On the Map: Why the World Looks the Way it Does (Repost)

The verb "to map" can be used in many different ways. Of course, the most popular way is "to map" geographical places, but you can also "map" diseases, family histories, economic development, and much, much more. Garfield writes about all these in his new book, but primarily focuses on mapping geographical places. He traces the development of maps from prehistoric ages, paying close attention to the various expeditions devoted to mapping what was then thought to be unknown. Expeditions like Lewis and Clark in the US northwest, the various expeditions to the polar regions, and the expeditions to find the China from Europe by going west. Garfield points out that by 1492, most geographers knew the world was round; the exact size and what lay where was still the missing component.

Simon Garfield is a lively writer, and he addresses both history and geography in his book. He writes about all the places that appeared on early, post-Columbus maps that simply didn't exist. A range of mountains in west Africa and several non-existent islands in the Pacific were the result of mangled streams of information. And the state of California was shown as an island in many early maps of the area. One of the most interesting things is to take a look at early maps of any area and see how detailed the shorelines were but how blank or underdeveloped the internal areas of countries and continents were. The book also has a really cool front and back piece; a map of the world with a super-imposed map of the type of the London tube system.

Garfield's book is full of little-known facts and explanations of well-known facts that would be of interest to most any map-addicts.