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Maps That Changed the World
An ancient Chinese proverb suggests, “They are wise parents who give their children roots and wings – and a map.”
Maps That Changed the World features some of the world's most famous maps, stretching back to a time when cartography was in its infancy and the 'edge of the world' was a barrier to exploration. The book includes details of how the Lewis and Clark Expedition helped map the American West, and how the British mapped India and Australia. Included are the beautifully engraved Dutch maps of the 16th century; the sinister Utopian maps of the Nazis; the maps that presaged brilliant military campaigns; charted the geology of a nation; and the ones that divided a continent up between its European conquerors.
Organised by theme, the book shows the evolution of map-making from all corners of the globe, from ancient clay maps, to cartographic breakthroughs such as Harry Beck’s map of the London underground. There are also famous fictional maps, including the maps of the lost continent of Atlantis and Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
With an introduction written by acclaimed cartographic historian Jeremy Black.
Maps That Changed the World features some of the world's most famous maps, stretching back to a time when cartography was in its infancy and the 'edge of the world' was a barrier to exploration. The book includes details of how the Lewis and Clark Expedition helped map the American West, and how the British mapped India and Australia. Included are the beautifully engraved Dutch maps of the 16th century; the sinister Utopian maps of the Nazis; the maps that presaged brilliant military campaigns; charted the geology of a nation; and the ones that divided a continent up between its European conquerors.
Organised by theme, the book shows the evolution of map-making from all corners of the globe, from ancient clay maps, to cartographic breakthroughs such as Harry Beck’s map of the London underground. There are also famous fictional maps, including the maps of the lost continent of Atlantis and Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
With an introduction written by acclaimed cartographic historian Jeremy Black.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 21, 2024
This is a collection of very short essays on maps that someone, I’m not sure who, considers a “cartographic innovation”, whose “creator is an important figure in the history of cartography”, as “examples of specific mapping techniques or approaches”, and that “symbolize or encapsulate an entire cosmology”.
I don’t know who actually wrote the texts. “O. E. Clark” (John O. E. Clark on the cover) is credited as editor only; Professor Jeremy Black is credited for the introduction, but the essays themselves are mostly uncredited. The acknowledgments in the back may or may not be credits for essays or for contributions to the essays (notably, David Day of Tolkien fame “has written here on some of the fantasy maps and on ancient cosmologies”). It’s possible that the acknowledgments in the back could be summed up to match all of the essays in the book, but I don’t think so.
That said, this is a fascinating collection of influential, important, and unique maps that can be easily read in chunks.
It’s possible that the writers overplay the importance of maps; the brevity makes it difficult to judge. For example, mapmaking is credited as the secret to Stonewall Jackson’s success in the Civil War. I don’t know enough to judge, but it seems plausible as described—and very interesting.
Whoever wrote about the lost city of Atlantis’s appearances in old maps seems to take the theory that Thera was the inspiration for Atlantis as given. The person writing the captions for the maps is more cagey. The author may even be implying that Thera’s eruption also inspired the story of Noah.
Some of the maps are ones I’ve heard of before, and was glad to read more about, and, in some cases, learn more about. William Smith’s map that changed the world was in here, and also the famous cholera map of Doctor John Snow.
It’s also interesting reading about the different means mapmakers have used to try to make maps more intelligible to their viewers, from Hermann Bollmann’s axonometric city projections to the various attempts to ameliorate the distorting effect of mapping a curved planet onto a flat piece of paper.
It was also interesting seeing our knowledge of the planet grow, for example seeing California stop being depicted as an island and seeing the relative size of North America and Cuba change as mapmakers gained more knowledge about the vast new continent.
The fantasies, follies, and fabrications section suffers from attempting to hold too many unrelated ideas—there’s a big difference between, for example, between the fabrications of a Louis Armand and the fantasies of a Tolkien—or the utopian ideals of a Cabet. The essay on William Harvey’s children’s book of maps suffers from never deciding whether to critique it as a bit of children’s fancies or as a serious work of mapmaking.
An entire section could be created about maps like Armand’s or the Vinland Map and their significance.
But the section on Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, possibly by David Day, is a fun overview of how maps played into Tolkien’s epic stories.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true, but it’s not entirely wrong either.
Despite its shortcomings, this is a really fun book to browse through and to read end-to-end.
I don’t know who actually wrote the texts. “O. E. Clark” (John O. E. Clark on the cover) is credited as editor only; Professor Jeremy Black is credited for the introduction, but the essays themselves are mostly uncredited. The acknowledgments in the back may or may not be credits for essays or for contributions to the essays (notably, David Day of Tolkien fame “has written here on some of the fantasy maps and on ancient cosmologies”). It’s possible that the acknowledgments in the back could be summed up to match all of the essays in the book, but I don’t think so.
