Name: A History of the World in 12 Maps
ISBN: 9780143126027

A History of the World in 12 Maps

Argues that, far from being purely objective documents, maps are profoundly subjective expressions of the people who crate them and are intimately tied to the views and agendas of particular times and places. "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 history's 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 Twelve Maps brings maps from classical Greece, Renaissance Europe, and the Islamic and Buddhist worlds to life and reveals their influence on how we-literally-look at our present world. As Brotton shows, the long road to our present geographical reality was rife with controversy, manipulation, and special interests trumping science. Through the centuries maps have been wielded to promote any number of imperial, religious, and economic agendas, and have represented the idiosyncratic and uneasy fusion of science and subjectivity. Brotton also conjures the worlds that produced these notable works of cartography and tells the stories of those who created, used, and misused them for their own ends"

What Hacker News says

nesk_Sep 2025

I definitely recommend you to read A History of the World in 12 Maps by Jerry Broton. It's very interesting and you learn a lot about our world and its history.

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skytreaderNov 2019

Lately, I've had this fascination/idea of reading about world history (or at least major events in world history) through the history of seemingly-mundane, everyday objects. The search for literature in this vein has been predictably difficult but I've been fortunate to come across two great books of this theme.

The first is A History of the World in 12 Maps by Jerry Brotton. The main idea of the book is somewhat like a visual variant of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: that our maps shape our perception of the world and, in turn, our place in it. I actually tried going into this book with a skeptical mind. I first took on the premise that you can't say much about world history by just looking at maps; maybe the crudeness of various Mappaemundi make them unsuitable for educated speculation. I am pleased to say that, by the end of the book, my premise has been completely obliterated.

HN Readers might find the final chapter particularly interesting. It reads on Google Maps and demonstrates that even today in an age of satellite imagery, a map can't claim complete objectivity.

(I'd like to note that in a couple of instances, Brotton gets some technical details wrong. There is an especially glaring one in the Google Maps chapter the hunt for which is left as an exercise to the reader. It does not really affect his main arguments and I really enjoyed the book despite these errors that bite at my attention to detail.)

The next one is Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles. This is lighter in content than 12 Maps and deals mostly with obscure figures (in world history) and yet has emerged influential to the modern-day library. The big thing that piqued my interest in this book is the part about Nazi Germany. I know, I know, any discussion can be maneuvered towards Hitler and especially one about censorship. But Battles shows how libraries are, more than anything, social institutions; how even in a bleak time and place such as Nazi-occupied Europe, make-do libraries can support a community.

He also touches on the other side of the coin. We are used to thinking of libraries as benevolent institutions of knowledge but we rarely think of them as ideological apparatuses to curtail knowledge. Highly recommended even for non-bibliophiles. At least, enjoy entertaining stories behind libraries even if you don't get a grand takeaway lesson from it all.

(Edited for formatting.)

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