All Mapped Out - by Mike Duggan (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Maps go far beyond just showing us where things are located. All Mapped Out is an exploration of how maps impact our lives on social and cultural levels. This book takes you on a journey through the fascinating history of maps, from ancient cave paintings and stone carvings to the digital interfaces we rely on today. But it's not just about the maps themselves; it's about the people behind them. Discover how maps have affected societies, influenced politics and economies, impacted the environment, and even shaped our sense of personal identity. Mike Duggan uncovers the incredible power of maps to shape the world and the knowledge we consume. This is a unique and eye-opening perspective on the significance of maps in our daily lives"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

From cave paintings to Google, a thought-provoking investigation of how maps do not just reflect the world around us, but shape the way we live.

Maps go far beyond just showing us where things are located. All Mapped Out is an exploration of how maps impact our lives on social and cultural levels. This book offers a journey through the fascinating history of maps, from ancient cave paintings and stone carvings to the digital interfaces we rely on today. But it's not just about the maps themselves; it's about the people behind them. All Mapped Out reveals how maps have affected societies, influenced politics and economies, impacted the environment, and even shaped our sense of personal identity. Mike Duggan uncovers the incredible power of maps to shape the world and the knowledge we consume, offering a unique and eye-opening perspective on the significance of maps in our daily lives.

Review Quotes

"All Mapped Out is an engaging overview of maps and mapping. The author's holistic view is not limited to digital maps and mapping but introduces readers to the larger topic of maps through concise storytelling. . . . the book provides a useful way to explain the map not as a dispassionate object displaying agreed-upon realities but as a cultural creation with an intended purpose and potential biases."-- "Choice"

"To demonstrate the impact of maps (and borders) on our identities, Duggan deconstructs the concept of cartography and how it's shaped politics and economics throughout history."--Nathalie Atkinson "Globe and Mail (Books Gift Guide 2024)"

"At heart this volume is about modern technology and its ever-growing impact both overt and hidden. It is about data gathering and visualisation. And for this the map provides in many instances the most influential mechanism for utilising data delivered by apps and the like."-- "IMCoS Map Journal"

"Cultural geographer Duggan works in partnership with the UK national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, to study everyday digital-mapping practices. Important as it is, digital mapping is not superseding analogue maps, he observes in his global history of cartography, which begins with Palaeolithic carvings. Sales of Ordnance Survey paper maps are rising, perhaps because of their convenience. 'Although digital maps are improving constantly in accuracy and design, they do not always live up to those promises.'"-- "Nature"

"Anyone reading Duggan's exhaustive deconstruction of the concept of mapping will never look at a map in the same way again. . . . By examining the complex ways in which maps shape our lives, from the politics they create to the emotional responses they evoke, Duggan's book proceeds to demonstrate that maps deal not only with the cartographic features of our world but 'play an important role in who we are, where we've come from and where we're going.'"-- "Morning Star"

"Maps do more than show us the way to go. They influence society, politics and economics, the environment and even personal identity. . . . Duggan. . . . tells . . . about the incredible power they have in shaping our world."-- "Sunday Post, Scotland"

"In this book, the author explores how maps determine our behavior."-- "Country Life"

"All Mapped Out is an entertaining adventure for everyone who loves maps, both real and imaginary, analogue and digital. Duggan--in this reliable guide to an unreliable technology--invites us to reexamine our assumptions about the spatial representations of not only unfamiliar places, but the sites we inhabit with meaning and call home."--Phil Cohen, Livingmaps Network

"From travelling London in the backseat of a black taxi to following grizzly bears and migrants, rally drivers and Tube riders, geocachers and map collectors, All Mapped Out offers a provocative and surprising study of maps and mapping. In this journey, we encounter maps scratched onto rocks and materializing on plasma screens, maps made of words and sounds, and even maps meant to be seen by the eyes of self-driving cars rather than of humans. Duggan asks questions of our present reliance on digital mapping: how the technologies subtly pervade our lives, condition our consumption habits and even shape our experience of the world."--Veronica della Dora, professor of human geography, Royal Holloway, University of London

"Broad in compass and ambitious in scope, this new look at the map in the digital age is fascinating. Duggan's journey through maps takes us to places, landscapes and times past, present and future, traversing a busy and sometimes complicated picture and engaging with theoretical views on cartography as well as the pragmatics of how maps shape our lives. All Mapped Out helps us to see maps differently, as well as understand how maps continue to influence us. Compelling and engaging, this book will appeal to cartophiles everywhere."--Keith D. Lilley, professor of historical geography, Queen's University Belfast

About the Author

Mike Duggan is a lecturer at King's College London studying digital culture's impact on society. He is a coauthor of books on radical cartography and sharing mobility.