About the Author

Mark Monmonier is Distinguished Professor of Geography at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and author of How to Lie with Maps, Cartographies of Danger, Air Apparent, and Spying with Maps, the winner of the 2002 Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography, all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

"Geographers and cartographers once again owe Mark Monmonier their thanks....This insightful and interesting book further adds to Monmonier's reputation as an author capable of enlightening students, technicians, professionals, and anyone who enjoys maps and mapping."--Dennis Fitzsimons, "Professional Geographer" (11/1/2006 12:00:00 AM)

"This little book exhibits a rare . . . combination of elements: scholarship, readability, and usefulness. . . . Although not a textbook on map projection, the book is a handy introduction to the subject and contains as much information as the nonspecialist is likely to need."--Richard Ring "Fine Books and Collections"

"Rhumb Lines and Map Wars is both a primer in the history and geometry of map projections and a complaint against those who tread Mercator under foot. . . . Monmonier has much to say about the 'power of maps, ' and covers a great deal of interesting ground, from the spider's web of medieval portolan charts to the mathematical armature of satellite cartography."--D. Graham Burnett "London Review of Books" (11/3/2005 12:00:00 AM)

"[Monmonier] offers yet another first-rate contribution to the literature on cartography. . . . An excellent book that deserves widespread attention."
--Jeremy Black "H-Net" (1/4/2005 12:00:00 AM)

"In Rhumb Lines and Map Wars, Mark Monmonier shows that controversies that have ignited as soon as different projections--and there have been many--emerge, each attempting to make a flat map of a ball's surface more like reality. Some of these show the globe distorted into the shapes of lampshades, inverted triangles, hearts, half-eaten doughnuts and rounded zigzags, as weird as dreams. Politics, nationalism and international prestige caused these wars. Monmonier thinks that such arguments overrate the power of maps. He writes well and simply."--Roy Herbert "New Scientist" (11/6/2004 12:00:00 AM)

"There is a story to be told here, and Mark Monmonier is certainly the person to tell it. He does so with gusto. . . . Rhumb Lines and Map Wars will be relished by a general audience."--Rienk Vermu "ISIS"

"This very readable book should be studied by anyone interested in correcting much public ignorance about the importance of map projections and their manipulation (sometimes deliberately) to distort our perception of the world. . . . A major contribution to cartography." --Terry Birtles "Journal of Spatial Science"