Mapping the World: An Illustrated History of Cartography

Book Description

Mapping the World is a one-of-a-kind collection of cartographic treasures that spans thousands of years and many cultures, from an ancient Babylonian map of the world etched on clay to the latest high-tech maps of the earth, seas, and the skies above. With more than one hundred maps and other illustrations and an introduction and running commentary by Ralph E. Ehrenberg, this book tells a fascinating story of geographic discovery, scientific invention, and the art and technique of mapmaking.

Mapping the World is organized chronologically with a brief introduction that places the maps in their historical context. Special "portfolios" within each section feature key cartographic innovators and maps of exceptional artistic quality or significance, such as the 1507 Waldseemüller Map, the first to use the name America. Unusual and surprising maps are also presented, including a set of playing cards that contained a secret escape map for American prisoners in Germany during World War II.

With its broad historical and cultural range, unmatched variety of maps from the finest map collections in the world, more than one hundred illustrations, and a fresh and authoritative perspective on the history of cartography, Mapping the World will delight everyone with an interest in maps and mapmaking like no other book on the subject.

Customer Reviews:

Cartography.......2007-04-11

A must have book for anyone that loves the history of maps and how they have changed during time.

Mapping the World.......2006-08-28

Stunning pictures, brilliant descriptions and text that is relevant, readable and informative.

Recommend for any serious world history collection, from the high school level on up.......2006-01-04

Mapping The World: An Illustrated History Of Cartography comes from one of the major publishers specializing in geography subjects: so one would anticipate an exceptional production in book form - and it's not disappointing. Author Ralph Ehrenberg is former chief of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, among other major archives: his background lends to a lovely coverage of over a hundred maps from around the world and across the eras. Each full-page color maps is accompanied by a detailed history and explanation setting the map in social and historical perspective. Recommend for any serious world history collection, from the high school level on up.

And in this corner..........2005-12-21

Two very fine and beautiful books about maps appeared at the end of 2005, published within a month of each other. The other one is "The Map Book" edited by Peter Barber. I happened to discover "The Map Book" before "Mapping the World", although the latter was published first. Like "The Map Book", "Mapping the World" has at its center beautifully reproduced maps in chronological order with lively and informative texts and explanations. Unlike "The Map Book", "Mapping the World" has a single author of the texts, giving the latter a more unified voice and a greater sense of historical narrative. The curious reader may delve deeper into either book on any page and become engaged in the history, culture, and technology embodied in a particular map. Both books sit on my coffee table both for easy access and conspicuous display.

Global Shift, Fifth Edition: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy (Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours)

Average customer rating:

Excellent

Global Shift, Fifth Edition: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy (Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours)
Peter Dicken
Manufacturer: The Guilford Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Macroeconomics | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Globalization | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Real World Globalization: A Reader in Business, Economics and Politics, 9th edition
The Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography (Oxford Handbooks)
Global Political Economy: Evolution and Dynamics, Second Edition
An All-Consuming Century
International Political Economy

ASIN: 1593854366

Book Description

Now in a substantially revised and updated fifth edition, this bestselling work is the definitive text on globalization. Peter Dicken provides a comprehensive, balanced yet critical account of globalization processes and their sweeping, highly uneven effects on people's lives. Each timely chapter has been extensively rewritten to reflect current globalization and antiglobalization debates, the latest empirical developments, and new ideas about the shaping and reshaping of production, distribution, and consumption in the world economy.

New in the Fifth Edition
*An entirely new case study on the agro-foods industries
*A substantially expanded discussion of problems of global governance (involving such institutions as the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF) and the increasing role of global civil society organizations
*All statistical materials have been updated and are presented in nearly 250 specially designed figures and tables

For optimal utility in teaching, all of the figures and tables are available online as PowerPoint slides.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-07-13

This is the ultimate summarization of globalization. It is thorough, objective, and is able to avoid all the inaccurate hype attached to the topic. It is heavy reading, very information based, but I enjoyed it immensely and suggest it for anyone seeking to understand globalization.

The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas

Average customer rating:

Great

The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas
Barbara E. Mundy
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Mexico | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Spain | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Cartography | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Urban Images of the Hispanic World, 1493-1793
Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe
Possible Pasts: Becoming Colonial in Early America
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
The Spacious Word: Cartography, Literature, and Empire in Early Modern Spain

ASIN: 0226550974

Book Description

To learn about its territories in the New World, Spain commissioned a survey of Spanish officials in Mexico between 1578 and 1584, asking for local maps as well as descriptions of local resources, history, and geography. In The Mapping of New Spain, Barbara Mundy illuminates both the Amerindian (Aztec, Mixtec, and Zapotec) and the Spanish traditions represented in these maps and traces the reshaping of indigene world views in the wake of colonization.

