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Puzzles and quizzes about places and countries which aim to help develop geographical skills. Readers are offered puzzles such as matching the monument to the country, birds-eye views, buried treasure, world wordsearch, name games and the great county alphabet game. ... Read more

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A practical approach to the earth sciences, Maps offers diagrams, experiments, landscapes, maps, models, and projects that help kids understand the concepts of earth science. Step-by-step explanations of basic geographical principles combine with superb photographs and illustrations to offer a comprehensive look at this topic for children ages 8-11. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

I never got the book or a refund
Dont try to buy this as you will never get it or get a refund after you waste time trying to get this seller to respond and send the book. Too bad, I would have much rather had the book than a dispute with Amazon. Cheap.

New Mexico History in Maps
My copy of this book is becoming tattered from wear.When I checked Amazon listings I discovered it's now out of print.I'd recommend anyone interested in the history and demographics of New Mexico buy one of these while it's still possible to get it used.

The Contents includes numerous maps under each of the following headings:Natural Environment, Historical Landscapes, Population Characteristics, Economic Characteristics, Cultural Elements and Government.Although the title is several years out of date in some areas, it's still the best document of the kind I've ever seen for the State of New Mexico in a broad-brush quick reference or for an in-depth study of certain aspects of New Mexico history you won't find elsewhere.I'd love to see UNM Press do another run of this one or print it on a book by book POD.It's entirely too good to allow to become unavailable. ... Read more

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THIS EDITION IS INTENDED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Explores how maps have evolved through the ages and how maps are made today. Features vivid color photographs and maps with lively captions. ... Read more

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Introduces key geography concepts in an accessible way ... Read more

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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

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This book introduces readers to the basic map skills that we all need. It looks at the different types of maps that people use, from bird's-eye views to plans and atlases. It shows how maps are made and why grids and scales are so important. It also looks at how symbols and keys are used on maps. At the back of this book, there is an activity to show how you can draw your own map. There is a list of 10 fascinating facts at the back of the book and a map showing where the places mentioned in the fact file are. Words in bold in the text can be found in the glossary. A combination of clear diagrams and large photographs help the reader's understanding of the text. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Maps--What am I learning from them that I am unaware of?
Today they are scribbled on the back of business cards, delivered with admonitions by our GPS, or arrive on our desktop from Mappy or Google. Most of us, if we reflect on maps at all, are likely to think of them as aids for getting from one place to another without getting lost, happy not to risk roadway suicide refolding their bed sheet-sized ancestors to fit the glove compartment! In the newspaper or on the Internet maps may also seem to be easy ways to digest data, viz., the red/blue state maps used to explain the 2008 US elections or tracking the spread of influenza.However, Denis Wood's sequel to The Power of Maps, takes us far, far deeper into the substratum of how we come to have and use these tools. It examines the assumptions we make about them and their import for both local and global communities.

Wood subjects what we call "a map" to a strict historical scrutiny. At least in the West, maps are with few exceptions a product of the age of nation building. To quote the author, "The things we recognize as maps gained currency only in the last 400 years or so and within this period only in relatively stable states with entrenched, centralized bureaucracies and well-established academies." In truth, far from being passive reflections of geography, maps help construct the state as we know it.

How does this work? Drawing boundaries and naming places are ways of affirming the existence of a state and its reach. The resulting maps, then, both affirm and are affirmed by the authority of the state. The existence of the map offered a sense of identity to both the population within and a claim of proprietorship against those without. Maps are used to tell us that "things are," and that they are "there." At their absolute worst, as history shows, they often give legitimacy, if not a sense of absolute righteousness, to engaging in seizure and genocide.

Maps are not passive pieces of paper or pixels on your computer screen that they at first seem to be. While they present themselves as simply representing facts of nature and society, maps, whether gerrymandering local voting or school districts or staking a claim to territory, are in fact propositions supporting both local and geopolitical agendas in search of acceptance.

Besides chronicling this power and agency of maps with numerous historical and contemporary accounts, Rethinking the Power of Maps contains a brilliantly written, major case study, the mapping and counter-mapping and counter-counter-mapping of Palestine. The focal point of this history is the claim to existence of the State of Israel and propositions as to its geographical reach. I started reading the book from the beginning, but found the cartographic language a bit daunting, so followed the author's suggestion of jumping to this illustrative chapter, whose story line and impact helped me make much better sense of the rest.

Maps share in the power of culture, in which the making of maps has in fact become a part. They are social constructs shaping our reality. They operate like the most influential levels of culture, those that speak to us from below the waterline of consciousness about what we should believe to be real and meaningful. Maps easily close our minds and eyes to conflicting or competing realities that might challenge implanted values and attitudes. Whether justifying contemporary Israeli expansion or motivating the century long march of the "Manifest Destiny" of the white man in America, maps ease the conscience of both their creators and users. Who can argue with "what is?" Here as well as elsewhere rapacious abstraction has the power to gnaw at our humanity.

