"From ancient Babylon to the Google age, the world has evolved rapidly along with the ways we see it. In this time, cartography has not only kept pace with, and reflected these changes, but has often driven them. In this beautiful book, over 70 maps give a visual representation of the history of the world."--Cover.

A fascinating look at twelve maps-from Ancient Greece to Google Earth-and how they changed our world. In this masterful study, historian and cartography expert Jerry Brotton explores a dozen of historys most influential maps, from stone tablet to vibrant computer screen. Starting with Ptolemy, "father of modern geography," and ending with satellite cartography, A History of the World in 12 Maps brings maps from classical Greece, Renaissance Europe,...

Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Winchester illuminates the men who toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizenry and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings and ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree. For more than two centuries, E pluribus unum-"Out of many, one"--Has been featured on America's official government seals and stamped on its currency. But what unified...

Sand and stone are Earth's fragmented memory. Each of us, too, is a landscape inscribed by memory and loss. One life-defining lesson Lauret Savoy learned as a young girl was this: the American land did not hate. As an educator and Earth historian, she has tracked the continent's past from the relics of deep time; but the paths of ancestors toward her-paths of free and enslaved Africans, colonists from Europe, and peoples indigenous to this land-lie...

In the age of MapQuest and GPS, we take cartographic literacy for granted. We should not; the ability to find meaning in maps is the fruit of a long process of exposure and instruction. A "carto-coded" America--a nation in which maps are pervasive and meaningful--had to be created. The Social Life of Maps tracks American cartography's spectacular rise to its unprecedented cultural influence. Between 1750 and 1860, maps did more than communicate geographic...