美国地理学家联合会会刊》代表着美国地理学的最高水平，其载文及其变化从一个侧面反映出美国地理学的发展历程。通过对其学术论文进行统计分析，考察美国地理学的总体地位和不同领域相对地位的变化，梳理美国地理学百年发展脉络，得出以下结论：20世纪以来美国地理学经历了战前初步发展、战后快速发展和20世纪80年代以来的持续发展三大阶段，美国地理学的第二个春天正在到来；逐步形成了环境科学，研究方法、模式和地理信息科学，自然与社会，人口、地方、区域，综合地理五大领域框架；长期关注与人类发展密切相关的问题，人文地理学始终占据主导地位；非常注重实践，强调理论来源于实践、应用于实践；研究领域相对稳定，但不同方向的相对地位却此消彼长。依据载文数量的相对比例，可以概括出美国地理学发展脉络：自然（1911—1915）→经济（1916—1920）→自然（1921—1925）→地图学（1926—1930）→地方（1931—1935）→自然（1936—1940）→地理教育（1941—1945）→生态环境（1946—1950）→地方（1951—1955）→经济（1956—1975）→自然（1977—1990）→经济（1990—2005）。上述研究领域、方向及其变化，也基本上代表了世界地理学的整体发展规律。 

Articles from Annals of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) address advanced knowledge in all facets of the discipline, and reflect the development of American Geography from one aspect as well. All the articles of Annals of AAG since its first publication have been searched and the statistical analysis of them are carried out, this article summarizes the changing rules of research development of American Geography during the past hundred years, including the status of geography in whole American society, structure of fields and subject in different phases. The conclusions brought about are as follows:(1) American Geography experienced three periods in the 20th century(prewar preliminary development period, postwar clipping development period, and persistent development period ever since 1980), and prosperity of American Geography in the 21st century is foreseeable. (2)Five major fields of American Geography are Environmental Sciences; Methods, Models, and Geographic Information Science; Nature and Society; and People, Place, and Region; and Integrated Geography.(3)Significant research problems and issues about human development are chronically concentrated on,and Human Geography is the main study area.(4)Geographers put much attention to practice, and insist that theories should come from practice then be applied practice. (5)The study fields and structures are steadygoing and more reasonable with past time, although the importance of each field is always varying. (6)According to relative proportion of articles numbers, the development venation of American Geography can be generalized as Nature（1911-1915）→Economy（1916-1920）→Nature（1921-1925）→Cartology（1926-1930）→Place（1931-1935）→Nature（1936-1940）→Geography Education（1941-1945）→Environment（1946-1950）→Place（1951-1955）→Economy（1956-1975）→Nature（1977-1990）→Economy（1990-2005). The variety of study subject mentioned above can also represent the holisticdevelopment rule of World Geography.