Customer Reviews:

Great.......2000-08-12

This is a wonderful glimpse into the development of detailed maps of Central America. It expresses the necessity of a country to be aware of the resources it possesses and the lengths to which it must go to obtain this information. Another good book along these same lines is "Mapping and Empire" by Matthew Edney, which describes the process of mapmaking the British government undertook in India. Overall, this is a great book.

Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins

Average customer rating:

science versus political correctness
very good
Where did we come from
Too politically correct to be correct
A weak imitation

Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins
Steve Olson
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Genetics | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey
Genes, Peoples, and Languages
The Seven Daughters of Eve
The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution (Helix Books)
Trace Your Roots with DNA: Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree

ASIN: 0618352104

Book Description

In a journey across four continents, acclaimed science writer Steve Olson traces the origins of modern humans and the migrations of our ancestors throughout the world over the past 150,000 years. Like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Mapping Human History is a groundbreaking synthesis of science and history. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including the latest genetic research, linguistic evidence, and archaeological findings, Olson reveals the surprising unity among modern humans and "demonstrates just how naive some of our ideas about our human ancestry have been" (Discover).Olson offers a genealogy of all humanity, explaining, for instance, why everyone can claim Julius Caesar and Confucius as forebears. Olson also provides startling new perspectives on the invention of agriculture, the peopling of the Americas, the origins of language, the history of the Jews, and more. An engaging and lucid account, Mapping Human History will forever change how we think about ourselves and our relations with others.

Customer Reviews:

science versus political correctness.......2007-10-14

On the science front, this book is very superficial. There are many other ones that are much better and more detailed. About 80% of the book is a political correctness diatribe. If this book represents what passes for scholarship in today's academic environment, our society is in deep trouble.

very good.......2007-06-18

Some critics below carp about political correctness, but the author makes as good a case as any layman's book I've read. He is merely pointing out that human populations converge before they can evolve any important divergent phenotypes, and that all the phenotypes that separate people, which are commonly defined as "race", are pretty much insignificant. He also describes well how the biology works behind the differences in physiognomy that we perceive between the "races".

Human population on this planet is soaring, and we all have to live together more harmoniously, because there's no room left for malcontents to go off and start their own societies anymore. Just like in the remote past, when glaciers and desertification pushed different populations together and compelled their interaction by necessity, all the nations and ethnicities of the world are again bumping up against each other. The realization that we have a common genetic past, and future, is the first step to achieving more international harmony.

Where did we come from.......2007-03-27

Mapping Human History discusses how the use of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomal DNA can be used to trace the common origins of humans. Steve builds a case for how humans appeared as a distinct group about 150,000 to 200,000 years ago based on genetic variation we see in people today. By using genetics and the study of haplotypes and haplogroups, it believed that one can trace our ancestry back to a common "Mitochondrial Eve" or an "Adam" neither of which may have lived at the same time. He covers the encounters with other species such as Neanterthal, emergence of agriculture and the development of ethnicity.

Steve covers most of the globe in this quest for common origins: Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Europe and finally the Americas. The evidence tends to support an African origin. I found the discussion of the settlement of the Americas interesting. The ultimate conclusion of all of this is the commonality of the human species. A case is made for the irrelevance of race; this seems to be a prominent theme throughout the book.

One thing that I found interesting was the fact that written language goes back only to about 3400 BCE. This tends to support the Bible chronology of humans being created only about 6000 years ago (you can't have written history that predates humans), but then this would be in conflict with the genetic findings.

I also read the book The Journey of Man by Spencer Wells which also discusses the genetic history of man. Neither book really discussed, to my satisfaction, exactly how one gets from the genetic variations to the time periods for the existence of humans being promulgated. It would be of value to have more input in this regard.

Too politically correct to be correct.......2006-09-01

Some evidences, but rarely relevant; many deductions, yet mostly illogical; big conclusions, consequently, you know what they can be. This is what Olson's book showed me on and between the lines.

Olson obviously tried to give a final verdict on this otherwise interesting topic `No more arguments and that is it!' I am surprised to realize that this is what he really tried to do. This book has nothing to do with science, because it shows no respect to science and no spirit of science.

Here we see political purposes overrule science and political correctness suffocates science. I will tackle 2 of Olson's main claims.

