In this visually stunning book, award-winning journalists Betsy Mason and Greg Miller explore the intriguing stories behind maps from a wide variety of cultures, civilizations, and eras. Based on interviews with scores of cartographers, curators, historians, and scholars, this is a remarkable selection of fascinating and unusual maps.
This diverse compendium includes ancient maps of dragon-filled seas, elaborate graphics picturing unseen concepts and forces from inside Earth to outer space, devious maps created by spies, and maps from pop culture such as the schematics to the Death Star and a map of Westeros from Game of Thrones. If your brain craves maps—and Mason and Miller would say it does, whether you know it or not—this eye-opening visual feast will inspire and delight.
Book Tour
PRESS COVERAGE AND REVIEWS
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Betsy Mason and Greg Miller’s All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey is an absorbing and quirky history of mapmaking. Divided into categories (waterways, cities, landscapes, economies and so on), it tells the stories behind scores of maps, ranging from the odd to the imagined. Read more…
WIRED
This beautiful tome by WIRED alumni Betsy Mason and Greg Miller charts the fascinating history of cartography. The scores of maps in the book range from the whimsical (origins of meats supplied to Parisian butchers) to the political (North Dakota fracking sites) to the fantastical (Jerry Gretzinger’s imaginary world). Read more...
ATLAS OBSCURA
Pocket globes had been circulating since the 1600s, especially among sailors and students of cartography, write Betsy Mason and Greg Miller in their recent book, All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey. At the time, cartographic works ran the gamut from erudite and accessible, both in content and price. Read more...
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
In the age of Google and Waze, maps may seem redundant. But Betsy Mason, co-author of All Over the Map, explains that maps can do much more than help us avoid a traffic jam or find the next Starbucks. They can map poverty, bring to life the beauty of the Grand Canyon, or record war damage. Read more...
PBS NEWSHOUR
In the age of Google Maps and GPS, which can dictate the exact turns you’ll need to navigate an unfamiliar city, are paper maps obsolete? “I just don’t think that’s even remotely true,” said author Betsy Mason. “Maps do so much more than help you navigate.”
GEEKWIRE
Mapping the cosmos is just one of the topics addressed in this entertaining, colorful look at historical maps and the stories behind them. Space fans will revel in the tale surrounding a century’s worth of road atlases for Mars’ (non-existent) canals.
CITY LAB
With an eye for splendor, Mason and Miller dredge up stories of the past through the medium of maps, often with something to say about the present. Their new book, All Over the Map, binds hundreds of evocative maps into one volume, stitched with approachable, illuminating prose. Read more...
CARTONERD BLOG
Mason and Miller have got you covered whatever your map vice is. Whether you like the painstaking detail of beautiful topographic maps, the imagination of celestial charts, the analytical representation of statistical data or the fantasy of the map of Westeros then there’s plenty in this book to feast on. Read more...
INQUIRING MINDS PODCAST
Science journalists Greg Miller and Betsy Mason took their obsession with maps and translated that into one of the most beautiful and interesting compendiums of stories I've ever read. The book is filled with over 200 maps... I can't recommend it highly enough.
THE MAP ROOM BLOG
This is as catholic, as inclusive, a collection as I have ever encountered. As an introduction to where things stand in the mapping world, to the best of what I’ve seen lately, I’d have a hard time coming up with something better.
THE LIBRARY JOURNAL
The hundreds of creations vary from hand-painted early works to satellite images; in every case they are beautifully reproduced and accompanied by extensive details of the technical and artistic decisions involved. VERDICT: A must for cartography collections and a wonderful addition to social science and art shelves.
