Mapmakers

by John Noble Wilford

Book Overview

In his classic text, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner John Noble Wilford recounts the history of cartography from antiquity to the space age. They are among the world's great pioneers and adventurers:... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394461940
• ISBN13: 9780394461946
• Release Date: April 1981
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 414 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Where It's At

I have always been fascinated by maps, as both sources of information and representations of nature's design. I'm glad I'm not alone in that regard, and anyone with an interest in maps or mapmaking will be intrigued by this heavily informative book. Wilford takes us from the very earliest maps of ancient times and lays out in-depth histories of all the uses, effects, and technologies of maps up to the present day. The early parts of the book also tell us about the often unexpected challenges faced by mapmakers, such as drawing straight lines on the round Earth (which was later found to not be a perfect sphere anyway), projecting the round Earth onto flat maps, and the sheer enormity of the task of mapping the Earth itself. It turns out that these challenges even make many current maps inaccurate. Later chapters move into modern technologies such as radar or aerial photography, which are being used to more accurately map the Earth's landscapes, as well as the ocean floors and the surfaces of other planets. Just note that the second half of the book often slows down significantly with various technological descriptions of each new mapmaking tool or method, which may not tickle the fancy of non-scientific readers. But in any case, after this book you'll have a new appreciation for maps and their makers. [~doomsdayer520~]

Simply brilliant

I bought this at Schiphol Airport as I had nothing else to read ... doesn't sound much of a recommendation, does it? - but the small cover photo of two surveyors perched on a precarious butte, though simple, begged my attention. It succeeded - and grabbed!This book is deceptively large, due to the small font, tight spacing and thin margins.But it needs to be:- there is so much information crammed in here ... all that the layman should ever need to know about maps & mapmaking, surveyors & surveying and discoverers and their discoveries. My only complaint is that there are no colour illustrations, which would have amplified the descriptions greatly.The narrative style of Pulitzer winner Mr.Wilford makes for easy, yet highly informative reading, taking us from early Chinese maps with their variable scale to modern digital mapping of the cosmos, all the while inserting interesting snippets of fact and conjecture. He draws heavily on other authors (showing the depth of his research), but only to illustrate and augment the narrative. I took longer than usual to read this book, simply because I wished to savour the experience.Required reading for all who wish to know how we came to view the world as we see it now. ...

Cartography, a never ending phenomenon

I agree with the other reviews about this book, but what I think is missing is emphasis on the more recent usages of maps. At first maps were created to fill in the gaps of undiscovered areas of the world. This is enough to excite the imagination and enthusiasm of anyone with a bent toward histroy. But, maps are now becoming devices for use by agencies and persons more interested in distribution of ideas, beliefs, and the like. Mapmakers have turned their efforts inward as well as outward, as in the case of the maping of Mars and the Moon, to meet the demands of Social Scientists in what we can only hope will be for the benefit of mankind as before. There will be hardly a book, be it historical, about art, or science that can be read after reading this one but that relevence will shine through for the benefit of one discipline or another. Rather than get too involved, however, I recemmend the book be read for the enjoyment of learning. It is well written and most informative.

Mapmakers ( revised edition Aug 2000)

"The Mapmakers" by John Noble Wilford (ISBN 0-375-40929-7) published by Knopf/Random House in August 2000 is an updated version of the 1981 text. The revisions reflect the radical changes in the process of map-making that we already take for granted. It is of interest to anyone who has ever paddled along a complex shoreline, looked at a map, and thought " I could be here, there or anywhere". Or to anyone who has spent a winter dreaming of a lake or river, seen only in the mind's eye aided by a "window" created by maps...This book covers the history of cartography or map-making from ancient times to the present day . Drawing on various sources, it explores the "need" to create maps both as a concrete form of communication describing the physical location of objects and our relationship to them, as well as the philosophical beliefs which can make "maps lie" based on the ideological bias of the map-maker, and the prejudices of the user. It traces in chronological format the evolution of maps (beginning in pre-history judging from some cave paintings) , from the Near East and Egypt in the period from 2000BC, to Greek philosophical conceptions of the world, to the civil engineering and mapping of the Romans, to the laughably inaccurate and fabricated maps of the early Middle Ages reflecting Europe's inward turning in the pre-Renaissance period. The Age of Discovery and the slow progress in developing maps for coastal trade reaching further and further from home, the new ( and rediscovered) technologies that aided the "mapping of both the African route to Asia, as well as the nascent understanding of the New World coastline, are covered in great detail.Time is given to the development of map projections, problems of determining latitude and longitude, early and modern navigational devices, as well as the individuals who pioneered new concepts in mapping, often with their achievements lying fallow for another 100 years or more. Problems of mapping even long settled areas like France are discussed in the context of new systems of measuring land, as well as the State's "need" to quantify it's holdings in a more scientific manner.The author develops his concepts within the book like small streams joining to form a great river, over a great distance and time. The final third of the book is a torrent , as the various technologies are refined, demand for accurate maps increases, and communication becomes almost instant. In the discussion of the modern era there is a already a quaintness to the debates as to whether map making might ever be "automated", or derived from computerized data alone. In the final chapters the book moves beyond the mapping of coast lines, cities and Earth itself, to mapping projects of Mars and the Universe itself. Yet the author retains his premise that maps locate the human mind in space and time, and are as essential to humans as language itself. An interesting premise early in the book is tha

Great review of technical advances thru 1981.

Many aspects of world history are seen in a different light after reading how man learned to accurately map and use maps for world exploration. European and Americas mapping is handled extensively. Africa and Asia are lacking in historical context, perhaps due to lost or unavailable records. Being published in the early 1980's, the book is missing the last 2 decades of technological advances of Global Positioning Systems in use today. Otherwise a WONDERFUL READ for anyone interested in geoscience, geography, maps, or history.