1) `No significant difference was found in genes belong to different races, thus races do not exist.' Actually the studies on human genes has just started and in its very beginning period. There are too many unknowns to conclude. Let us see a big mistake in our history. When Copernicus and Galileo suggested the Earth be moving around the Sun rather than the other way around, one of their criticisms was that if that was true then we should be able to see the difference on view angles when we observe stars in different seasons. Since no such difference was found, Copernicus and Galileo must be wrong. The argument was as strong and logical as Olson's, but it was completely wrong. No difference on view angles was only because the stars were too far from us and the precision of the observation was too low then. 2 hundred years later, the differences were indeed found and Copernicus and Galileo were proven right. Roman Catholic Inquisition Court used the seemingly credible criticism to incriminate the Copernicus theory supporters; the court even burned Bruno, a fearless supporter of the Copernicus theory, to death in Roman Flower square. 500 hundred years later, not long ago, Roman Catholic apologized for what they did then. Do we need to repeat such mistake today? That no significant difference was found does not mean no significant difference exist. According to the recent study, the difference between human and ape is only 3%. If 3% can make such big difference, what some `insignificant difference' can do?

2) `All the people in the world are descendents of one woman.' This claim is less absurd than the logic from which Olson deducted to his claim. This can only be true if all human were all related. This is the conclusion that Olson tried to prove, but he used it as condition from which he `proved' it as conclusion. Let us see an example. We sometimes see a spam e-mail that asks, with seduction or threaten, you to send, say, 5 people whom you know. Which such original e-mail reached every one on the Earth? If isolation and independency cannot be ruled out, such claim cannot stand. Only from limited results of the gene researches cannot reach such claim. This is why Olson needed to use the conclusion as condition to `prove' the conclusion. According to Olson, the evolution in Africa suddenly popped out one common mother and another common father, thus formed a race, human, then such evolution suddenly stopped.

The hasty with which Olson jumped to his verdict is strikingly obvious. Only with other motivation other than science could explain the behavior. No truth can be revealed if political purposes over rule science conscience. Jumping to the conclusion from such little evidences with such hasty is the recipe to mistake.

Olson also made many contradicting arguments. While he claims no difference between races, he enthusiastically wrote new races were formed from different environment for lions and other animals. I often scratch my head to try to understand where his logic was. He seemed to write with the Bible stories in mind, but in a much faster and in greater scale. When there was a pass of Red Sea, Olson made human pass Red Sea and Berlin Straight. In a very short time, 20,000 years (that is 7,200,000 days), certain human beings out from Africa changed their physique and look. But Olson made sure, even with such a great speed, no more new races formed.

A weak imitation.......2006-08-12

It is conventional wisdom that good books are written by good writers, and that understanding of the subject is of secondary importance. This book is a disproof of that conventional wisdom.

Mr. Olson is a fine writer, but he is not a scientist. Within the first 50 pages he has spent 2 pages on an incorrect explanation of an important genetic concept.

Give me instead the real McCoy: Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza is a scientist with true insight. His book, "Genes, Peoples, and Languages" is beautifully inspired. He truly understands what he is writing about; and the most interesting elements of Mr. Olson's book are better handled in (if not derived from) Dr. Cavalli-Sforza's book.

Mr. Olson, by contrast, is a layman who doesn't quite comprehend that about which he writes. He is the blind leading the blind; and most of his readers don't know the difference, apparently including the nominating committee for the National Book Award.

Mapping the World of the Sorcerer's Apprentice (Harry Potter) (Smart Pop series)

Average customer rating:

Adults only, self important, disappointing.
Excellent book for adults who think HP is not "just for kids"
Finally An Adult Take on This Series
Awesome!
Disappointed but probably my fault

Mapping the World of the Sorcerer's Apprentice (Harry Potter) (Smart Pop series)

Manufacturer: Benbella Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Movie Tie-Ins | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?: What Really Happened in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Six Expert Harry Potter Detectives Examine the Evidence.
Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader
Fact, Fiction, and Folklore in Harry Potter's World: An Unofficial Guide
Mugglenet.Com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End
The Hidden Myths in Harry Potter: Spellbinding Map and Book of Secrets

ASIN: 1932100598

Book Description

** COMPLETELY UNAUTHORIZED **

This book has not been authorized by J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or anyone associated with the Harry Potter books or movies.

