The Power of Maps

Rating:
Summary: The only book for which I demanded my money back!
Review: A rambling discourse on maps, including things which are not maps, like "mental maps". After the first chapter, I skimmed around looking at topics I was interested in. Some impressions: On the History of Mapmaking: Apparently the author's son Chandler played a much bigger role than Erosthenes. On Cartographers: Since it is mathematically impossible to map the spherical world onto a flat peice of paper with complete isometric precision, the science of Cartography has little more claim to our respect than little Chandler's drawings. On the illustrations: Unfortunately for me, the only "beautifully illustrated" thing in the paperback edition is the cover.

Rating:
Summary: Poor writing, shallow thinking
Review: For those who simply like maps, here is a quick response to "The Power of Maps": DO NOT bother reading this book! The writing is poor. The book is riddled with errors (the chapter on Tom Van Sant's beautiful, global satellite image map is particularly bad in this regard). Very few actual maps are included, and they are reprinted in an ugly, unreadable small black & white format. Worst of all, the author doesn't really have anything to say about the power OR beauty of maps, or about what makes a map elegant, eloquent, or useful.

Like so many ivory-tower deconstructionists, Wood's primary focus seems to be on the manipulation of language as a weapon against his own subject - in this case, cartography. As one who loves maps, and works with them professionally, I wouldn't have thought it would be possible to write about them in such an insipid, uninteresting, and unenlightening way. Don't waste your time or your money on this book!

Rating:
Summary: ... the heights!
Review: If you want the history of cartography or an explanation of its technicalities, this is not the book for you. If you want to see more clearly the human landscape in which maps are embedded and the human activities for which maps are constructed, this IS the book for you! Brilliant and fun and informative reading for cartographers and laymen. Denis Wood shows how maps represent societies as much as topographies. Grab your topo for rafting trip through time and place!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, challenging, and relevant
Review: If you want to know what you can do with maps and what their creators are able to do with them, read this. It's an important book for anyone interested in the history of maps or in the ways we make political and social decisions on the basis of mapped information today. Yes, Wood does build a complex analytical structure for deciphering maps, but they are intricate objects and dense with information. This is an excellent source for anyone with a serious interest in the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Dot Dot Dot
Review: In addition to the other points raised by the reviewers, I'd like to add that the editor should be taken out and ... forced to say 'dot dot dot' every time there's an ellipsis.

The ellipsis is used inappropriately too. It's used as a long pause as if the professor is leading the class in discussion and saying 'anyone? anyone? Bueller?' at the end of the paragraph.

Given the frequency with which these ellipses show up (there are as many as four per page and there's usually one on every page) it's enough to drive the reader to ... distraction.

Rating:
Summary: Dot Dot Dot
Review: My reactions on TRYING to read this book went from confused to disappointed to very annoyed. This book was my sole reading material on a camping trip, and if it hadn't been a gift from a friend, I would have used it, page by page, to add heat to the campfire. "The Power of Maps" consists of phony intellectual rambling, the point of which seems to be that powerful people use maps to their benefit. The exact point (or points?), however, is difficult to determine because the book is so hard to read. The author takes extremely trivial, shallow observations and builds them up into what appears to be an erudite scholarly work. In fact, it is pseudo-intellectual writing, composed of convoluted sentences, extremely obscure words, and citations which include Life magazine, the North Carolina Highway Map, and "The Little Engine That Could". For instance, the basis for one lengthy passage is the observation that the NC Highway Map does not note in the legend that blue denotes water! In the course of this rambling text, the author verbally attacks cartographers as somehow responsible for a number of ills in society.

Now that I have gotten over my disappointment in having no worthwhile reading material for my vacation and my annoyance at this book's shallow treatment of a subject I dearly love, my feelings have returned to confusion. I am confused as to why someone would take the trouble to write this book, and why someone else would think it is worthwhile to publish it.

Rating:
Summary: If you love maps, DON'T read this book
Review: My reactions on TRYING to read this book went from confused to disappointed to very annoyed. This book was my sole reading material on a camping trip, and if it hadn't been a gift from a friend, I would have used it, page by page, to add heat to the campfire. "The Power of Maps" consists of phony intellectual rambling, the point of which seems to be that powerful people use maps to their benefit. The exact point (or points?), however, is difficult to determine because the book is so hard to read. The author takes extremely trivial, shallow observations and builds them up into what appears to be an erudite scholarly work. In fact, it is pseudo-intellectual writing, composed of convoluted sentences, extremely obscure words, and citations which include Life magazine, the North Carolina Highway Map, and "The Little Engine That Could". For instance, the basis for one lengthy passage is the observation that the NC Highway Map does not note in the legend that blue denotes water! In the course of this rambling text, the author verbally attacks cartographers as somehow responsible for a number of ills in society.

Now that I have gotten over my disappointment in having no worthwhile reading material for my vacation and my annoyance at this book's shallow treatment of a subject I dearly love, my feelings have returned to confusion. I am confused as to why someone would take the trouble to write this book, and why someone else would think it is worthwhile to publish it.

Rating:
Summary: A great multidisciplinary rant about maps and their uses.
Review: Ranging from strident politics to Eco-like semiotics, this book considers the map in all its forms, intents and uses. The text is a little too preachy for much of the book, but the quality of some of the ideas and the enthusiam with which Wood presents them makes this bearable. Wood's basic point is that maps are human constructs that come with points of view. As such, questions about the qualities of a map can't be answered without also asking what the map was constructed for. With examples ranging from the Peters Projection controversies, to election gerrymandering, to natural resource utilization, he shows how all maps are designed to both include and to exclude, and how they embody a representation of the world in the best tradition of Eco's "signs". A great book, slightly marred by the writing style.

Rating:
Summary: An eye-opener
Review: This is a truly powerful and tremendously insightful discourse on the often "unseen" political uses to which maps can be put. It offers a rich and persuasively argued theoretical framework which goes well beyond its examples in its potential usefulness. Chapter Five "The Interest Lies in Signs and Myths" in particular is a tremendously thought-provoking and insightful analysis of maps and their legends and symbols as signs, signifiers and what they sometimes subconsciously signify to the consumer. A brilliant theoretical emendation of Roland Barthes' exposition of signs (Barthes' 1972 Mythologies). If you are willing to think along with the author this books may fundamentally change your perspective on a wide range of topics including nationalism, science and inter-state crises and conflicts over territory.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Writing, Profound Insights
Review: This is one of those books that come around all too infrequently that make us see the world differently. Those content with a limited view may not fully appreciate the depth of this book's insights. The prose simply soars beyond what one would expect from an academic subject...which makes it thrilling to read. Denis Wood's are not for the lazy or the closed-minded. They are, indeed, masterful.