Maps are universal forms of communication, easily understood and
appreciated regardless of culture or language. This truly
magisterial book introduces readers to the widest range of maps
ever considered in one volume: maps from different time periods and
a variety of cultures; maps made for divergent purposes and
depicting a range of environments; and maps that embody the famous,
the important, the beautiful, the groundbreaking, and the amusing.
Built around the functions of maps - the kinds of things maps do
and have done - maps confirms the vital role of maps throughout
history in commerce, art, literature, and national identity. The
book begins by examining the use of maps for wayfinding, revealing
that even maps as common and widely used as these products of
historical circumstances and cultural differences. The second
chapter considers maps whose makers employed the smallest of scales
to envision the broadest of human stages - the world, the heavens,
even the act of creation itself. The next chapter looks at maps
that are, literally, at the opposite end of the scale from
cosmological and world maps - maps that represent specific parts of
the world and provide a close-up view of areas in which their
makers lived, worked, and moved. Having shown how maps help us get
around and make sense of our greater and lesser worlds, "Maps" then
turns to the ways in which certain maps can be linked to particular
events in history, exploring how they have helped Americans, for
instance, to understand their past, cope with current events, and
plan their national future. The fifth chapter considers maps that
represent data from scientific instruments, population censuses,
and historical records. These maps illustrate, for example, how
diseases spread, what the ocean floor looks like, and how the
weather is tracked and predicted. Next comes a turn to the
imaginary, featuring maps that depict entire fictional worlds, from
Hell to Utopia and from Middle Earth to the fantasy game World of
Warcraft. The final chapter traces the origins of map consumption
throughout history and ponders the impact of cartography on modern
society. A companion volume to the most ambitious exhibition on the
history of maps ever mounted in North America, "Maps" will
challenge readers to stretch conventional thought about what
constitutes a map and how many different ways we can understand
graphically the environment in which we live. Collectors,
historians, mapmakers and users, and anyone who has ever "gotten
lost" in the lines and symbols of a map will find much to love and
learn from in this book.
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