New and old fans of the Harry Potter series will welcome this collection of fresh essays on Potter lore, plotlines, and characters. With up-to-date information through book six in the series, this companion volume offers a comprehensive look at the world of Potter through the eyes of leading science fiction and fantasy writers such as David Gerrold, Joyce Millman, and Martha Wells, and religion, psychology, and science experts. Along with feminism, fascism, and moral life, topics include the Three Faces of Severus Snape, Harry Potter as Luke Skywalker, I Am a Hufflepuff: A Look at the Houses, and Harry Potter and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Customer Reviews:

Adults only, self important, disappointing........2007-06-03

My personal disappointments are these:
1. There are no warnings on the outside that this book is NOT suitable for underage readers.
2. Many of the authors seem smug.
3. I expect better commentary from this group of otherwise seemingly talented authors. What do I mean by "better"? How about something that is really about the Harry Potter series instead of what these authors wish it to have been?
4. How sad is it when the cover artwork far exceeds the book?
I've read a lot of Harry Potter "fan" books. This is the only one that brought less than ten minutes of enjoyment. If you want this book, you can have mine.

Excellent book for adults who think HP is not "just for kids".......2007-03-25

I am a college professor of english literature and composition, but I am also a huge Harry Potter fan. "Mapping the World of Harry Potter" appealed to both sides of my reading pleasure: it gave great insight into the HP books as well as providing really well-written and though-provoking literary analysis and criticism. I couldn't put the book down, and as I read each subsequent essay, I was more and more intrigued and it gave me so much to think about. Really fantastic!

Finally An Adult Take on This Series.......2007-03-13

Finally I found it. A book worth reading, with views offered by real intellects on this series. This book has been a great read and well worth the money spent on it. I find it fun and enlightening. Some of the chapters seemed to drag on but overall they are very good. I found the chapter on Neville Longbottom great, since I completely share the sentiment felt for this character. A lot of thought provoking ideas in here. BE WARNED that there is a chapter on the sex symbol that has become of Severus Snape...this chapter and book are intended for adults. Overall really great!

Awesome!.......2007-03-11

I was really thrilled to get this book, seeing as it is a more serious treatment of the Harry Potter stories. Glad to see that other authors are taking Rowling seriously!

Disappointed but probably my fault.......2007-01-10

I was disappointed in this book, but I think it was probably my fault. I actually thought it was by Mercedes Lackey, not edited by Mercedes Lackey. And it was actually a collection of essays by various people. Boring essays. By people I don't read.

The Templar Meridians: The Secret Mapping of the New World

Average customer rating:

Celestial Navigation
Templar Meridians, Magdalene Mandala, Swords at Sunset
Scientific proof would help!
The Grail comes to North America!

The Templar Meridians: The Secret Mapping of the New World
William F. Mann
Manufacturer: Destiny Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Freemasonry | Other Practices | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Fairy Tales | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Knights Templar in the New World: How Henry Sinclair Brought the Grail to Acadia
The Lost Colony of the Templars: Verrazano's Secret Mission to America
Templars in America: From the Crusades to the New World
The Templar Papers: Ancient Mysteries, Secret Societies, And the Holy Grail
Swords at Sunset: Last Stand of North America's Grail Knights

ASIN: 159477076X
Release Date: 2006-02-03

Book Description

Reveals the true nature of the secret science the Templars discovered in the Holy Land that was the key to their power

â€¢ Shows the cartographic knowledge that allowed the Templars to cross the Atlantic and establish settlements in the New World

â€¢ Explains the connection of the Templar meridians to the journey of Lewis and Clark

â€¢ Shows the role played by secret societies in the establishment of the United States

The most enduring mystery surrounding the Templars concerns the nature and whereabouts of their great treasure. Whereas many believe this lost treasure contains knowledge of the bloodline of Christ, William F. Mann shows that it actually consists of an ancient science developed before the Great Flood--knowledge discovered by the Templars in the Holy Land during the Crusades and still extant today in Templar/Masonic ritual. Among other things, this knowledge enabled the Order to establish accurate latitudinal and longitudinal positions long before the foundations of the current science were laid in the seventeenth century. This allowed them to cross the Atlantic to reach the New World, where they established secret settlements and mining operations that gave them a limitless supply of precious metals and a military edge over their opponents.

Pursued farther into the interior of the North American continent by their adversaries from the Old World, the Templars left artifacts, relics, and information caches at key sites, confident that future initiates could use their understanding of the science of meridians and ley lines to locate them. The author points out that not only did future masons such as Jefferson and Washington use this science as the basis of their designs for Monticello and Washington, D.C., but the true motive of the expedition of Lewis and Clark was to identify the meridians mapped by the Templars and to search for the final resting place of Prince Henry Sinclair--where the great Templar treasure could also be found.

Customer Reviews:

Celestial Navigation.......2007-02-11

Much closer to the truth than most Templar tales. Stellar science for global mapping (trade routes & secret hideouts) was a key Templar trade secret. Templar pirate ships were seafaring Masonic lodges. 'The Christ Conspiracy' and 'Brotherhood of the Sun' are also excellent reads.

