How to Lie with Maps by Mark Monmonier

January 19, 2013 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. University of Chicago Press, 1996. Originally published 1991. 207 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Monmonier’s book is meant to teach readers how to evaluate maps critically through the promotion of a healthy skepticism about these easy-to-manipulate models of reality. To show how maps distort, Monmonier introduces basic principles of map-making (scale, projection, symbology) and gives examples of purposeful distortion for political and economic propaganda. Some of the antidotes are particularly funny. Map publishers have been known to deliberately […]

Categories: 2013 Reads, Abandoned, Cartography, Nonfiction • Tags: Mark Monmonier

Drawing the Line by Mark Monmonier

August 14, 2012 by Christina

Subtitled “Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy”, Monmonier’s book attempts to explain how people make the erroneous assumption that maps are inherently truthful. Approached with none of he skepticism people bring to written information, maps are rarely recognized as the ideological symbols and propaganda they are. Map viewers should question the very basis of a map: Do you accept the maker’s view of the world, their explanation for a geographic patter, or their brand of cartographic presentation, rather than that of […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Cartography, Honors Project, Nonfiction • Tags: Mark Monmonier

From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow by Mark Monmonier

August 9, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. University of Chicago Press, 2006. 215 pgs. Source: Library. Subtitled “How Maps Name, Claim, and Infame”, the title of Monmonier’s book is clearly meant to grab attention and make people stop in the middle of the bookstore. It certainly succeeded; I couldn’t put the book back on the library shelf after it caught my eye. The book is not nearly as salacious as the title might make you believe. Instead, Monmonier takes readers into the world of toponymy […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Cartography, Honors Project, Middle East, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Mark Monmonier