Military Service
After briefly trying his hand at ranching in New Mexico, Jackson enlisted in the army, in 1940. As an officer during war he studied books to gain insight on the geography of the location. He deciphered code, studied maps, and learned the terrain. He read books by French geographers—Pierre Deffontaines, Paul Vidal de la Blache, and Albert Demangeon. It was at this time that his interpretation that the shaping and devastation of the landscape came from the necessities for human existence. Jackson believed that human history brought about human geography. The landscape was simply humankind’s effort to "recreate heaven on earth". As the war ended, Jackson began to contemplate publishing a magazine of geography.
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