Overview
In the age of MapQuest and GPS, we take cartographic literacy for granted. We should not; the ability to find meaning in maps is the fruit of a long process of exposure and instruction. A """"carto-coded"""" America - a nation in which maps are pervasive and meaningful - had to be created. The Social Life of Maps tracks American cartography's spectacular rise to its unprecedented cultural influence. Between 1750 and 1860, maps did more than communicate geographic information and political pretensions. They became affordable and intelligible to ordinary American men and women looking for their place in the world. School maps quickly entered classrooms, where they shaped reading and other cognitive exercises; giant maps drew attention in public spaces; miniature maps helped Americans chart personal experiences. In short, maps were uniquely social objects whose visual and material expressions affected commercial practices and graphic arts, theatrical performances and the communication of emotions. This lavishly illustrated study follows popular maps from their points of creation to shops and galleries, schoolrooms and coat pockets, parlors and bookbindings. Between the decades leading up to the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, early Americans bonded with maps; Martin Bruckner's comprehensive history of quotidian cartographic encounters is the first to show us how.
Full Product Details
Author: Martin Brückner
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Weight: 1.180kg
ISBN: 9781469632605
ISBN 10: 1469632608
Pages: 424
Publication Date: 30 November 2017
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
This is a brilliantly written book about maps as material commodities.--Communication Research Trends
His patient archival work makes this book a treasure trove of information for scholars across the humanities. - ALH Online Review, XIX.1
Fascinating, wide-ranging, and lavishly illustrated . . . Delves with panache into the disparate fields of art history, interior design, book history, print culture, fashion, consumption, theater, and education, to name just a few . . . . Necessary reading for anyone interested in cartography or print culture.--Journal of American History This is a brilliantly written book about maps as material commodities.--Communication Research Trends
Author Information
Martin Bruckner is professor of English and material culture studies at the University of Delaware.
