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Maps Bibliography

Black, Jeremy. Maps and History: Constructing Images of the Past . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
An examination of the ideological and material development of the historical atlas as a form of knowledge and how that form shapes the presentation of the past.

Edney, Matthew. Mapping an Empire: The Geographical Construction of British India 1765 - 1843 . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
A study of the immense British effort to map its empire in India, this book also provides insightful explanation of the larger “project” of imperialist and enlightenment mapping.

Godlewska, Anne. “The Idea of the Map” in Hanson, Susan, ed. Ten Geographic Ideas That Changed the World . New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
In a short essay, an excellent introduction to the ideological, conceptual, and technological development of maps and mapping. A good, short survey of the social embeddedness of maps.

Harley, J. Brian and David Woodward, eds. The History of Cartography . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
A multivolume, ongoing effort to encompass the entire history of cartography. Vol. 1 starts with prehistoric and medieval maps; Vol. 2, in three Books, studies maps of the non-Western world; volumes 3 (the European Renaissance) through volume 6 (the twentieth century) are in process.

Monmonier, Mark. How to Lie With Maps . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
A highly readable introduction to cartography and to the “tricks” of cartography (intentional and incidental) that inevitably result in maps being partial and subjective.

Piper, Karen. Cartographic Fictions: Maps, Race and Identity . New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
A study of the gendered and racialized dimensions of the conceptualization and mapping of the prime meridian, the development of aerial photography, and geographic information systems (GIS).

Thrower, Norman. Maps and Civilization: Cartography in culture and society . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
One of the most comprehensive one-volume histories of cartography; strongest material is for the modern period. Includes a glossary with mapping terms.

Wood, Denis. The Power of Maps . New York: Guilford Press, 1992.
One of the key analyses of the subjectivity of the map. Wood details, across time and space, ways in which power, perspective, bias, and partiality are embedded in all maps.


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