Templar Meridians, Magdalene Mandala, Swords at Sunset.......2007-01-01

The Templar Meridians employs a good deal of meticulous research to establish the presence of the Grail in North America. This book uses a wealth of historical documents and ancient evidence to support its controversial theories and I highly recommend it. Also highly recommended are two other fine Grail books, one non-fiction and the other fiction, and both are by Michael Bradley, a renowned Grail expert who served as a researcher for the Da Vinci Code movie. Bradley's Swords at Sunset is a non-fiction work that also traces the Grail to North America, primarly Niagara Ontario and Vermont state; while his fictional novel, The Magdalene Mandala is a wonderfully written thriller with a twisting plot that moves at break-neck speed. It also has well drawn characters and in the view of many is superior to the Da Vince Code. For anyone like me with a growing interest in the Grail, do yourself a favour and check out Templar Meridians; Swords at Sunset and The Magdalene Mandala, which sent my heart pounding. These are three very good books.

Scientific proof would help!.......2006-07-18

Although Mr. Mann appears to have performed an immense amount of research, I find the research at this time to be just conjectured tales. To many suggestions, perhaps, maybe and assumtions in trying to weave together a scattered history from an Order that was destroyed by the pope and king of France. I would like to believe many of the suggestions in his book as there are many un-answered questions and bits of history that was lost and hidden under a veil of darkness and secrecy. Our North American scholars have led us in a fairy tale when it comes to the founding of North America and until they find hard evidence, evidence that is most likely kept in a secure vault, we can only try to see through that misty veil, some sort of conspiracy.

The Grail comes to North America!.......2006-04-06

Every once in a while, I like to dip my toes into some different interpretations of history, those that don't really fit with what most historians really think. Inevitably, the books are interesting, but fail to convince me that their "new" version of history is the correct one. I recently was bitten by that bug again, and so I picked up two books that sounded intriguing. One of them was Templar Meridians: The Secret Mapping of the New World, by William F. Mann. Evidently, I missed his first book, and that's too bad, as this book builds on that one. In fact, I felt a bit lost at times because Mann referred to it so often. He does try to explain the references, and I was generally able to figure out what he was talking about, but I do wish I had read the other book first. That's not the only problem with this book, however, and once again, I fail to be convinced by something that's "out there," so to speak. It's an interesting book, but not a convincing one for anybody who's not already leaning toward Mann's historical vision.

The idea behind Templar Meridians is basically an expansion on the theory that the Knights Templar fled to the New World when the Church turned against them, and that they brought a treasure with them. This turns out to be the "Holy Grail," but Mann never really explains what this Grail might be. Perhaps that was in the first book, but the book does tend to be vague on this issue, sometimes calling it "the Grail" and sometimes wondering itself just what the treasure might be. Mann uses Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the book at the heart of the Davinci Code controversy, as a starting point, detailing the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and speculating that the Merovingian heir came with the fleeing knights to hide among the natives in a colony established before the "discovery" of the New World by Columbus. Mann claims that the Templars had some secret knowledge of longitude and latitude lines, and how important certain lines were because of their mystical energy. The book's narrative begins at Green Oaks, Nova Scotia, where the Prince Henry Sinclair led the first Templar settlement in the New World in 1398, a full century before Columbus.

It was interesting to me how, when Mann was dealing with established historical fact (known European history, such as can be shown by letters and other concrete documents), he expresses everything with certainty. This happened, and then this. Most of the time, however, when he gets to the subject matter of the book (keeping in mind that this book is supposedly convincing us that what he says is true), the language shifts to phrases like "it is likely that" or "some say." As these suppositions are the basis of his theory, it's a good thing he doesn't present these ideas as established facts, but too often he builds on these "likely" facts to create other ideas that he appears more certain about. While what he's saying certainly *could* be true, the foundation of where he goes from there is hardly stable enough to support everything else as definitive. He does provide plenty of sources for this information, but many of them are suppositions themselves.

However, occasionally he lands a whopper with no source whatsoever and I just had to stop reading for a moment and blink my eyes to make sure I read it properly. Most egregious is on page 172, where he baldly states that, because Masons were on both sides of the American Revolution, British generals "secretly supported their fellow Freemasons by disengaging their troops during crucial conflicts..." While he does qualify this with "it seems," he offers us no source for why it would even seem to be true. These kinds of statements threw me out of the book and raised my skepticism even higher.

This is a shame, as I did find Mann's theories interesting reading. He ties a lot of geographical knowledge and theories into the secret history of the Templars and the Masons, and also gives a vivid history of European exploration of the New World (both "established" fact and theoretical). I have to admit that some of the geography went over my head, as he applies geometry to the longitudinal lines (the meridians) to show how the locations of some settlements in the New World were chosen and why they are mystically important. But it was still intriguing to read about.