Beyond tracking the basic story of the development of mapping and its purposes, Wood explores the impact of the legend and symbols and colors used in designing maps, what they tell us and what they hide, as well as how they advertise. The incisiveness and precision with which he examines elements that we take for granted on maps is at once a sociological and epistemological analysis of the minds of both makers and end users of maps. It explains the results of the employing them and gives us clues to the interpreting the language and codes they embody.

Maps are about relationships, how one landscape or feature of what is being measured and presented relates to or elbows another aside in the style of presentation, relative size and importance. Far from innocent notes and symbols, the legend placed on maps (or its absence), too, inevitably bear intentionality. Though we might generally agree that even the most lavishly illustrated menu is not the meal, when it comes to maps, we are far less likely to disentangle reality from its representation by the cartographer or fathom the intentions of his or her patrons.

Given the political, military, financial and social influences behind the creation and use of maps, it is not surprising that elevated consciousness about their actual sources, origins and nature would result in resistance to propositions they espouse. Inevitably this leads to counter-mapping as an expression of criticism and protest.
Wood looks at the rise and fall of cartography as a scholarly discipline, both in the making and classification of maps. He points to a decline of sustainability in this academic venture, due to both internal and external criticism and the fact that technological tools are democratizing the ability to make maps. He provides numerous examples of "home grown" mapmaking taking on a life of its own, embodying both artistic elegance and a sense of affection for the places in people lives.

Google, the blabbing GPS, et al, are now automating the past intentions and assumptions of mapmakers. Recognizing this, Wood becomes an unabashed advocate of "talking back to the map" and, in a populist sense, "taking back the map." This perspective and tone resonates through the entire the book, but is most explicit in Chapters 5 to 7 where alternative propositions, everything from activist criticism to Dada map art are explored. Wood argues that we need to get beyond the fictive "public participation" that is often championed with a political agenda of balancing support and interests for projects if we are to enter into real democratization of maps.

Rethinking the Power of Maps, is not an easy read, but an eye opening one. The language can be daunting even for US English speakers, not just in the use of vocabulary but in the broadness of the conceptual frame--I read it with my browser open to Wikipedia. The end notes are a copious resource not only listing and explaining references but providing additional commentary on the part of the author that would have overburdened the text.

In sum, I can do no better than quote from the first pages of the book: "Maps are engines that convert social energy into social work," whose outputs include the framing of social space, social order, and social knowledge. ... Read more

Product Description
This elegant, richly colored antique-style world map features the incredible cartographic detail that is the trademark quality of National Geographic. The map features a Tripel Projection, which reduces distortion of land masses as they near the poles. Corner inset maps feature vegetation and land use, and population density. Winner of the 2001 Premier Print Award from Printing Industries of America for unique ability to create visual masterpieces. Winner of the 2002 Best Reference Map from the American Congress on Surveying & Mapping.

This wall map is an impressive 73 x 49 inches (approx) in size with a scale of 1:22,445,000. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great Map
The map is very large and provides a lot of detail. I framed it in with a cherry stained wood and it looks great.

B E A U T I F U L <3
It's huge and beautiful. Kind of hard to hang up but it's totally worth it. Great price too!

beautiful on the wall
This poster is beautiful and the size is very dramatic.A great focal point for the room.Love it.

Good price, excellent quality
Awesome map, HUGE and fancy looking.And my goodness can you find this thing for cheap!Highly satisfied with this map.Nail it in with some small gold colored nails and it looks absolutely stunning up on the wall.

Beautiful!
This book is gorgeous. It is loaded with wonderful photos of Mt. Everest, the mountaineers, the local people, and the Nepali Himalyan region. The photos really convey the feeling that you are there. The text interestingly details the expedition and is well written. More than just a coffee table book. ... Read more

