatial patterns of personal given names and the spatial patterning of religious denominations. One of his most ambitious and imaginative projects was a provocative assessment of the impact of increasingly powerful personal preference on the spatial character of American society. During the 1960s, along with Gordon DeJong, Warren Robinson, and Paul Baker, Zelinsky helped launch a population research center and coordinate an interdisciplinary graduate instructional program in population studies at Penn State and thus helped lay the foundation for what would become the dual-title Graduate Program in Demography. During 1972–1973 he served as the first Director of the Population Issues Research Center (what would become the Population Research Institute at Penn State). In 1973, Zelinsky published The Cultural Geography of the United States. In addition to his research in popular culture, he made substantial contributions in the fields of "population" and "folk geography".

Theory of First Effective Settlement Zelinsky's Theory of First Effective Settlement was that the dominant culture of a nation is defined by the first settlers who came to an area who are able to effect a self-perpetuating society. The theory states that these first settlers have significant impact on the social and cultural geography of the area, however few these first settlers may have been. They lay the groundwork for the following generations and are perhaps more important than the contributions of thousands of new immigrants generations later. Colin Woodard further expands upon this theory in his book, American Nations.

Recognition Award for Meritorious Contributions to the Field of Geography, presented by the Association of American Geographers (1996). The Cullum Geographical Medal by the American Geographical Society in 2001. President of the AAG from 1972 to 1973.

Books and Literature Zelensky, Wilbur (2011). Not Yet a Placeless Land: Tracking an Evolving American Geography. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-871-6. JSTOR 10.2307/j.ctt5vk9fg. Wikidata Q136269718.

Death Zelinsky passed away in his home in State College, Pennsylvania at age 91.

See also Geographers on Film Louis Hartz's "fragment thesis"

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wilbur Zelinsky

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wilbur Zelinsky claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wilbur Zelinsky before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wilbur Zelinsky ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wilbur Zelinsky

In research: Wilbur Zelinsky appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wilbur Zelinsky in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wilbur Zelinsky is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 births, 2013 deaths, American geographers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wilbur Zelinsky outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wilbur Zelinsky in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wilbur Zelinsky means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wilbur Zelinsky out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wilbur Zelinsky in simple terms?

Wilbur Zelinsky (December 21, 1921 – May 4, 2013) was an American cultural geographer. He was most recently a professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University.

Why does Wilbur Zelinsky matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wilbur Zelinsky?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wilbur Zelinsky.