Book

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 time periods. Based on interviews with scores of leading 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. Buy the book.

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…

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…

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…

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.” Read more…

Excerpts

Mapping the Heart of the Grand Canyon
Behind the Herculean eight-year-long effort to create a scientifically accurate cartographic masterpiece.
By Betsy Mason
Read more at Outside

A Pirate’s Pilfered Atlas
Extremely valuable pirate booty, a stolen Spanish atlas bought the life of a 17th-century English buccaneer.
By Greg Miller
Read more at National Geographic

The Topography of Disease
The 19th-century doctors that mapped cholera’s toll to try and understand its origin and spread.
By Betsy Mason
Read more at Scientific American

California’s Liquid Assets
An innovative atlas that traces the water that powers the world’s sixth-largest economy.
By Greg Miller
Read more at the Long Now Foundation

When Mars Had Canals
For nearly a century, humans believed the Red Planet was home to intelligent beings.
By Betsy Mason
Read more at betsymason.com

Jerusalem in the Time of Christ
A European priest looks 1,500 years into the past and imagines the Holy City at the birth of Christianity.
By Greg Miller
Read more at National Geographic