Synopses & Reviews
The simplest purpose of a map is a rational one: to educate, to solve a problem, to point someone in the right direction. Maps shape and communicate information, for the sake of improved orientation. But maps exist for states as well as individuals, and they need to be interpreted as expressions of power and knowledge, as Steven Seegel makes clear in his impressive and important new book.Mapping Europeandrsquo;s Borderlands takes the familiar problems of state and nation building in eastern Europe and presents them through an entirely new prism, that of cartography and cartographers. Drawing from sources in eleven languages, including military, historical-pedagogical, and ethnographic maps, as well as geographic texts and related cartographic literature, Seegel explores the role of maps and mapmakers in the East Central European borderlands from the Enlightenment to the Treaty of Versailles. For example, Seegel explains how Russia used cartography in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and, later, formed its geography society as a cover for gathering intelligence. He also explains the importance of maps to the formation of identities and institutions in Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania, as well as in Russia. Seegel concludes with a consideration of the impact of cartographersandrsquo; regional and socioeconomic backgrounds, educations, families, career options, and available language choices.and#160;
Review
and#160;and#8220;No one has approached the history of East European cartography with greater dedication, energy, and scholarly objectivity than Steven Seegel. This imposing work will prove indispensable in years and decades to come for anyone who wishes to understand the historical relationship between constructions of place and power.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Steven Seegel has written a fascinating and important work on the significance of maps and cartography for understanding the history of Eastern Europe. He demonstrates with detailed erudition the social and political implications of mapping, challenges us to rethink basic preconceptions about European space, and illuminates the complexities of the terrain in Europeandrsquo;s borderlands. This is essential reading for scholars working on Russia and Eastern Europe.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Knowledge is power and maps project a vision of andlsquo;objective knowledgeandrsquo; over a territory.and#160;Steven Seegelandrsquo;s Mapping Europeandrsquo;s Borderlands applies this dictum to the ethnically and religiously diverse lands once forming part of the early modern Polish Commonwealth. Seegelandrsquo;s book, combining insights from geography, cartography, critical theory, and history, provides us with a means of seeing this territory through the lens of nineteenth-century mapmakers.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Mapping Europeandrsquo;s Borderlands examines the critical role of maps in the making of Eastern Europe. In this highly innovative study, Steven Seegel uses maps to offer a new, complex, and highly convincing view of the wars, revolutions, diplomatic relations, and political ideas in this part of the world. A strikingly original story.andrdquo;
Review
“[A] fascinating topic. . . . Recommended.” E. Edson, Piedmont Virginia Community College
Review
andldquo;Seegel intricately analyzes the cartography of imperial Russia and Poland-Lithuania as the science evolved and historical demands were placed on it. This is a rich and fascinating angle on history enhanced by a bounty of beautiful reproductions. Rare is a book this aesthetically pleasing and intellectually original. Seegel should be congratulated for creating it, and the University of Chicago Press, for producing it.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;[R]emarkable and compelling. . . . Mapping Europeand#8217;s Borderlands is an important book, . . . providing the basis for a fundamental reappraisal of the history of this hugely important area over the past few centuries.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;[T]his work is underpinned by impressive scholarship. The author has evidently examined hundreds of original maps and associated materials in many libraries and archives across Europe and the United States, has consulted numerous scholars, and appears to have command of several languages.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[B]eautifully illustrated. . . . The book is awash in maps of all sorts, some in brilliant color. The sheer number of them cited or explained is remarkable, proving Seegelandrsquo;s wide-ranging research. He . . . never fails to tell us about the story behind the pictures, giving us a sense of the men who plotted the maps and, in some cases, paid for them with broken lives and careers. . . . Anyone interested in the problems of nationality and geography in the Russian-ruled borderlands of Eastern Europe should read this book.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] fascinating topic. . . . Recommended.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Mapping Europeandrsquo;s Borderlands makes a valuable contribution and offers directions for future research. It is painstakingly researched, bringing together information from sources not only in English, but also in Russian, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and other languages. It is extensively illustrated. This book should appeal to a broader range of readers of the history of cartography because much of what it reveals about the mapping of Russia, East, and East Central Europe easily is applicable elsewhere in the modern world of empire.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Seegel offers a thoughtful framework by which historians can read maps against the grain, uncovering ideologies related to anthropology, geology, statistics, and numerous other domains of natural knowledge.