When Maps Become the World

When Maps Become the World PDF Author: Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022667486X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Map making and, ultimately, map thinking is ubiquitous across literature, cosmology, mathematics, psychology, and genetics. We partition, summarize, organize, and clarify our world via spatialized representations. Our maps and, more generally, our representations seduce and persuade; they build and destroy. They are the ultimate record of empires and of our evolving comprehension of our world. This book is about the promises and perils of map thinking. Maps are purpose-driven abstractions, discarding detail to highlight only particular features of a territory. By preserving certain features at the expense of others, they can be used to reinforce a privileged position. When Maps Become the World shows us how the scientific theories, models, and concepts we use to intervene in the world function as maps, and explores the consequences of this, both good and bad. We increasingly understand the world around us in terms of models, to the extent that we often take the models for reality. Winther explains how in time, our historical representations in science, in cartography, and in our stories about ourselves replace individual memories and become dominant social narratives—they become reality, and they can remake the world.

When Maps Become the World

When Maps Become the World PDF Author: Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022667486X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Map making and, ultimately, map thinking is ubiquitous across literature, cosmology, mathematics, psychology, and genetics. We partition, summarize, organize, and clarify our world via spatialized representations. Our maps and, more generally, our representations seduce and persuade; they build and destroy. They are the ultimate record of empires and of our evolving comprehension of our world. This book is about the promises and perils of map thinking. Maps are purpose-driven abstractions, discarding detail to highlight only particular features of a territory. By preserving certain features at the expense of others, they can be used to reinforce a privileged position. When Maps Become the World shows us how the scientific theories, models, and concepts we use to intervene in the world function as maps, and explores the consequences of this, both good and bad. We increasingly understand the world around us in terms of models, to the extent that we often take the models for reality. Winther explains how in time, our historical representations in science, in cartography, and in our stories about ourselves replace individual memories and become dominant social narratives—they become reality, and they can remake the world.

Maps

Maps PDF Author: James R. Akerman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Introducing readers to a wide range of maps from different time periods and a variety of cultures, this book confirms the vital roles of maps throughout history in commerce, art, literature, and national identity.

Time in Maps

Time in Maps PDF Author: Kären Wigen
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022671862X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Maps organize us in space, but they also organize us in time. Looking around the world for the last five hundred years, Time in Maps shows that today’s digital maps are only the latest effort to insert a sense of time into the spatial medium of maps. Historians Kären Wigen and Caroline Winterer have assembled leading scholars to consider how maps from all over the world have depicted time in ingenious and provocative ways. Focusing on maps created in Spanish America, Europe, the United States, and Asia, these essays take us from the Aztecs documenting the founding of Tenochtitlan, to early modern Japanese reconstructing nostalgic landscapes before Western encroachments, to nineteenth-century Americans grappling with the new concept of deep time. The book also features a defense of traditional paper maps by digital mapmaker William Rankin. With more than one hundred color maps and illustrations, Time in Maps will draw the attention of anyone interested in cartographic history.

A History of the World in 12 Maps

A History of the World in 12 Maps PDF Author: Jerry Brotton
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143126024
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 547

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Book Description
A New York Times Bestseller “Maps allow the armchair traveler to roam the world, the diplomat to argue his points, the ruler to administer his country, the warrior to plan his campaigns and the propagandist to boost his cause… rich and beautiful.” – Wall Street Journal Throughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world, and our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, maps of the world are unavoidably ideological and subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power and authority of particular times and places. Mapmakers do not simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age. In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton examines the significance of 12 maps - from the almost mystical representations of ancient history to the satellite-derived imagery of today. He vividly recreates the environments and circumstances in which each of the maps was made, showing how each conveys a highly individual view of the world. Brotton shows how each of his maps both influenced and reflected contemporary events and how, by considering it in all its nuances and omissions, we can better understand the world that produced it. Although the way we map our surroundings is more precise than ever before, Brotton argues that maps today are no more definitive or objective than they have ever been. Readers of this beautifully illustrated and masterfully argued book will never look at a map in quite the same way again. “A fascinating and panoramic new history of the cartographer’s art.” – The Guardian “The intellectual background to these images is conveyed with beguiling erudition…. There is nothing more subversive than a map.” – The Spectator “A mesmerizing and beautifully illustrated book.” —The Telegraph

Theater of the World

Theater of the World PDF Author: Thomas Reinertsen Berg
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316450782
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
A beautifully illustrated full-color history of mapmaking across centuries -- a must-read for history buffs and armchair travelers. Theater of the World offers a fascinating history of mapmaking, using the visual representation of the world through time to tell a new story about world history and the men who made it. Thomas Reinertsen Berg takes us all the way from the mysterious symbols of the Stone Age to Google Earth, exploring how the ability to envision what the world looked like developed hand in hand with worldwide exploration. Along the way, we meet visionary geographers and heroic explorers along with other unknown heroes of the map-making world, both ancient and modern. And the stunning visual material allows us to witness the extraordinary breadth of this history with our own eyes.

Human Geography of the UK

Human Geography of the UK PDF Author: Danny Dorling
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1848608659
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
`Using up-to-date data, modern cartographic methods, and an approach that addresses students' everyday lives, Danny Dorling has produced an engaging introduction to the contemporary geography of the UK. It will be the focus of many lively discussions of patterns and trends’ - Ron Johnston, School of Geography, University of Bristol Using statistics from many sources in an engaging and accessible way, Human Geography of the UK is written from the perspective of a beginning undergraduate, it's objective is to define the key elements of population geography and show how they fit together. Highly visual – with maps and figures on every page – the text uses different data to describe the social landscape of the United Kingdom. Organized in ten short thematic chapters, explaining the nuts and bolts of population, including: birth, inequality; education; mobility; work; and mortality. The book concludes with a comparative analysis of UK in global context. Human Geography of the UK features practical exercises, and clear summaries in tables and specially drawn maps.

A People's Atlas of Detroit

A People's Atlas of Detroit PDF Author: Andrew Newman
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814342981
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
This innovative collection builds bridges between multiple areas of social activism as well as current scholarship in geography, anthropology, history, and urban studies to inspire communities in Detroit and other cities towards transformative change.

The World of Maps

The World of Maps PDF Author: Judith A. Tyner
Publisher: Guilford Publications
ISBN: 1462516483
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
"Maps have power--they can instruct, make life easier, mislead, or even lie. This engaging text provides the tools to read, analyze, and use any kind of map and assess its strengths and weaknesses. Requiring no advanced math skills, the book presents basic concepts of symbolization, scale, coordinate systems, and projections. It gives students a deeper understanding of the types of maps they encounter every day, from turn-by-turn driving directions to the TV weather report. Readers also learn how to use multiple maps and imagery to analyze an area or region. The book includes 168 figures, among them 22 color plates; most of the figures can be downloaded as PowerPoint slides from the companion website. Appendices contain a glossary, recommended resources, a table of commonly used projections, and more"--

Maps of Time

Maps of Time PDF Author: David Christian
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520271440
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 672

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Book Description
Introducing a novel perspective on the study of history, David Christian views the interaction of the natural world with the more recent arrivals in flora & fauna, including human beings.

Seeing Through Maps

Seeing Through Maps PDF Author: Denis Wood
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781904456551
Category : Cartography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book explains the principles behind the Peters' Projection Map and a dozen other unique maps and provocative images. Features over 70 maps and illustrations, including a redrawing of Mercator's original world map (unavailable since the 1950s), Minard's map of Napoleon's march on Moscow and routes of African Slave Trading.