Map: Exploring The World

by Phaidon Phaidon Editors, John Hessler (Introduction)

Overview

A compelling exploration of the ways that humans have mapped the world throughout history

Map, Exploring the World brings together more than 250 fascinating examples of maps from the birth of cartography to today's cutting-edge digital maps and reflects the many reasons people make maps - to find their way, to assert ownership, to encourage settlement, or to show political power.

Carefully chosen by an international panel of experts and arranged to highlight thought-provoking contrasts and similarities, it features maps by the greatest names in cartography and lesser-known creators, as well as rare maps from indigenous cultures around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838660642
Publisher:	Phaidon Press
Publication date:	02/05/2020
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	228,163
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

John W. Hessler is a Specialist in Computational Geography and Geographic Information Science at the Library of Congress. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London, he is the author of more than 100 books and articles.

Editorial Reviews

"A book showcasing exquisite drawings both ancient and modern captures our evergreen relationship with mapping the world."—Air Mail

From the Publisher

…the most captivating of several new books that explore the power of spatial representations and how they shape our perceptions of reality. Assembled by Victoria Clarke, an editor at Phaidon Press, it brings together more than 300 visually arresting maps spanning 3,000 years and every corner of the planet. They whipsaw from maps of the known world over a millennium to demographic and territorial maps that trace the Arab-Israeli conflict, to cartographic depictions of disasters—New Orleans neighborhoods flooded by Hurricane Katrina, the spread of Ebola through West Africa—to charts showing the global penetration of Twitter and Facebook.

The New York Times Book Review - Joshua Hammer

A visual bonanza...This is a big, beautiful book of wonder.

ArchitecturalDigest.com

★ 10/01/2015
After a short introduction that discusses, among other things, the difficulty of describing what a map is, let alone its why, how, when, or who, John Hessler's (Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress) introduction to this gorgeous title describes its unusual arrangement. Rather than offering maps arranged chronologically, by region, or some other expected way, the book pairs maps "to highlight interesting comparisons and contrasts." Thus readers will find among the fine, colorful reproductions a "Map of Jerusalem as the Centre of the World" dating back to 1200 paired with a 1773 rendering of the city and an 1889 "Descriptive Map of London Poverty" opposite a depiction of world poverty in 2006; a map showing the connections between the world's 500 million Facebook friends as of 2010 and one of the brain by the Human Connectome Project; the London and New York underground/subway systems juxtaposed; and numerous world maps from across time. Most spreads feature one map per page with succinct descriptive text underneath illustrating the map's creation and meaning. VERDICT A sumptuous meal for cartophiles.—Henrietta Verma, Library Journal

Library Journal