Combinatorial Topology Versus Point-Set Topology

Point-set topology seems to have become separated from the rest of topology around the middle of the twentieth century. For most of the period we shall be considering in this article the term combinatorial topology meantl “practically everything which could not better be described as point-set topology”. Most of the pioneers were equally at home in both disciplines, but more recently that has become rather unusual. One of the purposes of this article is to try and throw some light on this situation. It is easier to describe what happened than to explain why, but some insight may be gained if we try to understand what it must have been like to be a topologist in the first half of the century, especially in the second quarter. At the end of this article I will attempt an explanation.