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This volume ventures into terrain where even the most sophisticated map failsto lead--through the mapmaker's bias.Denis Wood shows how maps are not impartial referenceobjects, but rather instruments of communication, persuasion, and power.Like paintings, theyexpress a point of view.By connecting us to a reality that could not exist in the absence ofmaps--a world of property lines and voting rights, taxation districts and enterprise zones--theyembody and project the interests of their creators.Sampling the scope of maps available today,illustrations include Peter Gould's AIDS map, Tom Van Sant's map of the earth, U.S. GeologicalSurvey maps, and a child's drawing of the world.THE POWER OF MAPS was published inconjunction with an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution'sNational Museum of Design.THE NEW YORK TIMES called The Power of Maps exhibition"an ambitious attempt to examine maps as powerful tools for making statements about theworld."(Friday, October 9, 1992). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Power of Maps is powerful
I read Wood's The Power of Maps a few years ago, and I've just come back to it.It is not light reading (although it's well written and a pleasure to read), and it isn't just about cartography.It is about the ways in which we use symbols to reflect our world's biases, power structures, hopes, fears and more.Maps are forms of cultural language, and Wood does not shrink from pulling the curtain away from the fact that they are also often arbitrary, manipulative, and simply wrong.At the same time, he celebrates them, and he encourages readers to come to maps with their critical antennae raised.So, maps can tell us much more about our world than most people realize. This is real scholarship, and it is intellectually rigorous, but it is also accessible, relevant and rich in content.It's a wonderful book.

Somebody get this man an editor! Quick!
I bought Wood's more recent book on maps (Seeing Through Maps: Many Ways to See the World) through amazon, and was somewhat disappointed (see my review there). So, this time around, I decided to get this book from my public library (yay for public libraries!). Boy am I glad I did! (Because I would have kicked myself if I had paid money for this one.) It appears that this book was later condensed to provide much of the material for "Seeing Through Maps...".

I can agree with most of what other reviewers have said about this book: The Ferris-Bueller moments (what an apt description!) caused by excessive use of ellipsis, the use of drawings by a three-year-old (literally) on many pages, the post-modernist over-intellectualized ramblings that tend to detract from what are perfectly valid and interesting points: the people in power really *do* draw the maps, and maps *do* give some people power (and take it away from others) by manipulating our conception of the world.

It's too bad that someone didn't reign the author in, in both of those books. He's really his own worst enemy. The writing is rambling and repetitive: you find yourself muttering "OK! OK! I *get* it! Can we move ON please!". With apologies to Blaise Pascal, it seems if the author had had more time, he could have written a shorter book.

I think it's really a shame that both books lack even a single colour plate, since maps possess beauty in addition to power, but perhaps it was appropriate to de-emphasize the beauty and focus on the power for the purposes of this book. Prospective readers should know that the "power" referred to in the title is of an ethereal, intellectual kind, that is perceived in the mind, not in the eyes.

Excellent Writing, Profound Insights
This is one of those books that come around all too infrequently that make us see the world differently. Those content with a limited view may not fully appreciate the depth of this book's insights. The prose simply soars beyond what one would expect from an academic subject...which makes it thrilling to read. Denis Wood's are not for the lazy or the closed-minded. They are, indeed, masterful.

Poor writing, shallow thinking
For those who simply like maps, here is a quick response to "The Power of Maps": DO NOT bother reading this book! The writing is poor.The book is riddled with errors (the chapter on Tom Van Sant's beautiful, global satellite image map is particularly bad in this regard).Very few actual maps are included, and they are reprinted in an ugly, unreadable small black & white format.Worst of all, the author doesn't really have anything to say about the power OR beauty of maps, or about what makes a map elegant, eloquent, or useful.

Like so many ivory-tower deconstructionists, Wood's primary focus seems to be on the manipulation of language as a weapon against his own subject - in this case, cartography. As one who loves maps, and works with them professionally, I wouldn't have thought it would be possible to write about them in such an insipid, uninteresting, and unenlightening way. Don't waste your time or your money on this book!

... the heights!
If you want the history of cartography or an explanation of its technicalities, this is not the book for you. If you want to see more clearly the human landscape in which maps are embedded and the human activities for which maps are constructed, this IS the book for you! Brilliant and fun and informative reading for cartographers and laymen. Denis Wood shows how maps represent societies as much as topographies. Grab your topo for rafting trip through time and place! ... Read more

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NEW! Detailed National Geographic cartography includes country boundaries, place names, bodies of water, and more for the entire Asian continent.

(Tubed) 33'' x 38''
Scale size: 1:13,812,000 ... Read more

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The world of science has never been so accessible to young readers! Science Kids books offer a learning experience that kids, parents, and teachers are sure to love. The lively and engaging text explains the basic principles of favorite science subjects. Illustrations and stunning photography zoom in on interesting details, and fun projects encourage further learning.

Travel around the world with this introduction to maps and how they work. Learn about compass points, map keys, scales, colors, and contours; discover how maps are created and used; and even make a 3-D relief map.

Customer Reviews (1)

Enhanced with impressive photography
Enhanced with impressive photography, Deborah Chancellor's text and fun projects will introduce young readers to the use of maps to explore and understand the world. From charting seabeds from a submarine; to finding hidden treasures where "X" marks the spot; to satellite mapping of every corner of the earth, Maps And Mapping is enthusiastically recommended. ... Read more

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