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A rich study of East European and Russian cartography from the Enlightenment to the end of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Steven Seegel scrutinizes the scientific and pedagogical value of military, historical, and ethnographic maps, geography textbooks, and cartographic literature in eleven different languages. The result is a detailed work that illuminates how Russia adopted the Enlightenmentandrsquo;s instruments of scientific progress and adapted them into tools of modern governance. . . . By inviting readers to view East European lands through the prism of geographers, Steven Seegel has made a noteworthy contribution to the study of territory and space in Russian and East European history.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The book is not only a real showpiece of the authorandlsquo;s erudition and brilliant orientation in a vast multilingual literature of the subject, but it is first and foremost a critical contribution to our understanding of the andlsquo;situated messinessandrsquo; of east central European borderlands and the place contested cartographies and constructed geographies have played in this regionandrsquo;s historical formation between 1772 and 1919.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;[Mapping Europeand#8217;s Borderlands] will undoubtedly serve as a point of reference for academics in a wide range of disciplines, from anthropology and geography to history and sociology.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A meticulous analysis of how such a natural science discipline as cartography might be used for political purposes.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Steven Seegel masterfully deals with Eastern and East Central European cartography as a tool for state and identity building, as well as for establishing control over contested territories.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[H]ighly original and noteworthy. . . . Mapping Europeand#8217;s Borderlands is an impressive achievement. Seegel proves an erudite guide through the development of cartography in (the northern tier of) East Central Europe. . . . His reading of maps and mapmakers is sensitive and insightful. Seegel has mastered the historiography of a number of fieldsand#8212;cartography and historical geography as well as the history of East Central Europe and Russia. He reads a minimum of a dozen languages. The breadth of the work is admirable. And the book is worth its price for the maps alone, wonderfully reproduced. . . . [T]his reviewer will never see maps in quite the same way again.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A magnificent work and an essential read for all those interested in the history of states and empires in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century east central Europe, in the cartography and geopolitics of territorial struggles, and in the ways in which national and ethnic identities were produced and contested across the region.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Impressive and important. . . . Mapping Europeand#8217;s Borderlands takes the familiar problems of state and nation building in Eastern Europe and presents them innovatively through the prism of cartography and cartographers. Drawing from cartographic sources in eleven languages, including military, historical-pedagogical, and ethnographic maps, as well as geographic texts and related cartographic literature, Seegel explores the role of maps and mapmakers in the east central European borderlands from the Enlightenment to the Treaty of Versailles. . . . I congratulate Seegel for his outstanding achievement. I am sure that his book will be a starting point for many other researchers and a stimulus for further work on the complex histories of European ethnic, national, and state boundaries and their mapping.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Tremendously impressive.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Some scholars of our own day confuse abstraction with mastery and the assertion of power with its presence, dwelling on the projects, gardens, and utopias of the andlsquo;modernandrsquo; state. These interpretations are copacetic because we ourselves deal in similar reductions. Seegel is more careful and more interesting, perhaps because the region of his very considerable expertise, Eastern Europe, can be presented neither as an overpoweringly andlsquo;modernandrsquo; state nor as an intellectually supine colonial possession of such. . . . No one has taken up the subject of maps and power in Eastern Europe with as much energy and erudition as Seegel, and it is unlikely that anyone who reads his book will believe they can do better.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A fabulous book and remarkable scholarly accomplishment. Beautifully produced by the University of Chicago and richly illustrated with black and white reproductions and color plate map images, the book has an oddly misleading subtitle if not title, one that understates its scope and achievement. Ranging from the eighteenth century to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, and considering the lands between Vienna and St. Petersburg, Seegel has written a deeply erudite and richly documented account of cartography as andlsquo;a tool of imperial governanceandrsquo; and, to a lesser extent, as a counter-imperial vehicle of political protest, and nationalist aspiration.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The study of geography is at last becoming fashionable in Slavic studies, and Steven Seegelandrsquo;s work will remain one of its best products. . . . His book is a major achievement. I will treasure having it on my shelves, and I am sure I will turn to it very often.