The other main problem with The Templar Meridians is that many of the diagrams and pictures of ancient maps are really hard to read. Many times I had to take at face value that the document said what Mann claims it said because I couldn't read it myself. This happens more with the maps where some of the symbols on it are supposedly important to what Mann's saying. I'm sure they're on the document (I'm certainly not accusing him of making it up), but I wish I could have seen some of it myself. Perhaps that was just my copy, though.

While this book would probably be interesting to fans of The Davinci Code who want to read something about the "real" Templars and the Holy Grail, I can't really say for sure how much it diverges from that book. They have the same starting point, with the Merovingian dynasty, but I think Mann takes it in a different direction. And, of course, he's not claiming that it's a novel like Brown does. This is documented history, or at least attempts to be. Templar Meridians gives us some interesting theories, a perfect feast for those of you who want to dip your toes in "alternative" (my word, not Mann's) history. Who knows? Mann might even be right. I'm afraid that he doesn't quite convince this reader though.

David Roy

Early Mapping of the Pacific: The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who Mapped the Earth's Greatest Ocean

Average customer rating:

Opening European eyes on the Pacific
Excellent introduction to the topic suitable for map collectors
Inconsistent review
Unusually readable and accurate

Early Mapping of the Pacific: The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who Mapped the Earth's Greatest Ocean
Thomas Suarez
Manufacturer: Periplus Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

Cartography | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mapping the Silk Road and Beyond
Mapping the World: An Illustrated History of Cartography
Historic Atlas of the North Pacific Ocean: Maps of Discovery and Scientific Exploration, 1500-2000
The Story of Maps
New Found Lands: Maps in the History of Exploration

ASIN: 0794600921

Book Description

This book traces the exploration and charting of the Pacific Ocean through rare maps of Japan and the varied islands of Oceania from the 1700s. It follows the story from classical times through the turn of the 20th century, telling the tales of seafarers who ventured eastward from Asia and were the Pacific's greatest explorers.

Through dozens of vintage maps, you'll learn how Portuguese mariners added major islands in the Southwest Pacific to the map in the early 16th century while Spanish explorers plotted vague specks of land in the vast center of the map. Witness as Dutch discoveries in Australia add significantly to the evolving image of the ocean, while the known islands of Oceania remained few, scattered, and so poorly charted as to be impossible for others to find.

Customer Reviews:

Opening European eyes on the Pacific.......2006-11-16

"The European mapping of the Pacific was at times a mapping of the European psyche," writes Thomas Suarez.
The mere fact that the Europeans did it, at such cost, was an aspect of a unique psychological outlook. The people who lived in and around the Pacific never bothered.
There were a variety of reasons, some merely technical, for that. For whatever reasons, the indigenes were content with local maps. The drive to know the whole world did not inspire them.
The Europeans had crass motivations as well. After 300 years of effort, there were still a few spots unknown to them in 1800 -- and even as a big a place as Hawaii had been found barely two decades earlier. But in the 19th century the quest for "sandalwood, trepang, seals, whales and furs" exposed every last scrap of land to purchasers of European maps.
"Early Mapping of the Pacific" follows on Suarez's gorgeous "Early Mapping of Southeast Asia" and will have even more interest for Hawaii readers. Hawaii gets more detailed attention than anyplace else, and it is easy to see that Suarez has spent plenty of time here.
He writes that "often the mapping and exploration of the Pacific seems the stuff of novels," and his own late entry into the field was, if not novelistic, distinctly unusual.
A classical violinist, Suarez was giving concerts way off Broadway -- places like Moen island in Chuuk in Micronesia -- when he became interested in the places, the people, the stories and the maps.
For a generation, he's been an authority and consultant on old maps.
Even without the detailed text, it is easy and curious to follow the progress -- sometimes regress -- of European knowledge of the Pacific over time.
When the Pacific was completely unknown to Europe, the best maps Europe had already showed close correspondence with the shapes and locations of the Caribbean and Africa, though the Caribbean had been unknown 20 years earlier.
Often -- not always, by any means -- the Europeans in their restless inquisition acquired accurate maps almost overnight. Even in fairly early maps, some parts of the Pacific begin to look quite familiar, though others remain seriously confused. It took a long time, for example, to learn that Australia and New Guinea are not connected.
Even by the time of James Cook, a buyer of maps in Amsterdam or London had to choose between very different opinions about what lay in the Pacific.
One topic that Suarez devotes considerable attention to is whether the Spaniards found Hawaii before Cook did in 1779.
There are early maps that show islands about where Hawaii is.
Suarez is not persuaded that they represent anything more than the other fugitive islands that cartographers in Europe were led and misled to draw on maps even into the 19th century.
There is an even stronger argument against Spanish discovery.
The maps that show "Hawaii" show other islands to the east and to the west that we know do not exist, and the accuracy of these maps for the west coast of America is poor also.
If "Hawaii" on those maps is genuine, it is the only part that is.

