"Schulten steps up to the challenge of producing a full-length work about the political economy of mapmaking.... An ambitious history of the rise of popular cartography in the United States." - Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker "A well-documented account of how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography.... Theory is wisely balanced by a hodgepodge of odd and interesting facts about maps, politics and American cultural trends." - Publishers Weekly "An important new work.... Schulten's original synthesis ranges widely and insightfully from the effects of war on map design to map projection as a reflection of how Americans saw themselves as an emergent world power." - Mark Monmonier, author of How to Lie with Maps and Air Apparent