After the Map
Cartography, Navigation, and the Transformation of Territory in the Twentieth Century
For most of the twentieth century, maps were indispensable. They were how governments understood, managed, and defended their territory, and during the two world wars they were produced by the hundreds of millions. Cartographers and journalists predicted the dawning of a "map-minded age", where increasingly state-of-the-art maps would become everyday tools. By the century's end, however, there had been decisive shift in mapping practices, as the dominant methods of land surveying and print publication were increasingly displaced by electronic navigation systems. In "After the Map", William Rankin argues that although this shift did not render traditional maps obsolete, it did radically change our experience of geographic knowledge, from the God's-eye view of the map to the embedded subjectivity of GPS. Likewise, older concerns with geographic truth and objectivity have been upstaged by a new emphasis on simplicity, reliability, and convenience".After the Map" shows how this change in geographic perspective is ultimately a transformation of the nature of territory, both social and political.
About the Author
William Rankin is assistant professor of the history of science at Yale University. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Reviews
"In this tour de force study, Rankin maps mapping, demonstrating just how radically the global map evolved over the long twentieth century. He brings us from the 1890s, when treaties produced the first true global map system, through the military grids that marked every spot for building, digging, and targeting. Finally, Rankin displays, in a fresh new way, how we have come to move in a pointillist, instrument-ready GPS world – the third great moment of modern world mapping. Map may not be territory, but with 'After the Map', Rankin shows us how mapping has remade contemporary territory and reconfigured the political geography of space itself" – Peter Galison, Harvard University
"How do we place ourselves in space? Do we imagine large, contiguous territories or isolated points on a grid? Rankin traces three waves of geographic knowledge-making over the twentieth century. Forged or foiled by wars and treaties, technological capabilities, navigational imperatives, and cartographic imaginations, each mapping scheme reflected shifting notions of how best to find our place in the world. 'After the Map' is profoundly researched and utterly fascinating" – David Kaiser, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"'After the Map' is as prodigiously capacious and ground-breaking as the successive representations of the world that it recounts. It not only traces the progression since the late nineteenth century from terrain-based maps, through location by latitude-and-longitude-free grids, to orientation by points in GPS space, but it also convincingly analyzes what drove these cartographic shifts, spotlighting the dynamic interplay among technical knowledge and practices, military and navigational needs, and changing ideas of territory and sovereignty. Deeply researched and lucidly written, 'After the Map' is an important, eye-opening, and compelling work" – Daniel Kevles, Yale University
