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Cover

The Oxford Map Companion

One Hundred Sources in World History

Professor Patricia Seed

Publication Date - 13 August 2013

ISBN: 9780199765638

272 pages
Paperback
10 x 8 inches

In Stock

A rich and diverse collection of 100 historical maps illustrating how peoples and cultures throughout the human past have imagined their worlds

Description

Bringing together a rich and diverse collection of 100 historical maps from the Paleolithic to the present, The Oxford Map Companion: One Hundred Sources in World History illustrates how peoples and cultures throughout the human past have imagined their worlds. The collection--which includes many never-before published maps--spans a broad spectrum of human time and cultural diversity. It also features a wide range of map types from every continent, including stick charts, porcelain maps, maps created on sealskin, celestial maps, powder-horn and buckskin maps, silk "escape maps," radio maps, ordnance surveys, subway maps, and maps of the Internet.

Combining cutting-edge scholarship and accessibility, renowned scholar and award-wining author Patricia Seed presents new and innovative ways of looking at maps. Organized both chronologically and cartographically, nearly every historical map is accompanied by a locator map and/or schematic diagram--personally crafted by the author--that helps the reader to see the map in its geographical context and to grasp the meaning of its symbols, labels, and overall layout. A master chronology of world history in the front of the book and timelines at the beginning of each Part set the history of mapping in a global framework. Finally, every map includes a corresponding QR code that will allow readers to instantly explore a Google Earth outline of the area covered in the historical map on their smartphones.

Visit the companion website at http://www.mapcompanion.org/.

About the Author(s)

Patricia Seed is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of several books including American Pentimento: The Pursuit of Riches and the Invention of "Indians" (2001) and Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492-1640 (1995). In recent years, Seed has been intensively involved in research on old and new questions in cartography. She bring her skills in the use of digital imaging technologies (GIS and graphic design software) to the study--not only to reformulate the questions of the history of map making--but to offer historical and comparative scholarship new tools of analysis and new ways of representing the knowledge that it produces.

Reviews

"Patricia Seed's Oxford Map Companion is a landmark achievement. Seed has produced a magisterial and concise yet authoritative account of mapmaking, explaining its centrality to our understanding of world history."--Jerry Brotton, Queen Mary University (London), author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps

"Superb pictures, expert commentaries, accessible language, and a breadth of knowledge few scholars can rival: Patricia Seed gives us an incomparable resource for studying and teaching the history of maps."--Felipe Fernández-Armesto, University of Notre Dame, author of Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration

"An eclectic and informative set of original maps, spanning the full scope of the global historical record. The reproductions are excellent and Seed's text is both edifying and entertaining. The Oxford Map Companion will be of keen interest both to map enthusiasts and to teachers and students of world history."--Martin Lewis, Stanford University, coauthor of The Myth of Continents

"Seed has produced a fascinating, diverse and thoughtful book, ideal as a teaching resource and an introduction to the breadth and chronological span of the globe's many cartographic traditions." --Times Higher Education

Table of Contents

    Preface
    Acknowledgments
    About the Author
    Introduction
    How this Book Works
    Timeline of World History

    Part One: Mapping the Skies: Prehistory - 1515 CE

    1. Lascaux, France: Pleiades, c. 17,000 BCE
    2. Polynesian Constellations, 300 BCE-1400 CE
    3. African Star Lore
    4. The Emu, Australia
    5. The Origin of the Zodiac, Ancient Mesopotamia: 1130 BCE
    6. Greek Constellations and Arabic Stars: The Almagest (150 CE) and Arabic Star Lists (1065 CE)
    7. First Maps of the Greek Constellations, Persia, 964 CE
    8. The Hebrew Zodiac, 1390 CE
    9. Dunhuang Star Map (Tang Dynasty), 618-907 CE
    10. Chinese Constellations (Song Dynasty), 1193 CE
    11. From Sky to Land: Directions in China, 3000 BCE - Present
    12. Albrecht Durer, Map of the Constellations, 1515 CE

    Part Two: Roads, Rivers, and Routes: 3000 BCE to 1300 CE

    13. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Town of Nippur, c. 2300 BCE
    14. Map of the Route to Paradise, Egypt, 2055-1650 BCE
    15. Road Map to the Egyptian Quarries, 1150 BCE
    16. Rivers and Roads: The Oldest Map in China, c. 239 BCE
    17. Rome Mapped in Marble: The Severan Marbles, 203-211 CE
    18. All Roads Lead To Rome: The Peutinger Table, c. 300 CE
    19. River Maps: The Indus River, c. 1065 CE
    20. Cairo to Constantinople: A Nautical Route along the Mediterranean, c. 1065 CE
    21. Crusader Jerusalem, c. 1100 CE
    22. Gough Map of Britain: Rivers and Routes, 1375 CE