Excellent introduction to the topic suitable for map collectors.......2005-10-28

The author does an excellent job of describing and illustrating key milestones in the mapping of the Pacific region. He integrates the history of exploration and of cartography in an effective manner that adds life to the plentiful and abundant maps that illustrate the text. The book is an excellent introduction for the serious collector of antique maps of the Pacific. Its a beautiful book and informative book, however, it could be a difficult read at times for those less interested in maps or history.

Inconsistent review.......2004-09-01

The review of this volume suggests that it is a worthy work of some substance (as do comments elsewhere). But only one star? Is this an error?

Unusually readable and accurate.......2004-08-25

This is a vast topic and the author has taken on a huge job. He has written a truly excellent text that is technically correct, yet very readable. He has also managed to do somethig very difficult - integrate the text successfully with maps, most of which are illustrated beautifully. So in one work, we have the scholarly interpretation of the history and its integration with the cultural artifacts of such exploration.- the maps. I think one of the chief attributes is that his book has opened so many doors to this subject that it will reman a standard for a very ong time. It is also a beautiful production (although the subtitle sounds like it was written by a desperate English major) and is easily in the fine tradition of Suarez' other books.

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Mapping the World
Michael Swift
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ASIN: 0785820744

Surveying the Mahele: Mapping the Hawaiian Land Revolution (Palapalaaina ; V. 2)

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Surveying the Mahele: Mapping the Hawaiian Land Revolution (Palapalaaina ; V. 2)
Riley Moore Moffat , and Gary L. Fitzpatrick
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ASIN: 0915013177

Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West

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Engaging story of astonishing adventures
Epic Wanderer
Opening the Canadian West
Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West

Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West
D'Arcy Jenish
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
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The Mapmaker's Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau
Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America
The Journals of Alexander MacKenzie: Exploring Across Canada in 1789 & 1793
First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent
David Thompson: The Epic Expeditions of a Great Canadian Explorer (Amazing Stories)

ASIN: 0803226004

Book Description

Epic Wanderer, the first full-length biography of mapmaker David Thompson (1770–1857), is set in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries against the broad canvas of dramatic rivalries between the United States and British North America, between the Hudson’s Bay Company and its Montreal-based rival, the North West Company, and among the various First Nations thrown into disarray by the advent of guns, horses, and alcohol.

Less celebrated than his contemporaries Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Thompson spent nearly three decades, beginning in 1784, surveying and mapping more than 1.2 million square miles of largely uncharted Indian territory. Traveling across the prairies, over the Rockies, and on to the Pacific, Thompson transformed the raw data of his explorations into a map of the Canadian West. Measuring ten feet by seven feet and laid out with astonishing accuracy, the map became essential to the politicians and diplomats who would decide the future of the rich and promising lands of the West. Yet its creator worked without personal glory and died in penniless obscurity.

Drawing extensively on Thompson’s personal journals, illustrated with his detailed sketches, intricate notebook pages, and the map itself, Epic Wanderer charts the life of a man who risked everything in the name of scientific advancement and exploration.

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Engaging story of astonishing adventures.......2007-09-17

I first saw this book in a store in Banff, at the tail end of a 10-day hiking trip through the Canadian Rockies. I didn't want to lug a book home, so I ordered through Amazon. Perhaps I like this book because I hiked a bit of the area it describes, but more important to me is the astonishing story of David Thompson by itself. To get from the east coast to the west, we get an airline ticket. Thompson routinely traveled thousands of miles each year in the late 1700's and early 1800's - mostly in canoes, hauling thousands of pounds of goods to trade for thousands of pounds of pelts and furs. Most astonishing is that armed with only a compass and sextant, Thompson and his little teams found their way across a continent to trade with native tribes. They did 100 miles in a day with nary a thought. What engages me the most is Jenish's ability to weave multiple sources including Thompson's diaries into a compelling you-are-there story of the crossing and mapping of the Canadian west. My highest compliments to the author.

If you like adventure and the tingle of learning how men and women (Thompson had his wife and kids with him) did things we'd never attempt today, you'll love this book. It'll make you want to get up and go do something outdoors. It'll make you realize we have fallen behind in 200 years. We are lazy, and we are missing the adventures of our world.

