Time in Maps

This sumptuously-illustrated large-sized book serves, effectively, as a celebration of the development of GIS. . . . The eight contributors are all of equal scholarly standing, and their individual contributions both reflect this and, by interacting with each other, playing off each other, create a greater whole. Histories of cartography have an in-built advantage: their historical illustrations are works-of-art; their contemporary examples are technological marvels. But the analytical scholarship on display in this collection raises it all to a different and altogether satisfying level. -- Geography Realm Thought-provoking. . . . This scholarly work provides an intriguing, unique way to consider maps. Recommended for those who like cartography and history. -- Library Journal Leading scholars consider the sophisticated ways in which the movement of time was depicted in maps, examining centuries of cartography from around the world, and providing more than 100 colour maps and illustrations. -- The Bookseller As wide-ranging, imaginative, and revealing as the maps they discuss, these essays follow the trace laid down by the editors and William Rankin's magisterial opening essay. They track how maps--interpreted broadly--convey time as well as space. GIS, they contend, has not rendered old paper maps obsolete as much as revealed their wonders--their dynamism, their depth, their metaphors, their techniques, and their connections to not only a physical world but to other intellectual endeavors. They convey the magic not only of maps but of scholarship. -- Richard White, Stanford University Time in Maps is a first-rate collection. . . . It provides an important work for cartographic scholars, and, more generally, offers those interested in historiography much to consider. The volume is a pleasure to read, with many well-selected maps and a high standard of reproduction. -- The Critic What a relief to move beyond the worn dichotomy between maps and timelines, geography and history! Time in Maps shows definitively that maps brim with temporal references, both overt and subtle. They represent moments that range from one protest march to centuries of slavery, or a year's erosion along Cape Cod to the deep time of geological eons. Cartographers' visual strategies include encodings of time as much as symbolic representations of objects in space. Contrary to popular opinion, printed maps are anything but 'static' once one learns to recognize how they in fact hold time in the embrace of space. Time in Maps is a wonderful book, and one that is long overdue. -- Anne Kelly Knowles, University of Maine