Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection
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Because it distorts the proportionate size of countries, the Mercator map was criticized for inflating Europe and North America in a promotion of colonialism. In 1974, German historian Arno Peters proffered his own map, on which countries were ostensibly drawn in true proportion to one another. In the ensuing "map wars" of the 1970s and 1980s, these dueling projections vied for public support—with varying degrees of success.
Widely acclaimed for his accessible, intelligent books on maps and mapping, Monmonier here examines the uses and limitations of one of cartography's most significant innovations. With informed skepticism, he offers insightful interpretations of why well-intentioned clerics and development advocates rallied around the Peters projection, which flagrantly distorted the shape of Third World nations; why journalists covering the controversy ignored alternative world maps and other key issues; and how a few postmodern writers defended the Peters worldview with a self-serving overstatement of the power of maps. Rhumb Lines and Map Wars is vintage Monmonier: historically rich, beautifully written, and fully engaged with the issues of our time.
Mark Monmonier
Mark Monmonier is Distinguished Professor of Geography at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is the author of twenty books, including How to Lie with Maps, and was editor of Cartography in the Twentieth Century, the million-word encyclopedia published as volume 6 in the History of Cartography series. His awards include the American Geographical Society’s O. M. Miller Medal (2001), the German Cartographic Society’s Mercator Medal (2009), and induction into URISA’s (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) GIS Hall of Fame (2016).
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