Epic Wanderer.......2007-07-25

David Thompson first crossed the Continental Divide in 1807 and devoted the next five years to the fur trade and exploration in the Columbia River drainage. He was the first person of European descent to explore the entire length of the Columbia River. His journals and maps laid the foundation for European resource exploitation and subsequent settlement of Washington State, western Montana, and southeastern British Columbia. In fact, all exploration in the Columbia River drainage was largely British rather than American during the first half of the nineteenth century. Writings and symposia on David Thompson are predictably increasing in both Canada and the United States as we enter the bicentennial period of that exploration.

Parts of David Thompson's long life are enigmatic and seemingly contradictory. "Epic Wanderer" is a journalistic account of the known facts. It is not as insightful as "Sources of the River," the book that has emerged as the definitive account of Thompson's northwest explorations. However, "Epic Wanderer" does provide a more complete account of David Thompson's life after he left the active fur trade and settled in the vicinity of Montreal. Since Thompson died in 1857, this eastern experience represents more than half his life. During that time, Thompson experienced considerable success in several endeavors, but a financial collapse left him and his wife to die in poverty.

David Thompson was a skilled surveyor. His maps were more accurate than those of his contemporaries. Overlooked by those who focus on his contributions to western expansion is the fact that before and after his time in the Northwest, he made important surveys on the eastern border between British Canada and the United States. The first period was as an employee of the North West Fur Company. The second was an official survey conducted jointly by the two countries.

Because David Thompson was a contemporary of Lewis and Clark, today's writers often compare them. This is only partially valid. The latter was a military expedition of exploration that spent only a few months west of the Continental Divide. David Thompson was a fur trader working for a commercial company and spent five years criss-crossing the area. He had the desire and talent to explore, but trading had to come first. As he advanced his trading territory, his journals recorded an expanding knowledge of the territory and its inhabitants, plants, and animals. Thompson's maps are much more accurate than those developed by Lewis and Clark, partially because he had more time to refine them.

As intriguing as Thompson himself, is the fur trade itself and the native peoples involved. Thompson was very dependent on the local natives who guided him, aided him in establishing trading posts, and helped him expand his trade. Charlotte Small, Thompson's wife for 57 years, was half Cree. Together they bridged a period of European-Indigenous relationship that is the subject of intensive research today.

Opening the Canadian West.......2007-07-01

D'Arcy Jenish's "Epic Wanderer" is a life of David Thompson, a British fur trader who spent nearly three decades exploring and mapping the Canadian West from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific Coast.

Thompson was apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company out of a boy's school in London in 1784, at the tender age of 14. He grew up in various trading posts around Hudson's Bay, followed the fur trade across the Canadian Prairies, helped open up routes across the Canadian Rockies, and was the first European to explore the entire length of the Columbia River from its source to the Pacific Ocean. More importantly for the history books, Thompson had a gift for astronomy and surveying that he used to provide accurate mapping data for huge swaths of North America.

The heart of this book is the narrative of Thompson's travels across the interior of the continent, on trips that often took years to complete, accompanied by fur company employees, French voyageurs, and Indian guides. Jenish does a good job of providing the context for Thompson's travels: the competition between rival trading companies for access to new sources of fur; the rising tensions between the young United States and British Canada over the North American continent, and the inevitable frictions between European intruders and Native American tribes.

The last third of the book is Thompson's return to civilization in Eastern Canada after 1812 and a slow spiral into poverty for a man never quite able to adjust to life away from the wilderness. Thompson today is remembered primarily as a footnote in Canadian history. Jenish's history goes far to rectify Thompson's undeserved obscurity.

Jenish wrote primarily from Thompson's journals and other contemporary sources; it is sometimes difficult to tell from the narrative where Thompson leaves off and Jenish has filled in the story with supposition. Examples of Thompson's maps are provided in the text; what is lacking is a modern map, and one big enough to read, so that the reader may follow Thompson's travels.

This book is recommended to those interested in an early and largely forgotten explorer of the interior of the North American continent, crossing a landscape now almost unimaginable outside of a few major Canadian parks.

Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West.......2007-01-11

Excellent work and very comprehensive. The one gripe I have is that a book about exploration should have maps to show the reader the places discussed. The book shows the (historic) map drawn by Thompson but the print is so small as to make it nearly unreadable. Aside from that, this is THE book to own if you have any interest in learning about David Thompson. A detailed Canadian map (naming lakes and rivers) would make an excellent additional purchase to fully enjoy Epic Wanderer.

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