Fans of Stephen Walter's magnificent maps of London will go to pieces over this jigsaw puzzle that brings London to life.

"A masterpiece of imaginative cartography, artist Stephen Walter's detailed maps of London reveal much more about the city than its winding streets and historic buildings. London's streets, built up over more than two thousand years, are a maze of history, cultures, and stories. In his fantastically detailed maps of the city, Stephen Walter translates these elements into a tangle of insightful yet humorous words and symbols that make up a complex of hidden meanings and wider contradictions. Testament to Walter's skill and importance as a cartographer, his groundbreaking, oversized map The Island was one of only two contemporary works to feature in the seminal Magnificent Maps exhibition held at the British Library in 2010, the other by Grayson Perry, alongside hugely important historical maps, such as Pierre Desceliers's 1550 world map. The work, which reimagines London as an insular body of land surrounded by water, has been reconfigured and turned into Walter's own version of a London street atlas, with readers able to explore his unique vision of the city by flicking through the pages. A grid at the front of the book lets readers navigate their way through the map and the large-scale reproductions allow for close examination of his witty depictions. Walter's maps have a cult following and now a wider audience will be able to immerse themselves in his personal vision that both celebrates the art of cartography and pokes intelligent fun at the city he calls home."--Publisher's description.

Examines the pivotal relationship between mapping and civilization, demonstrating the unique ways that maps relate and realign history, and shares engaging cartography stories and map lore.

300 stunning maps from all periods and from all around the world, exploring and revealing what maps tell us about history and ourselves. Selected by an international panel of cartographers, academics, map dealers and collectors, the maps represent over 5,000 years of cartographic innovation drawing on a range of cultures and traditions. Comprehensive in scope, this book features all types of map from navigation and surveys to astronomical maps, satellite and digital maps, as well as works of art inspired by cartography. Unique curated sequence presents maps in thought-provoking juxtapositions for lively, stimulating reading. Features some of the most influential mapmakers and institutions in history, including Gerardus Mercator, Abraham Ortelius, Phyllis Pearson, Heinrich Berann, Bill Rankin, Ordnance Survey and Google Earth. Easy-to-use format, with large reproductions, authoritative texts and key caption information, it is the perfect introduction to the subject. Also features a comprehensive illustrated timeline of the history of cartography, biographies of leading cartographers and a glossary of cartographic terms.

After the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763, British America stretched from Hudson Bay to the Florida Keys, from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River, and across new islands in the West Indies. To better rule these vast dominions, Britain set out to map its new territories with unprecedented rigor and precision. Max Edelson’s The New Map of Empire pictures the contested geography of the British Atlantic world and offers new explanations of the causes and consequences of Britain’s imperial ambitions in the generation before the American Revolution. Under orders from King George III to reform the colonies, the Board of Trade dispatched surveyors to map far-flung frontiers, chart coastlines in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sound Florida’s rivers, parcel tropical islands into plantation tracts, and mark boundaries with indigenous nations across the continental interior. Scaled to military standards of resolution, the maps they produced sought to capture the essential attributes of colonial spaces—their natural capacities for agriculture, navigation, and commerce—and give British officials the knowledge they needed to take command over colonization from across the Atlantic. Britain’s vision of imperial control threatened to displace colonists as meaningful agents of empire and diminished what they viewed as their greatest historical accomplishment: settling the New World. As London’s mapmakers published these images of order in breathtaking American atlases, Continental and British forces were already engaged in a violent contest over who would control the real spaces they represented. Accompanying Edelson’s innovative spatial history of British America are online visualizations of more than 250 original maps, plans, and charts.

Take a journey back to the uncharted oceans with the most celebrated European explorers! Interest in Southeast Asian history and culture is higher than ever before. Ancient cartography of Oceania holds mysteries as old as time--were these early ocean maps molded as much by fantasy as fact? Early Mapping of the Pacific bravely delves into all the questions surrounding the history of maps. The Pacific Ocean remained a mystery to mapmakers until the latter part of the eighteenth century. This book traces the European exploration and charting of the vast ocean through a cornucopia of beautiful maps stretching from Japan on the northwest, through Juan Fernandez Island on the southeast, with the various islands of Oceania the primary focus. It follows the history of mapmaking from Classical times up to the turn of the twentieth century. The ancient seafarers who ventured eastward from Asia, and were the Pacific's true pioneers, left no maps. They still helped make cartography history, thanks to the navigational genius their descendants passed to European visitors. Thus, the Pacific as we now know it was formally born when the colonization of America partitioned the seas between Europe and Asia into two. This gorgeous edition presents nearly 300 rare Asia maps and early prints, compiled by expert Thomas Suarez. Topics addressed include: The Pacific Islands and Their People Mariners, Mapmakers and the Great Ocean The Pacific Evolves after Magellan In the Wake of the Solomon Islands Earliest Mapping of Australia and New Zealand The Age of Enlightenment The Three Voyages of James Cook The Discovery of Tahiti and Hawaii Micronesia, the Elusive Isles Surveyors, Whalers, and Missionaries You, too, can share in the wonder of these explorers' vast geographical and cultural discoveries, and the voyages that led to them, in this comprehensive cartography book.

"The Writer's Map is an atlas of the journeys that our most creative storytellers have made throughout their lives. This collection encompasses not only the maps that appear in their books but also the many maps that have inspired them, the sketches that they used while writing, and others that simply sparked their curiosity. " -- Publisher's description