    Part Three: Mapping the World 600 BCE - c. 1450 CE

    23. Babylonian World Map, 600 BCE
    24. Medieval Christian T-O Map, c. 600 CE
    25. World Climate Map, c. Fifth Century CE
    26. Medieval Islamic Map of the World, c. 1300 CE
    27. First Map of Turkish Central Asia, 1072 CE
    28. Hereford Mappa Mundi, 1300 CE
    29. Idrisi's Circular Map of the World, 1165 CE
    30. Earliest Known Ptolemaic Map of the World, c. 1300 CE
    31. Fra Mauro's Map of the World, 1448-1459 CE
    32. Buddhist World Map from Japan, 1710 CE
    33. Jain World Map

    Part Four: An Expanding World, 1300 CE - 1570 CE

    34. Catalan World Map, 1375
    35. Arabic Portolan, c. 1300
    36. Chart of the Mediterranean, Western Europe, and Western Africa, 1506
    37. Which Way Is North: An Introduction to the History of Directions in the West
    38. Map of the Known World, by Martellus, c. 1490
    39. First Map of America: The Cantino Map, 1502
    40. Latitude and Longitude: The Keys to Expanding the World
    41. Waldseemuller Map of the World
    42. The Indian Ocean Mapped by Jorge Reinel
    43. A Heart-Shaped Map
    44. Magellan's Circumnavigation of the Globe, 1519-1522
    45. Abraham Ortelius, The Atlas, 1570, Part A
    46. Abraham Ortelius, The Atlas, 1570, Part B
    47. Mercator's World Map, 1569

    Part Five: Worlds Colliding, c. 1550 - c. 1800 CE

    48. Native Towns of Spanish Mexico, 1570
    49. Guaman Poma, Mappamundi as Satire, 1615
    50. Northeast Coast of North America, 1607
    51. East and Southeast Asia, 1625
    52. Nagasaki Harbor, Japan, 1764
    53. Tupaia's Map of Tahiti for Captain Cook, 1769
    54. North American Buckskin Map, 1774-1775
    55. Powder Horn Maps, 1750s-1780s
    56. Slaves on the Gold Coast of Africa, 1729
    57. The Niger River Described by a Fulani Ruler, 1824
    58. The Cedid Atlas, 1803
    59. Napoleon's Advance and Retreat from Moscow, 1812-1813

    Part Six: Land Surveys, c. 800 - 1800 CE

    60. Japan: The First Rice Field Surveys, Eighth Century CE
    61. Chinese County Maps: Dinghai County, 1226 CE
    62. Elizabethan Tapestry Map, 1580
    63. The Land That Windmills Made: A Dutch Polder Map, 1712
    64. Paris on the Eve of the French Revolution, 1789
    65. Ordnance Survey Origins: Scotland's Loch Ness, 1747-1755
    66. Thai Map, c. 1782
    67. The Valley of Kashmir, 1836
    68. South Joella Province, Korea, 1800s
    69. Japan: Gyoki Map on a Porcelain Plate, c. 1830
    70. Mongolian Land Survey, 1892

    Part Seven: Mapping the Natural World, 1800 - 2000

    71. Bali: Rivers and Temples, 1930
    72. The Great Trigonometric Survey of India, 1802-1842
    73. Alexander Humboldt's Map of Plants on Chimborazo, 1803
    74. Geological Map of Southwestern England, 1815
    75. 1851 Whale Chart
    76. Monsoon and Trade Wind Chart of the Indian Ocean, 1864
    77. Marshall Islands Stick Map, 1880s
    78. Crown Price Islands in Disko Bay, Greenland, 1926
    79. Luba Mapping Device, Congo, 1930s
    80. The Modern Zodiac, 1933
    81. Maps into Art: Aboriginal Map, 1989
    82. Map of the Ocean Floor, 1977
    83. Map of Antarctica, 2003
    84. Coastal Flooding in West Africa: Mapping the Future

    Part Eight: Empires, Wars, and Decolonization, 1884 - 1999

    85. Cape to Cairo: The Scramble for Africa, 1884-1885
    86. Territorial Claims in Central and Eastern Europe Prior to World War I
    87. 1916 Trench Warfare Artillery Map, Flanders
    88. Soviet Georgia, from the First Russian Atlas, 1937-1939
    89. Japanese Aviation Map of Korea, 1933
    90. Royal Air Force Map for Bombing Northern Germany, 1943
    91. World War II Silk Escape Map
    92. Post-War New World Map, 1942
    93. Black Homeland Consolidation Proposals for South Africa, 1973
    94. Peoples and Nations of the Soviet Union, 1991
    95. Decolonization in Africa, 1960-1975

    Part Nine: Mapping Transport and Communication Networks, 1884 - 2006
    96. Brazilian Railway Map, 1884
    97. French National Automobile Map, 1900
    98. Harry Beck's 1933 Map of the London Underground
    99. Landing on 27R: London's Heathrow Airport, 2006
    100. Map of the Internet, 2003

    Appendix: Google Earth and Google Maps

    Glossary
    Bibliography
    Credits
    Types of maps included in the volume
    Locations for the maps in the volume
    Index
    Technical Note

Reviews

Robert J. Mayhew, professor of historical geography at University of Bristol, reviews The Oxford Map Companion in THE (Times Higher Education).
Read his review here!

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