That said, this is a fascinating collection of influential, important, and unique maps that can be easily read in chunks.
It’s possible that the writers overplay the importance of maps; the brevity makes it difficult to judge. For example, mapmaking is credited as the secret to Stonewall Jackson’s success in the Civil War. I don’t know enough to judge, but it seems plausible as described—and very interesting.
Whoever wrote about the lost city of Atlantis’s appearances in old maps seems to take the theory that Thera was the inspiration for Atlantis as given. The person writing the captions for the maps is more cagey. The author may even be implying that Thera’s eruption also inspired the story of Noah.
No one could possibly have survived the blast of the historic Atlantis. All of Thera’s cities, fleets and its entire population vanished beneath the sea. And it seems the entire Minoan Sea Empire’s ports, harbours, towns and coastal lands were swept away by the largest tidal wave ever to imperil the human race.
Some of the maps are ones I’ve heard of before, and was glad to read more about, and, in some cases, learn more about. William Smith’s map that changed the world was in here, and also the famous cholera map of Doctor John Snow.
It’s also interesting reading about the different means mapmakers have used to try to make maps more intelligible to their viewers, from Hermann Bollmann’s axonometric city projections to the various attempts to ameliorate the distorting effect of mapping a curved planet onto a flat piece of paper.
It was also interesting seeing our knowledge of the planet grow, for example seeing California stop being depicted as an island and seeing the relative size of North America and Cuba change as mapmakers gained more knowledge about the vast new continent.
The fantasies, follies, and fabrications section suffers from attempting to hold too many unrelated ideas—there’s a big difference between, for example, between the fabrications of a Louis Armand and the fantasies of a Tolkien—or the utopian ideals of a Cabet. The essay on William Harvey’s children’s book of maps suffers from never deciding whether to critique it as a bit of children’s fancies or as a serious work of mapmaking.
An entire section could be created about maps like Armand’s or the Vinland Map and their significance.
But the section on Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, possibly by David Day, is a fun overview of how maps played into Tolkien’s epic stories.
Tolkien’s creation of Middle-earth is his attempt to recreate a world of forgotten English archetypes. The scale of Tolkien’s undertaking is staggering. It would be as if Homer, before writing the Iliad and the Odyssey, had first to invent the whole of Greek mythology and history. What is most remarkable is that Tolkien actually achieved his ambitions to an extraordinary degree. His hobbits are now as much part of the English heritage as leprechauns are to the Irish, gnomes to the Germans and trolls to the Scandinavians.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true, but it’s not entirely wrong either.
Despite its shortcomings, this is a really fun book to browse through and to read end-to-end.
Although all maps have their shortcomings, people are inclined to trust what they see when presented with one.
September 19, 2022
Scrapes a 3 as the pictures are good and the information is OK. However this book could have been so much more. I wanted to know how maps influenced history. Instead I got a random collection of possible maps - I’m sorry but a modern diagram of how the Norse viewed the universe is not a map. For some of the maps the information was about maps but for too many the maps seemed irrelevant to the writing. The Norse section for one, but also many of the military maps which just described the battles. If I wanted to read about battles I’d read a military book.
November 5, 2021
A good collection of maps but oversold by the title. Many of these did not change the world, many are only passably interesting. Another limitation is that the maps aren't always detailed, or clear, enough. Lastly, some of the entries are really short histories, admittedly quite good ones, for which the maps are little more than afterthoughts.
April 12, 2017
(3.5 Stars!)
Starting from ancient clay maps and the Nazca enigma through to the more familiar names like Ptolemy and Von Humboldt, Clark covers plenty in this cartographical overview. He touches on the golden age of Dutch cartography with the Blaeu family. He features a number of London maps in the shape of John Snow’s miasma defying cholera map, Charles Booth’s poverty work and Harry Beck’s transformative London underground one. He hops across the pond to the emergence of panorama maps, which was particularly popular in North America. There is the puzzling inclusion of Andy Warhol’s cold war joke map and Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I’m sure you have your own thoughts but I’m not sure both of these would necessary rank as maps that changed the world?...We get maps of various battles of various wars, particularly WWI, WWII and the American Civil War. He goes onto the topic of the highly controversial Map of Vinland and also touches on the ongoing Gall-Peters v Mercator projection question.
Overall this was a mixed bag, with some puzzling choices and some dry moments. There were maybe too many maps in here that were many centuries old, but there were also some really interesting choices and lots of historical titbits that made for enjoyable reading and some of the detail in the better illustrations were genuinely impressive. If you are looking for something a little more light hearted and/or modern(ish) then I would highly recommend two excellent books in Simon Garfield’s “On The Map” and Mike Parker’s “Map Addict”.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews