The Chicago Blog

Writing for the May 15th edition of Nature, reviewer Deborah Jean Warner gives a nice summary of Mark Monmonier's new book, Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change:

Mark Monmonier, professor of geography at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in New York, seeks to inform the public about how cartography and society intersect. He wishes us to look closely at maps, to recognize which features are shown or missing, and understand why. In Coast Lines, he offers an assortment of eclectic and fascinating information about how coastlines have been defined, determined and depicted, focusing on the United States in the twentieth century.

Different maps and charts of the same coastal area show different cartographic coastlines. Monmonier calls our attention to four types, explaining that each is a human construct designed to serve a specific purpose, and the result of many observations and assumptions (the latter sometimes gaining the upper hand). One cartographic coastline is the high-water line visible from offshore. Another, introduced in the nineteenth century to aid safe navigation, is the low-water line. Two are more recent: storm surge lines are designed mainly for evacuation planning and flood insurance, and inundation lines describe the plausible effects of changing geological and meteorological conditions.

Read the rest of the review on the Nature website.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | History | History and Philosophy of Science | Reviews
Posted by TXM at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The exhibition Maps: Finding Our Place in the World will be at the Field Museum in Chicago only until January 27. Then it moves to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, where it opens on March 16. The book with the same name, though, can be visited at any time for as long as you want. Like a map of a city or river or mountain range that you once visited, or dream of visiting, the book fixes the memory or fills in the imagination.

Patrick Reardon reviewed the book in Sunday's Chicago Tribune. He called the book "a meaty work that sweeps back and forth across the centuries and millenniums, spans the continents and ranges from the micro-details of a 19th Century London neighborhood to an ancient Aztec rendering of the cosmos." It is also a thing of beauty.

Our web feature for the book presents some unusual maps. A couple of those maps recently caught the attention of a few bloggers, like the Edge of the American West, Matthew Yglesias, and Metafilter.

Resolve to see the exhibit and get the book.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | Reviews
Posted by DB at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

William Grimes had a roundup of books about maps and geography in the New York Times last Friday. "If 90 percent of life is showing up," said Grimes, "the other 10 percent is figuring out how to get there." That sounds about right, based on my excursion downstate over the holiday.

The books selected by Grimes range from a "throbbingly romantic novel" titled The Mapmaker's Opera to "two books that size up the topography of the United States." Since cartography is one of our publishing niches, we were not surprised—only relieved—to see that Grimes included Maps: Finding Our Place in the World edited by by James R. Akerman and Robert W. Karrow Jr. in his piece, as well as Hard Road West: History and Geology along the Gold Rush Trail by Keith Heyer Meldahl. Plus, he lassoes Peter Whitfield's London: A Life in Maps which we distribute for the British Library.

If maps are often on your mind, you'll enjoy our web feature for Maps: Finding Our Place in the World. We also have an excerpt from Hard Road West. More books about maps are in our cartography and geography catalog.

Archived in Books for the News | Cartography and Geography | History
Posted by DB at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maps are universal forms of communication, easily understood and appreciated regardless of culture or language. This truly magisterial book introduces readers to the widest range of maps ever considered in one volume. A companion to the most ambitious exhibition on the history of maps ever mounted in North America, Maps will challenge readers to stretch conventional thought about what constitutes a map and how many different ways we can understand graphically the environment in which we live. Collectors, historians, mapmakers and users, and anyone who has ever "gotten lost" in the lines and symbols of a map will find much to love and learn from in this book.

Read the press release. Also see a special website for the book.

Archived in Anthropology | Art and Architecture | Cartography and Geography | History | Press Releases | Religion
Posted by TXM at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tomorrow, November 2, as part of the three month long Festival of Maps, the Field Museum will open the exhibit, Maps: Finding Our Place in the World. On display will be some of the most fascinating cartographic artifacts ever shown. And just in time for opening day, the Press has released a companion volume of the same name edited by exhibit curators James R. Akerman and Robert W. Karrow, Jr. Like the exhibit, the book surveys a huge range of cartographic sources to explore the many ways that maps have changed our lives and helped us understand the environment in which we live. From a review in Discover magazine:

From religious pilgrimages and vacation road trips to depictions of the ocean floor and the magical landscapes of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, maps chart both physical and imaginary worlds. As geographer Denis Cosgrove explains, "world' is a social concept … a flexible term, stretching from physical environment to the world of ideas, microbes, of sin. Arguably, all these worlds can be mapped." And they are in this compelling and very readable companion volume to the current exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago.

To find out more about the book, see this special website where you can view a sampling of images organized by theme from just of few of the many fascinating maps in the book.

And if you're planning a day out tomorrow to go see some of these maps in person, you can check out the Field Museum's exhibition highlights online at their website which includes ticket sales, a list of special events, and a primer on what you can expect too see if you go.

In addition to the exhibit at the Field Museum many other Chicago institutions including the Newberry Library and the Chicago History Museum are participating in the Festival of Maps over its three month time span, making it one of the most ambitious celebrations of maps ever. For those looking for a more comprehensive rundown of the entire Festival, navigate to the Chicago Tribune's festival website which includes a guide to the Festival's various venues, video presentations by the Tribune's Patrick Reardon, and even a special blog with reviews and commentary on the Festival's many exhibits. The Tribune also links to the Festival's official website where you can find an indispensable map (of course) of the Festival of Maps and other online features.

Archived in Anthropology | Art and Architecture | Author Events | Cartography and Geography | History
Posted by TXM at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Now available in paperback— Arguably the most influential document in the history of American urban planning, Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago, coauthored by Edward Bennett and produced in collaboration with the Commercial Club of Chicago, proposed many of the city's most distinctive features. Carl Smith's fascinating history reveals the Plan's central role in shaping the ways people envision the cityscape and urban life itself and points out ways the Plan continues to influence debates, even a century after its publication, about how to create a vibrant and habitable urban environment.

Read the press release.

Archived in Art and Architecture | Cartography and Geography | Chicago | History | Press Releases
Posted by TXM at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Chicago Tribune is running an article today about the forthcoming Festival of Maps—a three month display of "rare and important" maps from around the world to be held at more than twenty participating venues throughout Chicagoland beginning later this fall. In conjunction with the exhibition the Press is set to release a companion volume in early November, Maps: Finding Our Place in the World edited by James R. Akerman and Robert W. Karrow, Jr. Delivering a comprehensive account of the diverse ways maps have been used throughout the ages and across cultures, Maps covers much of the material featured in the exhibition, from maps "tracing the rise of the American West" to those used to track and predict the weather. Read today's article in the Tribune or check out the exhibition's official website at www.festivalofmaps.com to find out more about the Festival, or learn more about the companion volume, Maps, on our website.

Archived in Anthropology | Art and Architecture | Books for the News | Cartography and Geography | History
Posted by TXM at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

National Public Radio's science correspondent, Robert Krulwich, has done a couple of stories over the past few days on geographic place names, inspired by Mark Monmonier's latest book, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame.

In the story "Congratulations, Here's Your Mountain!" Krulwich explores the historic role that postmasters played in naming the town in which their post office was located. Krulwich shows how a similar practice continues today, such as Antarctica's Mount Payne, which is named for Roger Payne, retired executive secretary to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

Krulwich also relates, in "An American Story: Give Me Back My 'H!'" the attempt by that same Board on Geographic Names, in the year after it was created in 1890, to standardize the spelling of place names. The Board replaced centre with center and shortened the suffix burgh to burg. The Board could not withstand the tenacity of the citizens of the Iron City, however, and reversed itself in 1911, allowing Pittsburg to once again become Pittsburgh.

You can read an excerpt from the book. Mark also contributed an essay to this blog.

Archived in Books for the News | Cartography and Geography
Posted by DB at 09:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A recent review in the Times Literary Supplement nicely summarizes Mark Monmonier's latest book, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame: "Molly's Nipple, Utah. Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Dago's Gulch, Montana: naming places has always been political as well as a personal act, but Mark Monmonier's boyishly infectious history of (principally American) toponyms maps out the sexism, racism, and imperialism through which we have come to know our landscapes."

The TLS review (published in the UK, remember) cites several interesting examples including the late-nineteenth century "anti-imperialist" Harrison government's attempt to instill nationalist sentiment through nomenclature: "Centreview (Mississippi) [was renamed] as Centerview, Isleborough (Maine) as Isleboro … and thereby insured Americans would never again pronounce Edinburgh correctly."

