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A review by ronanmcd
A History of the World in 12 Maps by Jerry Brotton
3.0
It's a funny one. For starters the title is not only slightly misleading but utterly. This is not a world history - there is little mention of the search for and around Australia, the existence of the polar land mass in Antarctica is dealt with by discussing vanishing points of longitudinal lines, there is little discussion of in-filling the gaps within continents (the dark interiors).
There is plenty of talk of meridiens, continental placings and outlines, graticules and scales, print technology. All great stuff, but not a history of the world. This is a history of maps, and bar one chapter, a history of western maps. It's very good, an interesting subject with some fantastic polemical debate and lesser known histories. Brotton does a great job of bringing maps alive, and showing their greater meaning outside of merely showing relative points.
Initially I had looked at this as a companion piece for Neil McGregor's A History of the World in 100 objects. It isn't.
It is however a fascinating history of an intersection of design, storytelling, commerce and science.
There is plenty of talk of meridiens, continental placings and outlines, graticules and scales, print technology. All great stuff, but not a history of the world. This is a history of maps, and bar one chapter, a history of western maps. It's very good, an interesting subject with some fantastic polemical debate and lesser known histories. Brotton does a great job of bringing maps alive, and showing their greater meaning outside of merely showing relative points.
Initially I had looked at this as a companion piece for Neil McGregor's A History of the World in 100 objects. It isn't.
It is however a fascinating history of an intersection of design, storytelling, commerce and science.