How to Lie with Maps (2nd Edition) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Mark Monmonier, H. J. De Blij
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 73594
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 207
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0226534219
Dewey Decimal Number: 526
EAN: 9780226534213
ASIN: 0226534219
Publication Date: May 1, 1996
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Product Description
Originally published to wide acclaim, this lively, cleverly illustrated essay on the use and abuse of maps teaches us how to evaluate maps critically and promotes a healthy skepticism about these easy-to-manipulate models of reality. Monmonier shows that, despite their immense value, maps lie. In fact, they must.
The second edition is updated with the addition of two new chapters, 10 color plates, and a new foreword by renowned geographer H. J. de Blij. One new chapter examines the role of national interest and cultural values in national mapping organizations, including the United States Geological Survey, while the other explores the new breed of multimedia, computer-based maps.
To show how maps distort, Monmonier introduces basic principles of mapmaking, gives entertaining examples of the misuse of maps in situations from zoning disputes to census reports, and covers all the typical kinds of distortions from deliberate oversimplifications to the misleading use of color.
"Professor Monmonier himself knows how to gain our attention; it is not in fact the lies in maps but their truth, if always approximate and incomplete, that he wants us to admire and use, even to draw for ourselves on the facile screen. His is an artful and funny book, which like any good map, packs plenty in little space."—Scientific American
"A useful guide to a subject most people probably take too much for granted. It shows how map makers translate abstract data into eye-catching cartograms, as they are called. It combats cartographic illiteracy. It fights cartophobia. It may even teach you to find your way. For that alone, it seems worthwhile."—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
". . . witty examination of how and why maps lie. [The book] conveys an important message about how statistics of any kind can be manipulated. But it also communicates much of the challenge, aesthetic appeal, and sheer fun of maps. Even those who hated geography in grammar school might well find a new enthusiasm for the subject after reading Monmonier's lively and surprising book."—Wilson Library Bulletin
"A reading of this book will leave you much better defended against cheap atlases, shoddy journalism, unscrupulous advertisers, predatory special-interest groups, and others who may use or abuse maps at your expense."—John Van Pelt, Christian Science Monitor
"Monmonier meets his goal admirably. . . . [His] book should be put on every map user's 'must read' list. It is informative and readable . . . a big step forward in helping us to understand how maps can mislead their readers."—Jeffrey S. Murray, Canadian Geographic
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Decent overview of the subject, but not particularly enlightening. July 8, 2008
I am not a professional cartographer by any means. I'm a designer/illustrator. Recently, I've received several assignments working on way finding maps for city tourism departments, university campuses, and zoos. Those sorts of maps are more about helping people orient themselves and find their way around a place on foot. So I picked up this book to do a little more research on the subject since the sorts of maps I create definitely do a lot of "lying" to get people around.
It's a good book, but broader than the scope of my work. The parts of the book that did pertain to my project didn't really shed any new light on the subject matter. It was mostly just common sense. I actually found a lot of the subject matter to be obvious, especially about use of shapes, lines, and colors. Of course, I'm trained as a graphic artist, so that could be why it was basic to me. Still, many of the chapters I read through simply because I don't like to skip around and perhaps miss something that's referred to in later chapters. So, the information isn't bad, it just wasn't quite as deep as I hoped.
The book might be a great primer for a person getting into a cartography career. It's probably even better for a decision maker in a position of authority (like a town planning committee) who is has a hard time thinking of things in spatial terms and is more analytical, literal (like accountants?). It wold help them understand the decisions and ideas being presented to them by designers/cartographers/illustrators.
So overall it's a well written book, but for those who are familiar with map making and/or those trained in use of color theory and graphic communication it's a little basic. Perhaps it's greatest strength would be for a map maker to support the decisions he makes with some published research. Especially when his own explanation won't do while presenting an idea to a client for approval.
Great basic cartography book November 4, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Informative, well written, and easy to understand. Great for anyone entering the GIS world or interested in cartography.
 maps lie and lies on the map March 3, 2006
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
ab useful guide to understand the tricks of the cartographic power.
to learn how to be aware of the misuse and abuse of all type of maps. A milestone in the literature of Cartography.
A useful addition January 11, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Maps are one of hte commonest kind of information graphic. They occur in many forms, in many contexts, and commonly carry more data per square inch than just about any other kind of diagram. Also, a map carries some sense of authority and may even inspire a kind of loyalty - surely you know at least one map fanatic? That carrying capacity and authority can be used badly as easily as used well: incompetently, to make some point at the expense of others, or intentionally to misdirect.
The book's first section reminds us that every map contains mis- or missing information - if only because the world is round and the map is flat. Later, Mommonier gives examples of incompetence showing how information, especially in color, can be illegible.
He also shows how maps can affect political decisions as close as your own back yard, the maps used to make land planning and zoning decisions. He works up from town hall politics to the international scale, including some remarkable Cold War artifacts. He mentions esthetics only briefly, mostly to point out how the decision to make a map look nice can corrupt its data content. This is a loss since esthetics don't inherently conflict with the message, but good illustrators already know how to create visual appeal and bad ones should not be encouraged.
This is a useful addition for anyone who creates or uses information in picture form. It's not as broad as other books, but adds depth to discussions about one particular kind of information graphic. The wide ranging and well categorized bibliography is just an extra.
//wiredweird
How to Wreck an Interesting Subject September 15, 2004
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
This book is not quite the treatise on fraud and deception in the world of cartography that may seem evident from the publisher's descriptions. Such examinations do appear here and there, especially with some intriguing coverage of Nazi and Soviet cartographic shenanigans. Instead this is mostly a textbook for beginning geography students on how maps are never completely realistic, and always tell lies about the real environments that they claim to depict. These range from necessary white lies on flat maps depicting the three-dimensional Earth (especially when it comes to rugged terrain or heavily clustered urban areas); to outright propaganda and militarism in political maps. More trouble arises with printing methods, color and shading, and statistical categorizations in data maps (such as those explaining census results). Thus "lying" with maps is not always consciously fraudulent, and is even required when the aim of a map is clarity and utility.
Thus Monmonier has created a rather unique textbook for those who make maps and those who use them in professional decision-making. Unfortunately Monmonier has the habit of belittling everyone who doesn't appreciate how hard cartographers really have it. He continuously degrades mapmakers as incompetent and diabolical, and map users as illiterate and ignorant, topping out in chapter 6 with "...the public's graphic naivete and appalling ignorance of maps." Personal politics abound too, such as in a description of an inaccurate map of Grenada. He constructs fictitious zoning boards and planning commissions in order to show his disagreement with the way those bodies operate. All of the maps illustrating cartographic advertising and boosterism in chapters 5 and 6 are fictitious, even though there are surely real-life examples of maps that could prove Monmonier's points, and chapter 10 devolves into interminable statistics when describing some highly esoteric problems with data (or choropleth) maps. Interested readers might find themselves as exasperated as Monmonier's geography students. [~doomsdayer520~]
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