"Edinburgh"? Has to rhyme with "Pittsburgh," right?

As the TLS review notes, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow "shows that maps are no more neutral than any other record of human construction" and are as much an indispensable resource to the cultural critic as to the geographer.

Read an excerpt from the book. Mark also contributed an essay to this blog, which includes a map of Brassiere Hills.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by TXM at 03:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A review written for the Times Literary Supplement summarizes Robert Bruegmann's latest work, Sprawl: A Compact History, as a "polemic [that takes] issue with one of the great environmental issues of today: how to reconcile the burgeoning demand for detached greenfield settings with the limits on the use of land, energy resources, and the loss of traditional urban cultures and identities."

While the detractors of suburbanization call it sprawl and assert that it is economically inefficient, socially inequitable, environmentally irresponsible, and aesthetically ugly, Bruegmann calls it a logical consequence of economic growth and the democratization of society, with benefits that urban planners have failed to recognize. The TLS review applauds this unique perspective on the suburbs saying: "In the 20th century the suburbs had bad press. Bruegmann compensates with a book that will be uncomfortable to read for many but is elegantly written and fair to nearly all points of view. Anybody interested in the future of planning policy will have to read it."

Read an excerpt from the book.

Archived in Art and Architecture | Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by TXM at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An August 26 review in the Wall Street Journal praises Alessandro Scafi's new book Mapping Paradise for its groundbreaking "fresh look" at the historical practice of cartographically depicting paradise.

"His book is richer in text than images," says the WSJ reviewer John J. Miller, "though the images are the highlight, and they are well presented. An ancient map rendered on faded parchment—labeled in a cramped script and written in a dead language—can be as incomprehensible to modern viewers as Mapquest directions would be to a Crusader seeking the Holy Land. Mr. Scafi displays originals and, where appropriate, offers close ups and diagrams to help decipher their content."

The first book to show how paradise has been expressed in cartographic form throughout two millennia, Mapping Paradise reveals how the most deeply reflective thoughts about the ultimate destiny of all human life have been molded and remolded, generation by generation.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | History | Religion | Reviews
Posted by TXM at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The L. A. Times recently ran a review of Alessandro Scafi's Mapping Paradise. Reviewer David L. Ulin says of Scafi's book: "Mapping Paradise aspires to be nothing less than a history of earthly paradise … it is an atlas of the imagination, a guide to a landscape that remains just the slightest bit out of reach." But though paradise may be beyond our grasp, fortunately, Scafi's book is not. As Ulin insists "Scafi writes with a scholar's thoroughness. Mapping Paradise is thick with footnotes; at times, the prose can get a little dense. [But] it's all redeemed by the illustrations, 21 of them in color, that appear on nearly every page."

The first book to show how paradise has been expressed in cartographic form throughout two millennia, Mapping Paradise explores the intellectual conditions that made the medieval mapping of paradise possible and the challenge for mapmakers to make visible a place that was geographically inaccessible and yet real, remote in time and yet still the scene of an essential episode of the history of salvation. A history of the cartography of paradise that journeys from the beginning of Christianity to the present day, Mapping Paradise reveals how the most deeply reflective thoughts about the ultimate destiny of all human life have been molded—and remolded—generation by generation.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | History | Religion | Reviews
Posted by TXM at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A recent article by John C. Hudson in the Chicago Sun-Times discusses how race and class "skewed the city's grand symmetrical plans by, in essence, confining the growth of black residential neighborhoods to a single swath that expanded southward, east of State Street—commonly known as the black belt. … That growing imbalance between the North and South sides of Chicago was replicated in the city's suburbs. … Since World War II, the expansion of Chicago's suburbs and industry began to tilt northward, with growth reduced in any place likely to be in the expansion path of the black population."

Today "the residential patterns of African-American households, at least for those in the upper-income bracket, finally are beginning to look more like those of other racial and ethnic groups." However the northwest skew of Chicagoland "is bound to affect life in Chicago for decades to come."

