Publication Date:October 29, 2009 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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ISBN13: 9780142005255
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Condition: New
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Product Description An intriguing collection of more than one hundred out-of-the-ordinary maps, blending art, history, and pop culture for a unique atlas of humanity
Spanning many centuries, all continents, and the realms of outer space and the imagination, this collection of 138 unique graphics combines beautiful full-color illustrations with quirky statistics and smart social commentary. The result is a distinctive illustrated guide to the world. Categories of cartographic curiosities include: Literary Creations, featuring a map of Thomas More's Utopia and the world of George Orwell's 1984
Cartographic Misconceptions, such as a lavish seventeenthcentury map depicting California as an island Political Parody, containing the "Jesusland map" and other humorous takes on voter profiles Whatchamacallit, including a map of the area codes for regions where the rapper Ludacris sings about having "hoes" Obscure Proposals, capturing Thomas Jefferson's vision for dividing the Northwest Territory into ten states with names such as Polypotamia and Assenisipia Fantastic Maps, with a depiction of what the globe might look like if the sea and land were inverted
The Strange Maps blog has been named by GeekDad Blog on Wired.com "one of the more unusual and unique sites seen on the Web that doesn't sell anything or promote an agenda" and it's currently ranked #423 on Technorati's Top 500 Blogs.
Brimming with trivia, deadpan humor, and idiosyncratic lore, Strange Maps is a fascinating tour of all things weird and wonderful in the world of cartography.
Step Right Up! See the World's Smallest Kingdom Here!March 24, 2010 David R. Anderson(Santa Fe, NM) This is a Wonder Book, a collection of "cartographic curiosities" in the words of the author. It is to a conventional atlas what side shows are to the big top. Here you'll find the misshapen and the misbegotten, the tallest man and world's smallest flame eater, the five-legged animals of the cartographic kingdom. Frank Jacobs, the author, an English journalist, knows his stuff and presents it with a knowing smile. There are eighteen tent shows (chapters) where you'll discover over 100 maps, each with a unique story.
The most charming series of maps in the book are The Aleph Maps, a series of 19th Century anthropomorphic depictions of twelve European nations: Denmark as a figure skater, Russia as a bear, Ireland as a peasant woman, etc. Created for children as a way of making geography interesting, they are colorful, flamboyant and captivating. The map of Oz, which shows the boundaries of the surrounding counties, would make a fine playroom poster. For history buffs, a political cartoon in the form of a Civil War period map showing General-in-Chief Winfield Scott's proposed campaign route to subdue the Confederacy, is a winner. Titled "Scott's Great Snake," the road from Maryland to Missouri is illustrated as a great snake and Scott's proposal became known as "The Anaconda Plan." President Lincoln didn't buy it. But, as you will see, he does have an island named for him in the South Pacific.
Jacobs' scholarship is on display in his selection and description of maps used to illustrate the novels of Jules Verne. These show up in the second tent, "Literary Creations," and involve, in addition to Lincoln's island, the imaginary country Verne called New Switzerland. Jacob's scholarship here more than equals that found in the description of New Switzerland in "The Dictionary of Imaginary Places" (Harcourt Brace, New York, 2000). (However, I credit The Dictionary for including a map of The Marvellous (sic) Land of Oz which marks the spot where Alice's house landed and shows you where to find Wise Acres and Rigmarole Town.)
Inevitably, some of the maps Jacobs' selected can not be reduced to fit the page without making their fine print difficult to read without a magnifying glass. And you may suspect he chose a few of the maps more to pad out the book than for their intrinsic interest, e.g. the beef stake cut to look like the map of Brazil. But you can't help but be fascinated by many of his selections including the metro system map that shows you how to get from Vancouver to Auckland on the train by way of Prague. For sure, Jacobs provides a way of looking at the world that puts far more in perspective than oceans and land masses.
Just plain funMarch 13, 2010 James Pernikoff(Marietta, Georgia USA) This is a fun book just to breeze through and see everything from the ridiculous to the sublime. Some of the maps are exceptional, others are positively bizarre. Anyone who takes this book too seriously (like Julia) needs to get a life.....
Humor abounds in a collection that uses cartography to point out ironies and inconsistencies in perceptionJanuary 20, 2010 Midwest Book Review(Oregon, WI USA) STRANGE MAPS: AN ATLAS OF CARTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITIES spans centuries and the world in a unique map book blending color maps with quirky statistics, observations, and political as well as literary commentary. Humor abounds in a collection that uses cartography to point out ironies and inconsistencies in perception, making for a fine collection for any general library.
Don't Waste Your Money . . .December 16, 2009 Julia(Pennsylvania) 17 out of 31 found this review helpful
I ordered this book as gift for a family member who is a geography/cartography major. I was hoping the book would be filled with intriguing maps - Or, at least contain some humorous diagrams and imagery.
Instead, Strange Maps failed to meet even my lowest expectations. This is a book you only skim through once and never pick up again. It's not even worth reading from front to back.
The selection of images are mostly duds. Several of the maps are only childish illustrations. Most lack any true incite or intrigue - only a select few are graphically compelling. To make it worse, the writing is poor and mostly organized by bullet points.
What is so interesting about about a jelly blob that 'kinda' looks like North America? Is that really worth paying money for? Instead, check out the author's blog. It's free and you never have to look at it again.
What goes around comes aroundDecember 1, 2009 Robert C. Ross(New Jersey) 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Frank Jacobs's website has an honored icon on my Desktop; it's great fun to check what new and wonderful map he has come up with recently. All of his discoveries appeared first in print in a wide variety of publications, sometimes reprinted more than once. Jacobs then converts his map of the week to digital form and posts it on his website together with informative and amusing commentary.
This pretty little book collects some of his favorite maps and put them back into print again. As other reviewers have mentioned, the website is a living resource for anyone interested in maps. But it's very satisfying somehow to hold this book in the hand, partly to feel more in touch with the original version of the maps and partly to support Jacobs's efforts.
As an example of Jacobs point of view, this extract comes from a recent interview in "The New York Times":
"They say a picture is worth a thousand words. To rephrase that cartographically: a map is worth a thousand statistics. One of the best examples of cartography with a cause are Dr. John Snow's mid-19th-century cholera maps. His cartographic juxtaposition of cholera outbreaks and water sources showed the link between a contaminated water supply and the prevalence of the disease. By eliminating certain pumps, cholera cases were reduced dramatically. Dr Snow's research helped create the discipline of epidemiology. So yes, maps and the particular way in which they present information can be very influential indeed.
"Another stark example is Dr. Minard's map of Napoleon's ill-advised Russian campaign, also discussed in my book. It is a marvel of data presentation, combining six different sets of information. One of those is the size of Napoleon's army, represented by 1 millimeter for every 10,000 soldiers. The tiny trickle leaking out of Russia compared to the massive arrow going in is as horrifying an indictment as any of the madness and human cost of war."
If you have any interest in maps (or even if you don't and would like to understand why others might be), stop by the website or even better buy this fine book as well. It's one of those books you'll lend out time and again, assuming your friends ever return it.
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