With the increasing interest in the study of the spatial dispersion of economic and social activity by geographers, sociologists, economists, and others, it was almost inevitable that a translation of Professor Walter Christaller's Die zentralen Orte in Süddeutschland should be made. Some investigators have employed a reading knowledge of German to incor-porate the contents of this work in their own studies. However, such "translations" were from the somewhat specialized needs and interest of the individual geographer or other researcher. The present translation was undertaken to provide a more general and comprehensive treatment of Christaller's concepts and scheme. My belief in the importance of such a translation has been confirmed by numerous requests for copies from researchers in the United States, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and from such disciplines as sociology, geography, demography, and economics. Die zentralen Orte in Süddeutschland reveals Christaller's dedica-tion to the study of settlement-geography. His academic training shows depth and breadth, and, in a day of specialization, it is encouraging to discover a writer who is versed in so many social science fields. He did much of his work at the University of Erlangen, where he studied under Robert Gradmann. The high scholarship of his work represents meticu-lous care in research, and his copious bibliography contained in the notes of the translation is probably the best that could have been compiled during the period in which he wrote.