With its inception in 1950, and into the 1960s, FOCUS editor Alice Taylor engaged prominent geographers to summarize their understanding of a country's complexities, or of an important geopolitical issue of that era, into a newsletter format. These fact-packed, insightful overviews were edited for a wide, general audience. During the 1960s, the eight-page format proved flexible enough to allow each issue to contain two or three short, sharp reports or commentaries, accompanied by superb maps. The complexity of the geographer's understanding began to shine through during the 1970s, an era which featured whole-issue articles on the problems and processes facing a rapidly changing world. By the mid-1980s, FOCUS had become a full-color magazine with numerous articles and departments, written and edited by professional geographers intent on communicating geographical perspectives to the general reader. Today's FOCUS on Geography alternates general issues containing numerous articles on a variety of topics with theme issues devoted to a special topic and issues devoted to a single country. Sample issue contents are provided below for each era. The full listing of the FOCUS archive is available in the FOCUS Index, discussed below. FOCUS compilations are planned, based on countries, themes, authors and issues.
FOCUS in the 1950s:"Resources of the Tropics: I - Africa" by George Kimble (Volume III, No. 4, December, 1952).
FOCUS in the 1960s:"U.S.S.R. Resources for Heavy Industry" by Chauncy D. Harris; "Changing Resource Policies of the U.S.S.R." and "Akademgorodok" by Theodore Shabad (Volume XIX, No. 6, February 1969).
FOCUS in the 1970s:"Population Pressures in Bangladesh" by Ashok K. Dutt and Nawajesh Ahmed; "Development Through Restraints on Material Growth" by Emile Benoit (Volume XXV Nos. 3 and 4, November - December 1974).
FOCUS from the mid-1980s to 2001: Special Theme Issues (several articles on one topic): "The Gulf War" - articles by Rubenstein; Chatfield and O'Connell; Cohen; Cutter (Volume 41, No.2) "China" - articles by Andrus; Chu; Toops; Hussey; Hsu; Jowett; Eichen and Ming; Ryan; Veeck; McColl and Guangbo; de Blij (Volume 42, No. 1) "Hurricanes" - articles by Lee and Roberts; Hickcox; Harden and Pulsipher (Volume 42, No. 2) "The Buffalo Commons Debate" - articles by Roebuck; DeBres, Kromm and White; Wallach; Popper and Popper (Volume 43, No. 4) "Hong Kong" - articles by Chu, Ginsburg (reprinted from 1953), Cartier, Boorstein, Ghosheh; Websites and readings (Volume 44, No.3) "Living With and Teaching About Karst" - articles by Lineback; Kerski; LaMoreaux and LaMoreaux; Organizations to contact for teaching and field trips (Volume 45, No.2) "Living With and Teaching About the Glaciated Landscape" articles by Miller; Hayes-Bohanan; Kerski; Lineback; References, guidebooks, websites, and lesson plans (Volume 46, No. 1).
Country Issues (an occasional series in which the entire issue is devoted to a single country): "Brazil" - Brian Godfrey, 2000; "Scotland" - Alistair Cruickshank and Richard V. Smith (Vol. 46(2), Winter 2001); "Greece" - Stewart McHenry, (Vol. 47(3) Spring 2003). Please see the "Publications" listing on this site for information about six additional countries written to the same content outline and published in small-book format during the mid-1990s.