Are We There Yet?: How Humans Find Their Way

by Maria Birmingham, Drew Shannon (Illustrator)

Why do some people have a bad sense of direction? How can you avoid getting lost? Why did early mapmakers put fake towns on their maps and why does every traffic controller in the world speak English? From finding food, water and shelter to traveling for commerce, trade and eventually exploring the world, humans have always had to find their way from one place to another. Are We There Yet? examines the evolution of how we navigate the world. Our earliest ancestors relied on built-in navigation systems in our brains and followed clues like star patterns and animal behavior. Then came the invention of maps, faster transportation and eventually technology, like satellites and GPS. And from the depths of the ocean to faraway planets, there's still plenty of exploring to do. Where will we go next?

Genres: Nonfiction

64 pages, Hardcover

Published August 15, 2023

Reviews

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a really interesting volume, and one able to teach me about the way we have got about. This is the history of travel, and of maps and navigation. But it's by no means all fusty chronometers (as in they never get a mention), for we see how Polynesia was crossed, how slightly humanoid semi-cairn things are Inuit markers, and have been for four and a half thousand years, and how one paper town actually became real. We discover the first driver-less car, a remote controlled vehicle that crashed into its own press and never went anywhere again, apparently, and consider the future of travel.

While it's a little awkward to have read this, with its nudges to the unexplored oceans, on the day we find the first wreckage of that there Titanic submarine, it's still a very worthwhile and accurate book, considering so much from humble footwear to the Grand Tour to space elevators. It can get annoyingly woke – talking about air pollution that comes with air travel not once but three or four times, and for some bizarre reason yacking about slavery because, you know, boats (very rich when the first slaves would have been walking behind 'ships of the desert' long before boats came into it). That aside, this is a very decent school book, well-designed and given a lightness of touch in amongst its timelines, and with a deserved four and a bit stars – well, it will go far.