Over the past 2000 years, London has developed from a small town, fitting snugly within its walls, into one of the world's largest and most dynamic cities. London: A History in Maps illustrates and helps to explain the transformation using over 400 examples of maps. Side-by-side with the great, semi-official, but sanitized images of the whole city, there are the more utilitarian maps and plans of the parts--actual and envisaged--which perhaps present more than topographical records. They all have something unique to say about the time when they were created. Peter Barber's book reveals the "inside story" behind one of the world's greatest cities.
In this large-format album, the author presents a survey of the range of maps of London since 1550, and of the social and architectural history they portray. Every map is accompanied by contemporary scenes and views, so that the reader obtains an unravelled picture of the city in all its stages of development. The text and captions provide an anecdotal commentary, full of unexpected and unfamiliar details for those who already know and love the capital, and with a clear outline of London's history for those new to the city.
London has been changing and evolving. It has been renewing or replacing the streets and buildings at its heart and has been spreading inexorably outwards. This book illustrates this process by maps of London; and offers a panorama of London's history by focusing on its maps.
For the last century A-Z maps have been the trusted and reliable source of mapping for Londoners. As the face of London has changed so have the maps. History of Britain in Maps author, Philip Parker, will outline these changes and reveal how the city has changed over the last one hundred years in this beautiful coffee table book.
100 maps give a visual representation of the history of Britain. From Mappa Mundi to modern election maps, UK has evolved rapidly, along with the ways in which it has been mapped
Throughout its history, America has been defined through maps. Whether made for military strategy or urban reform, to encourage settlement or to investigate disease, maps invest information with meaning by translating it into visual form. They capture what people knew, what they thought they knew, what they hoped for, and what they feared. As such they offer unrivaled windows onto the past. In this book Susan Schulten uses maps to explore five centuries of American history, from the voyages of European discovery to the digital age. With stunning visual clarity, A History of America in 100 Maps showcases the power of cartography to illuminate and complicate our understanding of the past. Gathered primarily from the British Library’s incomparable archives and compiled into nine chronological chapters, these one hundred full-color maps range from the iconic to the unfamiliar. Each is discussed in terms of its specific features as well as its larger historical significance in a way that conveys a fresh perspective on the past. Some of these maps were made by established cartographers, while others were made by unknown individuals such as Cherokee tribal leaders, soldiers on the front, and the first generation of girls to be formally educated. Some were tools of statecraft and diplomacy, and others were instruments of social reform or even advertising and entertainment. But when considered together, they demonstrate the many ways that maps both reflect and influence historical change. Audacious in scope and charming in execution, this collection of one hundred full-color maps offers an imaginative and visually engaging tour of American history that will show readers a new way of navigating their own worlds.
A spectacular, large-format collection of Adam Dant's fine art maps giving a unique view of our history and life today. Artist and cartographer Adam Dant surveys London's past, present and future from his studio in the East End. Beautiful, witty and subversive, his astonishing maps offer a compelling view of history, lore, language and life in the capital and beyond. Traversed by a plethora of colourful characters including William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mary Wollstonecraft and Barbara Windsor, Adam Dant's maps extend from the shipwrecks on the bed of the Thames to the stars in the sky over Soho. Along the way, he captures all the rich traditions in the capital, from brawls and buried treasure to gin and gentlemen's clubs. Accompanying text by the artist gives the background to each of the handsome cartographic artworks, revealing his inspirations and artistic process and outlining his cultural allusions. Reproduced in large format, the maps invite the reader to study all the astonishing and often hilarious details within, offering hours of fascination for the curious. Published in conjunction with the Spitalfields Life blog, Maps of London & Beyond includes an extensive interview with Adam Dant by the blog's founder The Gentle Author.
The twentieth century was a golden age of mapmaking, an era of cartographic boom. Maps proliferated and permeated almost every aspect of daily life, not only chronicling geography and history but also charting and conveying myriad political and social agendas. Here Tim Bryars and Tom Harper select one hundred maps from the millions printed, drawn, or otherwise constructed during the twentieth century and recount through them a narrative of the century’s key events and developments. As Bryars and Harper reveal, maps make ideal narrators, and the maps in this book tell the story of the 1900s—which saw two world wars, the Great Depression, the Swinging Sixties, the Cold War, feminism, leisure, and the Internet. Several of the maps have already gained recognition for their historical significance—for example, Harry Beck’s iconic London Underground map—but the majority of maps on these pages have rarely, if ever, been seen in print since they first appeared. There are maps that were printed on handkerchiefs and on the endpapers of books; maps that were used in advertising or propaganda; maps that were strictly official and those that were entirely commercial; maps that were printed by the thousand, and highly specialist maps issued in editions of just a few dozen; maps that were envisaged as permanent keepsakes of major events, and maps that were relevant for a matter of hours or days. As much a pleasure to view as it is to read, A History of the Twentieth Century in 100 Maps celebrates the visual variety of twentieth century maps and the hilarious, shocking, or poignant narratives of the individuals and institutions caught up in their production and use.
A New York Times Bestseller “Maps allow the armchair traveler to roam the world, the diplomat to argue his points, the ruler to administer his country, the warrior to plan his campaigns and the propagandist to boost his cause… rich and beautiful.” – Wall Street Journal Throughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world, and our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, maps of the world are unavoidably ideological and subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power and authority of particular times and places. Mapmakers do not simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age. In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton examines the significance of 12 maps - from the almost mystical representations of ancient history to the satellite-derived imagery of today. He vividly recreates the environments and circumstances in which each of the maps was made, showing how each conveys a highly individual view of the world. Brotton shows how each of his maps both influenced and reflected contemporary events and how, by considering it in all its nuances and omissions, we can better understand the world that produced it. Although the way we map our surroundings is more precise than ever before, Brotton argues that maps today are no more definitive or objective than they have ever been. Readers of this beautifully illustrated and masterfully argued book will never look at a map in quite the same way again. “A fascinating and panoramic new history of the cartographer’s art.” – The Guardian “The intellectual background to these images is conveyed with beguiling erudition…. There is nothing more subversive than a map.” – The Spectator “A mesmerizing and beautifully illustrated book.” —The Telegraph
