Where Are We?

Not so very long ago, getting from here to there involved the awkward origami of unfolding a large paper map in the confines of a car, or depending on the kindness of strangers. Only in the past two decades have we shifted our allegiance to the electronic maps easily accessible in our dashboard or pocket. But our confidence in maps, our belief that they mean only to serve us, has always been somewhat naïve. In his classic How to Lie with Maps, the geographer Mark Monmonier explained how maps and their makers have, intentionally or unintentionally, led us astray, whether from the distortions of their projections, from their biases or ignorance (“Here Be Dragons”), or in a desire to favor some information and obscure other information for one purpose or another. Some degree of favoritism is unavoidable: As Denis Wood argues in The Power of Maps, every map is defined by what it omits.