Hudson is the author of Chicago: A Geography of the City and Its Region, the first geography of the Windy City in more than fifty years.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | Chicago
Posted by DB at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first book to show how paradise has been expressed in cartographic form throughout two millennia, Mapping Paradise explores the intellectual conditions that made the medieval mapping of paradise possible and the challenge for mapmakers to make visible a place that was geographically inaccessible and yet real, remote in time and yet still the scene of an essential episode of the history of salvation. A history of the cartography of paradise that journeys from the beginning of Christianity to the present day, Mapping Paradise reveals how the most deeply reflective thoughts about the ultimate destiny of all human life have been molded—and remolded—generation by generation.

Read the press release.

Archived in Art and Architecture | Cartography and Geography | History | Press Releases | Religion
Posted by DB at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mark Monmonier, author of From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame, was interviewed last week by Robin Young on WBUR's program Here and Now. Young begins the segment by warning that "some of the language in the following conversation about maps might be upsetting for some, but that's the point." Monmonier discusses map names—toponyms—that are offensive, pejorative or simply lascivious. He does manage to get bleeped, but just once.

Listen to the program segment. Read an excerpt from the book and a blog essay by Monmonier.

Archived in Cartography and Geography
Posted by DB at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Sunday Telegraph featured a review of Mark Monmonier's From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame. Lawrence Norfolk wrote: "The direct relevance of this book to anyone besides mapping administrators is not immediately obvious. It is, though, a treasure-trove of geographic factoids, ranging from 'trap streets' (fictitious features inserted in maps to guard against copyright infringements) to the importance of inverted commas in Hawaiian place names. But an enticing practical narrative lies buried in these pages: a civil activist's handbook on how to change the toponyms around you. Or, to be blunt, how to get something named after you.… From anecdotal evidence (gathered in From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow and elsewhere), this reviewer suggests the surest route to toponymic immortality is becoming the President of the United States of America. Then being shot."

Read an excerpt.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by at 01:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight at 6:00 p.m., Gilfoyle will discuss and sign Millennium Park at the Harold Washington Library. Items from the official archives of Millennium Park will be on view during the event. The event is free and open to the public.

Timothy J. Gilfoyle's reading was chosen by the Chicago Reader as its Critic's Choice of the week. Harold Henderson wrote, "The story of Millennium Park, as told by Loyola historian Timothy J. Gilfoyle in Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark, is three uplifting tales in one: the site, up from the lake and the post-Fire rubble; the politics, up from a landfill's worth of failed plans; and the culture, up from a conservative vision of merely filling out the north end of Grant Park to a tightly packed series of walkways, sculptures, and theatrical spaces.… This impressively organized and lavishly illustrated book itself wouldn't exist without financial support from the Minow Family Foundation. Those uncomfortable with the project's delays, cost overruns, privatized process, or jangly outcome get their say, but the mayor has the last word."

Archived in Art and Architecture | Author Events | Cartography and Geography | Chicago | History | Reviews
Posted by at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In his June 18 "On Language" column in the New York Times Magazine, William Safire gives a nod to Mark Monmonier's new book, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame. Safire briefly discusses the three "slurs" or "vulgarisms" in the title of the book. (Can you spot them? I knew you could.)

Mr. Safire further nods to us and our colleagues when he says: "This scholarly treatise of topography and cartographic analysis was given a zippy title by the swinging marketers in Chicago." We were taken aback by that word "swinging." Isn't that what the parental units were doing in Ice Storm? Does Mr. Safire know something about the Chicago marketing department that we don't know?

And if "scholarly treatise" sounds a bit dismissive, do yourself the favor of reading an excerpt from Monmonier's zippy little tome.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | Commentary
Posted by DB at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight, Timothy J. Gilfoyle, author of Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark, will appear on WTTW's "Chicago Tonight" television program. The show airs at 7:00 p.m. (CST).

Tomorrow morning, Gilfoyle will be interviewed by Gretchen Helfrich on WBEZ 91.5 FM radio's "Eight Forty-Eight" program (9:00-10:00 a.m.). In addition to regular broadcast, the show will be accessible via an online audio stream on the WBEZ Web site.

Next Wednesday, June 21 at 6:00 p.m., Gilfoyle will speak at the Harold Washington Library's Cindy Pritzker Auditorium (400 South State Street). Gilfoyle will discuss and sign Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark. Items from the official archives of Millennium Park will be on view during the event.

