Maps don't always reflect the world, but they can change it
Independent, (Jan 5, 2015)Abstract
Harry Beck’s map, as almost every Tube traveller except the forlorn stranded tourist knows, is definitely not the territory. With an ear for a pun and an eye for cartographic history, the British Library once entitled an exhibition about maps “Lie of the Land”. Or, as the historian Jerry Brotton more generously puts it: “Maps offer a proposal about the world, rather than just a reflection of it.” The first week of 2015 saw more evidence of the dependence of that “proposal” on the view of geopolitics upheld by map-makers – and map-users.