Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations
by Library of Congress, Vincent Virga
List Price:
Our Price: $7.15
You Save: $52.85 (88%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Library of Congress, Vincent VirgaIntroduction: Ronald E. Grim
Afterword: James H. Billington
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-25
ISBN: 0316997668
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Book Reviews of Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations
Book Review: Splendid images, awful prose
Summary: 3 Stars
I recently had the opportunity to peruse this book in a local library. I agree with all of the other reviewers that this book has astounding images, well-reproduced, and documenting a wide variety of maps in a multitude of different contexts. There are plenty of cartographic classics (the double sided ancient Chinese grid map, the "clover" Crusader map centered around Jerusalem) alongside some less well known maps (an Etruscan divining liver map--that's a stone replica of a liver with marks about how to divine things from it, a Japanese historical battle map showing the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate).
However, I must say that the accompanying text is really lacking. To be frank, it's downright repulsive. Stylistically, it's uninspiring at best. Furthermore, the text is filled with "explanations" about "what's really going on" that are totally unsubstantiated. Unfortunately, this book is hardly unique in that regard. It is symptomatic of our times to show "expertise" on this or that via simplistic reductive arguments that we've all grown too tired to challenge.
Two examples come to mind specifically. In the section on Japanese maps of Japan, he tries to argue that the ambiguity of the maps implies a mindset amongst the Japanese putting Japan as being "undefined in space" or something of that nature. Now that claim may very well be true, but he presents next to argument to support it other than images which appear just as ambiguous as other maps. There may be a way to deduce that conclusion from the maps but he doesn't show anything, he merely states.
More nauseating was the pat analysis of the Vietnam war. He reproduces a formerly classified US government map showing South Vietnam totally fragmented by VC presence and uses it to launch into a tired tirade about the follies of the US government blah blah blah. Once again, the conclusion may or may not be true but shiny pictures aren't really a substitute for critical analysis.
This book raises some very interesting questions about what and how much one can conclude about a society from the character of its maps. However, the shameless sophistry that follows makes it clear that the author has little regard for the complexity that such questions entail.
So if I was addressing a potential buyer/reader, I would say that the images in the book really are fabulous and the comments are at times enlightening. But if you're the kind of reader who doesn't appreciate pat conclusions that are pre-determined by some unspoken post-god-knows-what party line, brace yourself for a beautiful book but a stomach turning read.
Summary of Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations
CARTOGRAPHIA offers a stunning array of 200 of the most beautiful, important, and fascinating maps in existence, from the world's largest cartographic collection, at the Library of Congress. These maps show how our idea of the world has shifted and grown over time, and each map tells its own unique story about nations, politics, and ambitions. The chosen images, with their accompanying stories, introduce the reader to an exciting new way of "reading" maps as travelogues---living history from the earliest of man's imaginings about planet earth to our current attempts at charting cyberspace.
Among the rare gems included in the book are the Waldseemuller Map of the World from 1507, the first to include the designation "America"; pages from the Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of 1570, considered the first modern atlas; rare maps from Africa, Asia, and Oceania that challenge traditional Western perspectives; William Faulkner's hand-drawn 1936 map of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi; and even a map of the Human Genome. In an oversized format, with gorgeous four-color reproductions throughout, Catrographia will appeal to collectors, historians, and anyone looking for a perfect gift.
Historical Study Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Historical Study Books
Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eatby Sarah Murray
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2007-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.88
Price in other shops:
The Shadow of the Winter Palace: Russia's Drift to Revolution, 1825-1917by Edward Crankshaw
Da Capo Press; Published: 2000-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
The Encyclopedia of ChicagoUniversity Of Chicago Press; Published: 2004-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $36.98
Price in other shops:
The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain (Oxford Illustrated Histories)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2001-02-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.90
Price in other shops:
A Short History of the American Stomachby Frederick Kaufman
Mariner Books; Published: 2009-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Womanby Nancy Marie Brown
Mariner Books; Published: 2008-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.24
Price in other shops:
Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American Historyby Ted Steinberg
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.98
Price in other shops:
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern Historyby Sidney W. Mintz
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1986-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball Historyby Cait Murphy
Smithsonian; Published: 2007-03-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.89
Price in other shops:
Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in Chinaby Peter Hessler
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.66
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Comparative World Atlas (Hammond Comparative World Atlas)by Hammond World Atlas Corporation
Hammond; Hammond World Atlas Corporation; Published: 2007-04-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $105.47
You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imaginationby Katharine Harmon
Princeton Architectural Press; Published: 2003-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.92
Price in other shops:
Mapping the World: Stories of Geographyby Caroline Laffon, Martine Laffon
Firefly Books; Published: 2009-09-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.98
Price in other shops:
The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartographyby Katharine Harmon, Gayle Clemans
Princeton Architectural Press; Published: 2010-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.70
Price in other shops:
Maps: Finding Our Place in the WorldUniversity Of Chicago Press; Published: 2007-11-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $47.55
Price in other shops:
Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America: Climate Change, the Rise of China, and Global Terrorismby Harm de Blij
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-02-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.24
Price in other shops:
Mapping the World: An Illustrated History of Cartographyby Ralph E Ehrenberg
National Geographic; Published: 2005-10-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $176.91
The Image of the World: 20 Centuries of World Maps / Updated Editionby Peter Whitfield
British Library; Published: 2010-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.70
Price in other shops:
Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiositiesby Frank Jacobs
Studio; Published: 2009-10-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.06
Price in other shops:
The Map BookWalker & Company; Published: 2005-11-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.10
Price in other shops: