Product Description

A consideration of maps which evaluates the significance of the signs and myths which are inherent in them, and considers them as subjective depictions of reality rather than unbiased reference objects.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146697 in Books
• Published on: 1992-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

Review
"Wood's enthusiastic and scholarly contribution to the history of geography, and specifically the history of mapping, is widely acknowledged. "The Power of Maps,.".has been widely reviewed, routinely used in teaching the history of geographical knowledge and rarely goes without citation in scholarship on the geopolitics of maps."--Jane Jacobs in "Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers"
"Denis Wood unmasks the map for what it is: a communication tool imbedded in culture, history, selected perspectives and--yes, sometimes--bias. Even the most simple map is a highly selected, generalized, and symbolized picture of something the mapmaker wishes to communicate... THE POWER OF MAPS explodes myths, offers insight, and arms the map user with the mapmaker's perspective." --"Whole Earth Review"
""The Power of Maps" offers interesting and exciting insights into cartography..." --"Fronteras"
.,.".The last word on maps." --"The Trenton Times"
"He has some important, indeed compelling, things to say about maps...Wood not only incorporates a great store of historical detail into his essays, he sees maps as peculiar historical texts, as repositories of layers of knowledge and labor that can be revealed if we know how to "read" them....I highly recommend this unconventional book to historians of science of any period." --"Isis"
"Wood has written a book that deserves a wide readership." --"Cartography and Geographic Information Systems"
"This little book has a sober binding, but once past that, sobriety is cast to the winds...This is a book that Brian Harley--to whom it is dedicated--would have loved, particularly in its irreverence. The present reader finds almostall books about as twice a long as they need to be, so that he was surprised to find himself wishing that Wood had written at greater length, particularly in the final chapters on 'The interest served can be yours.' Wow, what a read." --"Mapline"
"Denis Wood's book" The Power of Maps" sheds a brilliant new light on our customary experience of maps....You will never look at any map the same way again." --"The Christian Science Monitor"

From the Back Cover
The author shows how maps are made to appear as unbiased reference objects, though they actually depict, like a photograph, a subjective point of view.
He discusses the signs and myths inherent in maps and suggests ways to decode the interests implicit in their representation.

Customer Reviews

Some enlightening ideas - annoying style
I cannot help thinking that the content of the book could have been conveyed in about 2 pages. Having said that it goes into detail about general points it makes, and some of them are not so obvious as they first seem.

It is the ... writing style which most annoyed me, it repeats points endlessly and uses ... punctuation styles that other authors (and English in general) use for other purposes. None of this adds to the experience and you have to struggle through it somewhat.