Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection
4/5
()
About this ebook
Because it distorts the proportionate size of countries, the Mercator map was criticized for inflating Europe and North America in a promotion of colonialism. In 1974, German historian Arno Peters proffered his own map, on which countries were ostensibly drawn in true proportion to one another. In the ensuing "map wars" of the 1970s and 1980s, these dueling projections vied for public support—with varying degrees of success.
Widely acclaimed for his accessible, intelligent books on maps and mapping, Monmonier here examines the uses and limitations of one of cartography's most significant innovations. With informed skepticism, he offers insightful interpretations of why well-intentioned clerics and development advocates rallied around the Peters projection, which flagrantly distorted the shape of Third World nations; why journalists covering the controversy ignored alternative world maps and other key issues; and how a few postmodern writers defended the Peters worldview with a self-serving overstatement of the power of maps. Rhumb Lines and Map Wars is vintage Monmonier: historically rich, beautifully written, and fully engaged with the issues of our time.
Mark Monmonier
Mark Monmonier is Distinguished Professor of Geography at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is the author of twenty books, including How to Lie with Maps, and was editor of Cartography in the Twentieth Century, the million-word encyclopedia published as volume 6 in the History of Cartography series. His awards include the American Geographical Society’s O. M. Miller Medal (2001), the German Cartographic Society’s Mercator Medal (2009), and induction into URISA’s (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) GIS Hall of Fame (2016).
Read more from Mark Monmonier
Mapping It Out: Expository Cartography for the Humanities and Social Sciences Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Lie with Maps Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCartographies of Danger: Mapping Hazards in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Maps with the News: The Development of American Journalistic Cartography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bushmanders and Bullwinkles: How Politicians Manipulate Electronic Maps and Census Data to Win Elections Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Rhumb Lines and Map Wars
Related ebooks
Time in Maps: From the Age of Discovery to Our Digital Era Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mapping the Nation: History and Cartography in Nineteenth-Century America Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society, Third Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Joseph S. Harris and the U.S. Northwest Boundary Survey, 1857-1861 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArchaeologies of Cosmoscapes in the Americas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOf Rocks and Water: An Archaeology of Place Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Commerce of Cartography: Making and Marketing Maps in Eighteenth-Century France and England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIglulualumiut Prehistory: The Lost Inuit of Franklin Bay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTraveling the 38th Parallel: A Water Line around the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cleopatra: A Sphinx Revisited Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVistas in Astronomy: Volume 28 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMesa Verde National Park, Colorado Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPluto and Lowell Observatory: A History of Discovery at Flagstaff Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterpreting Archaeological Topography: 3D Data, Visualisation and Observation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlaces of Special Virtue: Megaliths in the Neolithic landscapes of Wales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5European Glacial Landscapes: Maximum Extent of Glaciations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMining and Quarrying in Neolithic Europe: A Social Perpsective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHalf hours with the Telescope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeak District Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrench Book-plates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaps That Made History: The Influential, the Eccentric and the Sublime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Africa Memoir: 50 Years, 54 Countries, One American Life (Seychelles - Zimbabwe) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Manual of Field Astronomy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExploring and Mapping Alaska: The Russian America Era, 1741-1867 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlate Tectonics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Technological Approach to Lithic Artifacts from Yukon Territory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPatagonian Prehistory: Human Ecology and Cultural Evolution in the Land of Giants Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPictures of Time Beneath: Science, Heritage and the Uses of the Deep Past Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDenali National Park and Preserve Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History For You
100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Secrets, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, and Absurdities Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Richest Man in Babylon: The most inspiring book on wealth ever written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Rhumb Lines and Map Wars
3 ratings0 reviews