Peter Whitfield (1) (1947–)

Beautifully done. A heavy, coffee table book with glorious photos of ancient maps. Text is informative and interesting to read, but is done in my the maps. You read 10 or 20 pages and then stop to page through and examine the maps.

Disappointment in that there was only a couple of maps showing the east coast of Africa, and neither of them were detailed. A route that was heavily travelled by spice traders and even earlier people. Trade routes linked to the Great Zimbabwe pre-Christian era. The show more book clearly has a European focus and there is only a small section about the Chinese and their maps...almost as though they didn't exist. The maps of the oceans in the far east are recent ones, mostly WWII vintage.

So 4.0 stars for the text of what IS there, and the beautiful photos. Perhaps a 3.0 for not being more comprehensive. show less

A history of mapmaking, specifically of world maps. It touches on the technicalities of projections and survey work, but the focus is on the maps as cultural products, analyzing their social rôle and how culture determines what is considered important to show (a lot of attention is paid to the angels, personified winds, historical vignettes, etc, that used to accompany maps, tho, curiously, less to sea serpents and "here be dragons" signs).

As far as hard facts go, it didn't tell me much I show more didn't already know, and some of the socio-cultural analysis struck me as superficial. That said, the array of splendid reproductions of historical maps makes it more than worth the money I spent on it. show less

3. The History of Science (Audio CD) by Peter Whitfield, read by the author (2010, maybe 150 pages in paper form, listened Jan 3-15)

A very quick, but nice overview. I was impressed with and enjoyed the care put into the wording. It makes this work, well. I thought the coverage of the ancient stuff was excellent. I was disappointed it did not cover the occult, which it described simply as something that misdirected science for about 100 years, instead of seeing its roll as a step towards the show more scientific revolution. And I did not like the conclusion which I felt over-credited how well we understand the world and the universe. But, those are small complaints.

2014
http://www.librarything.com/topic/163456#4536311 show less

The Image of the World is a slightly updated edition of Peter Whitfield’s 1994 work. Whitfield, who has published similar, image-laden overviews of cartographic and scientific history, offers a learned and accessible introduction to the story of (primarily Western) cartography from classical times to the present. Laudably, this production is an eye-catching book that also serves to acquaint the lay reader with the notion that maps are not just quaint illustrations, but windows into the show more world of their creation.

The book is good for survey courses on the history of cartography, but is of little use for in-depth scholarship. Each map is described in detail, but there are no footnotes or reference material for each map; there is a general bibliography for further reading, a list of image credits, and a serviceable index. The illustrations are eye-pleasing, though some are too small to offer any detail, and much information is lost in the crease between pages. Still, Whitfield’s The Image of the World is a great introductory to the sweep of cartographic history and admirably does the job of presenting maps as more than geographical tools but cultural productions. show less