Mark Cooper-Jones

I was in two minds about this book. It is derived from a YouTube Channel called 'Map Men' and this shows to its detriment. On the other hand, it contains some very interesting stories about how mapping can go wrong and cause some serious problems for its users.

The problem is that the broad jocularity results in half the book being comedy which is a lot less funny in print than it probably may be as visual humour online. The attempt to entertain, probably unfairly, starts to make one nervous show more of where the boundary between fact and fiction lies.

Just how much of the fact is adapted to the needs of a humorous style is unclear but the tone starts to make one suspicious. That is a shame because that 50% of the book that tells the mapping stories appears thoughful and is informative. It is clear that the authors care about geography and maps.

When it was good, it got at least three stars but when it tried to amuse me with a ridiculous run of letters in broken English to illustrate one episode in mapping history or mocked up an eighteenth century meet up or parodied a podcast, it more than lost me. It got one star.

This was frustrating because I really did want to know just how unreliable Soviet official mapping was, the role of Columbus' brother in the marketing of his ocean voyage, the story of the creation of the Mountains of the Moon and what happened to the 1:1 million international mapping project.

There are real insights into how Google approached its mapping operations in countries with no street or house names (by deploying landmarks) and into why British regional identity is such a goddawful mess as well as how commercial mapmakers manage the risk of copyright infringement.

There is one chapter about the reasonably well known story of what happened to Bikini Atoll and the people of the Marshall Islands under the American Imperium. It is actually quite moving. It is the only chapter with no laughs in it. Not that I was actually laughing as I read many of the others.

Personally I would have liked twice the amount of fact and some serious self-restraint on the comedy. As it is, it might please fans of the Channel and pass a few hours for those more interested in laughing than knowing or perhaps knowing something accidentally through laughing. show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/this-way-up-when-maps-go-wrong-and-why-it-matter...

Their book boils down sixteen cases of maps that were, are, or became incorrect, and has a jolly look at the history of each case. To be honest I prefer my history and cartography without extra tinsel, and in particular the fifty pages devoted to the story of the Donner Party dramatised as a debate between a fictional American and his high-school teacher seemed rather self-indulgent. (Not to mention the show more fictionalised debate between different parts of President Truman’s brain in the last chapter.)

However there’s some brilliant stuff here too. Chapter 5, on the UK’s ‘regions’ for Independent Television broadcasters, truly informs and entertains; I knew that the map was wonky, but I had no ide just how wonky, with King’s Lynn and Leeds getting the same ‘local’ news.

Chapter 14, on the development of the satnav and why we should not forget about more traditional ways of navigation, has lots of lovely details that I was unaware of. And despite the Truman’s brain joke, the final chapter, on the Marshall Islands, is tragic.

Anyway, there’s much more here to love than to dislike. show less

More promise than delivery. The maps are fascinating. The way of communicating their stories, very variable in quality.

I had never seen the youtube channel before getting this book and had no context for the creators. The book is still quite interesting, very entertaining while staying informative, and will be the foundation of many of my fun facts in future. I may even subscribe to the virtual content