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;With lively and polished prose, Dunlop traces the many ways that visual imagery both reflected and shaped the shifting boundary between France and Germany. Her ability to explicate all types of cartographic knowledgeandmdash;from state-sponsored surveys to popular andldquo;citizen mapsandrdquo;andmdash;makes this a most welcome addition to the history of cartography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Cartophilia uncovers a remarkable range of andldquo;citizen cartographersandrdquo; who mapped one of Europeandrsquo;s most iconic borderland regions. From foldable hiking charts to popular village maps, Dunlop draws upon quotidian objects that, in her analysis, become cultural symbols underpinning the modern nation.and#160;Not since Peter Sahlinsandrsquo;and#160;Boundariesand#160;has there been such an insightful analysis of French cartographic culture at its ownand#160;geographic limits.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Dunlopandrsquo;s Cartophilia is an impressive book. Taking the borderland of Alsace-Lorraine as her point of reference, and andldquo;popularandrdquo; cartographers as her subject, Dunlop demonstrates, with a keen eyeand#160;for telling details, the role of maps and cartographic practices in the formation and re-formation of national and regional identities over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Cartophilia is cogently organized, elegantly and succinctly written, and original in its emphases and contributions.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;There is a freshness in Dunlopandrsquo;s writing, a desire to innovate and rethink that is remarkable. Dunlop does not paint by numbers, filling in a tableau well-established by others. Rather, Cartophilia is conceptually bold in combining history and geography in a way that is unique and fascinating. It is also methodologically important, as she handles historical geography with a precision and a delicacy that I have not yet seen among historians or geographers. Cartophilia is an impressive work that will set the model for scholars and students for years to come.andrdquo;
Synopsis
The period between the French Revolution and World War II was a time of tremendous growth in both mapmaking and map reading throughout Europe, and the political and cultural consequences of this and#147;age of cartophiliaand#8221; were nowhere more powerfully felt than in the disputed French-German borderland of Alsace-Lorraine. Desired for its prime geographical position and abundant natural resources, Alsace-Lorraine endured devastating wars from 1870 to 1945 that altered its borders four times, significantly affecting the physical landscape, its national identity, and the political allegiances of its citizens.and#160; Many of them responded to and understood these changes by making and examining maps.
Cartophilia reveals the lively world of citizen mapmakers in Alsace-Lorraine who were inspired by French and German nationalism as well as Alsatian regionalism. This fresh, diverse group of mapmakersand#151;populated by linguists, ethnographers, archaeologists, schoolteachers, hikers, and priests alikeand#151;created some of the most influential visual images of the disputed French-German borderland. Through experimental techniques that expanded on traditional cartography, and with a determined spirit of resistance and reclamation, these citizen mapmakers transformed the very idea of a boundary map from a legalistic document into a patriotically inspired icon of national and regional identity.
Synopsis
Russia first encountered Alaska in 1741 as part of the most ambitious and expensive expedition of the entire 18th century. During the next 126 years the struggle to develop and refine geographic knowledge of the vast region comprising northeastern Asia, the North Pacific, and Alaska met with many obstacles, including inclement weather, the chain of supply over great distances, the need to train expert navigators and cartographers, and false leads due to spurious voyage accounts. For much of this era, critical geographic knowledge was kept as a state secret in Russia and not shared, even with the very navigators and cartographers who were developing much needed maps and navigational aids. Despite this, a rich cartographic heritage developed to be carried forward into the American era.
The traditional Russian cartographic methods were appliedand#160; to new discoveries in Siberia and beyond. Early fur traders and explorers utilized this system which for a time co-existed with the new cartographic methodology utilized in Europe and adopted for use by the Russia of Peter the Great. It became an age of scientific exploration. Great Britain, France, Spain, but especially Russia, sent expeditions. An increasingly complete knowledge of the coasts of North America, with forays into the interior, emerged. Postnikov describes the explorations and richly illustrates how the resulting maps evolved and contributed to the worldand#8217;s knowledge of one of the last great regions of the world to be explored.
About the Author
Alexey V. Postnikov is a research fellow in the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Marvin Falk is professor and curator of rare books emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.Lydia T. Black (1925-2007) was
Table of Contents
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
I . Mapping Borders
1 States Map Their Bordersand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
2 What Makes a Good Border? and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160;
3 Language Mapsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
II . Borderland Maps for Everyday Life
4 Finding the Centerand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
5 Maps for Movementand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
6 Visualizing Strasbourgand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Epilogueand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Notesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Bibliographyand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Index