Archived in Art and Architecture | Author Events | Cartography and Geography | Chicago | History
Posted by at 03:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday's edition of the Chicago Sun-Times featured a nice review of Timothy J. Gilfoyle's Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark. Kevin Nance wrote, "The creation of the $475 million park, which opened in July 2004 four years late and at more than twice its originally projected cost, was fraught with tension among its high-powered participants.… This high-stakes game of push-and-pull forms the dramatic core of historian Timothy J. Gilfoyle's absorbing and lavishly illustrated Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark, to be published this week."

Archived in Art and Architecture | Cartography and Geography | Chicago | History | Reviews
Posted by at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chicago Life recently reviewed Robert Bruegmann's Sprawl: A Compact History: "At a recent panel discussion at the prestigious Chicago Architecture Foundation, the distinguished Doug Kelbaugh, dean of the University of Michigan's School of Architecture, described the book Sprawl: A Compact History as the most dangerous book he as read. The book was written by the also very distinguished Robert Bruegmann, professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The word 'dangerous' suggests that something is very wrong with this book. In fact, the book, which is short and easily consumed, turns conventional wisom on its head suggesting that 'low-density scattered, urban development without systematic large-scale or regional public land-use planning,' in other words sprawl, is not all that bad."

The first major book to strip urban sprawl of its pejorative connotations, Sprawl offers a completely new vision of the city and its growth. Bruegmann leads readers to the powerful conclusion that "in its immense complexity and constant change, the city—whether dense and concentrated at its core, looser and more sprawling in suburbia, or in the vast tracts of exurban penumbra that extend dozens, even hundreds, of miles—is the grandest and most marvelous work of mankind."

Read an excerpt.

Archived in Art and Architecture | Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

	Squaw Peak, which overlooks Phoenix, Arizona, drew the attention of Native American activists, who sought to change the name, and place names purists, who resented the governor‘s attempt at renaming. (From the Sunnyslope, Arizona USGS topographic quadrangle map.)

I‘m surprised few people collect twentieth-century maps, which are more readily available than earlier artifacts, less expensive to acquire, and more varied in content. In contrast to traditional themes like military maps, nautical charts, or a particular mapmaker, the collector of modern maps can easily focus on his or her ancestors, birthplace, travels, hobbies, or occupation. History buffs can concentrate on places prominent in military, diplomatic, industrial, or intellectual history—Gettysburg, Versailles, Thomas Edison‘s Menlo Park (New Jersey), and London‘s Bloomsbury district spring to mind—or on specific types of places, such as battlefields, National Parks, or even disaster sites, which afford intriguing cartographic narratives of affluence, devastation, and recovery. Collectors eager to mix history and design can concentrate on propaganda or transportation maps, while hobbyists fascinated with mapping technology can focus on aerial imagery, engraving techniques, or the effect of computers and computer modeling on map design and content. And young collectors have an excellent chance to see their collections grow in value with rising demand for increasingly rare artifacts.

Place and features names, also called toponyms, make some maps particularly collectable. As I discuss in From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow, twentieth-century American mapmakers inherited a cultural landscape with inflammatory toponyms like Jap Gulch and Nigger Hill, hidden in plain sight on government topographic maps but difficult to remove because of bureaucratic inertia. While the more offensive racial slurs were erased in the 1960s and 1970s by blanket renaming, politically incorrect or raunchy toponyms become controversial when local residents resist efforts to replace names like Squaw Peak and Whorehouse Meadow, with a recognized yet sullied history.

Continue reading "Get these inflammatory toponyms before they're gone" »

Archived in Author Essays, Interviews, and Excerpts | Cartography and Geography
Posted by DB at 06:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In today's Boston Globe Michael Kenney writes about Mark Monmonier's "entertaining and enlightening" new book, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame. Kenney summarizes the book's description of the process of renaming controversial geographic locations and why it's important: "Monmonier writes, 'how a nation manipulates and preserves its place and feature names says a lot about its respect for history, minority rights and indigenous culture.'"

