This volume ventures into terrain where even the most sophisticated map fails to lead--through the mapmaker's bias. Denis Wood shows how maps are not impartial reference objects, but rather instruments of communication, persuasion, and power. Like paintings, they express a point of view. By connecting us to a reality that could not exist in the absence of maps--a world of property lines and voting rights, taxation districts and enterprise zones--they embody and project the interests of their creators. Sampling the scope of maps available today, illustrations include Peter Gould's AIDS map, Tom Van Sant's map of the earth, U.S. Geological Survey maps, and a child's drawing of the world. THE POWER OF MAPS was published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design.

The Power of Maps

Politics & Social Sciences

Denis Wood

Social Sciences

The Guilford Press

The Natures of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of the Natural World

Reference

Atlases & Maps

Esri Pr

A contemporary follow-up to the groundbreaking Power of Maps, this book takes a fresh look at what maps do, whose interests they serve, and how they can be used in surprising, creative, and radical ways. Denis Wood describes how cartography facilitated the rise of the modern state and how maps continue to embody and project the interests of their creators. He demystifies the hidden assumptions of mapmaking and explores the promises and limitations of diverse counter-mapping practices today. Thought-provoking illustrations include U.S. Geological Survey maps; electoral and transportation maps; and numerous examples of critical cartography, participatory GIS, and map art.

Rethinking the Power of Maps

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

Maps become a means of seeing the world from many perspectives in this appealing guide, which is aimed at training readers to look at images with a critical eye. The authors (a social scientist and a pastor/community organizer) challenge readers to stretch their intellectual boundaries while they wrap their minds around demonstrations of the many ways of making maps and the truth that no way is "the right one." A final chapter provides a guide to using map projections in human resource development and adult education. It's a smart book but not a beautiful one many of the illustrations went muddy in the transfer from color to b&amp;w, and seven unlovely pages of the publisher's advertising precede the index. Wide format: 11x8.5

Seeing Through Maps: The Power of Images to Shape Our World View

Ward Kaiser

O D T Inc

This book challenges the popular world-view by questioning a number of map images and the specific messages they communicate. Maps imply a truth, but that truth can be quite skewed depending on the viewpoint of the map creator. This book takes a hard look at truth by carefully inspecting some familiar, and not-so-familiar, map images and exploring their significance. The normally staid world of geographers is unusually excited by this dramatic new approach to the meaning of images. Seeing Through Maps, however, extends beyond cartography. The book discusses how map projections provide information about countries, cultures, the world's peoples and their history. It also explains the principles and hidden messages contained in a number of unique maps and provocative images: Peters' Equal Area Projection, Van Sant's GeoSphere Map; Fuller's Dymaxion Map; a Toronto-centered world map; Minard's map of Napoleon's march on Moscow; Petit's map of African slave trading routes; a global warming map; and some intriguing, mind-stretching maps with south on top. "This [book] will encourage a spirited discussion of perceptions, world views, and the importance of…seeing things differently," says Government Training News. Ivor Miller (African Diaspora Studies, DePaul University) says it is "a beautiful study that prepares students to think using multiple perspectives." The book is suitable for social studies, global studies, and psychology courses in universities. THIS REVISED edition includes a cartogram of 2004 USA Election Results, Hobo-Dyer Projection maps, selected Chronology of Map Development, a new chapter(8)called, "Are Maps TALK instead of Pictures" which challenges the conventional notion that maps are representations of reality. Instead, the authors assert that maps are propositions or arguments, and used as tools of persuasion or exploitation.

Seeing Through Maps: Many Ways to See the World

Bob Abramms

ODT, Inc.

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Books by Denis Wood