"Radical Cartography: How Changing Our Maps Can Change Our World" by William Rankin

Where are you with maps? Still digging in the glove compartment for that dog-eared map of Iowa? Gazing contentedly at a map of the world with Greenland as the dominant feature? Maybe you’ve got a pocket map of attractions in Downtown Chicago?Wherever you are when it comes to maps, you need to know what Yale history professor Bill Rankin is preaching: all maps lie.Maybe he wouldn’t actually say that but Rankin’s new book, Radical Cartography: How Changing Our Maps Can Change Our World makes the case that no one map can get it absolutely 100 percent right.Rankin argues that it’s time to reimagine what a map can be and how it can be used. Maps are not neutral visualizations of facts. They are innately political, defining how the world is divided, what becomes visible and what stays hidden, and whose voices are heard. Maps are more than directional aids, but make arguments about how the world works, said Rankin. A map’s visual argument can change how cities are designed and how rivers flow, how wars are fought and how land claims are settled, and how children learn about race. Maps don’t just show us information—they help construct our world, he said. While most mainstream maps use a jigsaw-puzzle-like format — solid color shapes separated by crisp boundaries, there are countless other ways to represent the same geography and tell very different stories.Rankin sees radical cartography as a way to shake up our view of maps by focusing on three values: uncertainty, multiplicity, and subjectivity. Rankin cites an old episode of the West Wing TV show that talked about the Peters projection, an alternative map of the world generated in the 1970s. The Peters map sought to make improvements on the Mercator version, one that exaggerates Europe's size. The problem, Rankin says, is that the idea wasn't new. Many maps have been designed over the years to adjust our worldview, and the Peters map wasn't the first or the best.But while modern software allows for easier mapmaking, Radical Cartography isn’t designed to turn out a new generation of cartographers, said Rankin. The book seeks to help general audiences become more critical of the maps we use, he said.