From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow probes this little-known chapter in American cartographic history by considering the intersecting efforts to computerize mapmaking, standardize geographic names, and respond to public concern over ethnically offensive appellations. Interweaving cartographic history with tales of politics and power, celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier locates his story within the past and present struggles of mapmakers to create an orderly process for naming that avoids confusion, preserves history, and serves different political aims.

Read an excerpt.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The London Review of Books recently praised Robert Bruegmann's Sprawl: A Compact History. From the review by Andrew Saint: "To judge whether sprawl is a symptom of global capitalism at its most rampant and wasteful … technical arguments must be addressed. Bruegmann takes us through them lucidly and economically, neither flinching from nor getting mired in detail, and steering deftly between neo-con smugness and liberal anguish. These qualities make Sprawl a textbook for our times."

In his incisive history of the expanded city, Bruegmann overturns every assumption we have about sprawl. Taking a long view of urban development, he demonstrates that sprawl is neither recent nor particularly American but as old as cities themselves, just as characteristic of ancient Rome and eighteenth-century Paris as it is of Atlanta or Los Angeles. Nor is sprawl the disaster claimed by many contemporary observers. Although sprawl, like any settlement pattern, has undoubtedly produced problems that must be addressed, it has also provided millions of people with the kinds of mobility, privacy, and choice that were once the exclusive prerogatives of the rich and powerful.

Read an excerpt.

Archived in Art and Architecture | Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Library Journal recently praised Mark Monmonier's new book From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame: "An amusing, informative, and topical study of the contentious issue of place names, this is recommended for public and academic libraries."

Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Mollys Nipple, Utah. Outhouse Draw, Nevada. In the early twentieth century, it was common for towns and geographical features to have salacious, bawdy, and even derogatory names. In the age before political correctness, mapmakers readily accepted any local preference for place names, prizing accurate representation over standards of decorum. From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow probes this little-known chapter in American cartographic history by considering the intersecting efforts to computerize mapmaking, standardize geographic names, and respond to public concern over ethnically offensive appellations. Interweaving cartographic history with tales of politics and power, celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier locates his story within the past and present struggles of mapmakers to create an orderly process for naming that avoids confusion, preserves history, and serves different political aims.

Archived in Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publishers Weekly recently reviewed Mark Monmonier's From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame. From the review: "As the title of this slight but engaging treatise on the politics of place names indicates, a sufficiently detailed gazetteer offers plenty of material to rile up minorities, feminists and persons of refined sensibility. Geographer Monmonier gets a lot of mileage out of typing provocative words into a U.S. Geological Survey database and picking through the resulting ethnic slurs, body parts and scatological imprecations. The Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast states, with their ripe mining-camp history, offer up the most offensive place names, but even staid Newfoundland has a village named Dildo situated next to Spread Eagle Bay.… Although general readers will find much of the procedural and bureaucratic details of official place-naming arcane, they will enjoy a trove of giggle-inducing lore."

Archived in Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Weekly Standard recently praised Robert Bruegmann's Sprawl: A Compact History. From the review by Vincent J. Cannato: "[T]his book is a refreshing antidote to the avalanche of pessimism emanating from the so-called sprawl debate. As Bruegmann writes in his introduction, it seemed as if "so many 'right-minded' people were so vociferous on the subject [of the perils of sprawl] that I began to suspect that there must be something suspicious about the argument itself." He approaches the topic with some much-needed skepticism toward these 'right-minded' critics and adds a healthy dose of nondogmatic libertarianism to the mix. The result is an eminently readable and rational book."

In his incisive history of the expanded city, Bruegmann overturns every assumption we have about sprawl. Taking a long view of urban development, he demonstrates that sprawl is neither recent nor particularly American but as old as cities themselves, just as characteristic of ancient Rome and eighteenth-century Paris as it is of Atlanta or Los Angeles. Nor is sprawl the disaster claimed by many contemporary observers. Although sprawl, like any settlement pattern, has undoubtedly produced problems that must be addressed, it has also provided millions of people with the kinds of mobility, privacy, and choice that were once the exclusive prerogatives of the rich and powerful. The first major book to strip urban sprawl of its pejorative connotations, Sprawl offers a completely new vision of the city and its growth.

Read an excerpt.

Archived in Art and Architecture | Cartography and Geography | History | Reviews
Posted by at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)