The Mapmakers: The Story of the Great Pioneers in Cartography—from Antiquity to the Space Age by John Noble Wilford

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An updated edition of the classic, much-praised history of cartography that traces the adventures, discoveries, and feats of technical ingenuity by which mapmakers over the centuries have charted the surface of the globe, the Earth's interior, the ocean floors, and finally the Moon and the nearby planets of our solar system.

John Noble Wilford chronicles the exploits of the great pioneers in mapmaking: the remarkably sophisticated silk maps of ancient China; the work of medieval cartographers who, relying on the stories of pilgrims and travelers, depicted imaginary realms and the fearsome monsters said to inhabit them; the contributions of Columbus, Magellan, and Cook (whose precise charting of the Pacific set the standard for years to come); the legacy of the extraordinary Cassini family of France, who, over four generations, completed the first topographic survey of an entire country; the expeditions of John Charles Frémont and John Wesley Powell, which produced the first maps of the American West and the Colorado River; and the modern-day achievements of those who have set out to explore still unknown realms: Antarctica, the mountains of the sea, the Moon, Mars, and Venus.

Wilford tells the dramatic story of how, through the ages, technology—compasses, sextants, theodolites, cameras, airplanes, radar, sonar, computers, seismic probes, lasers, satellites—has transformed the way we see and measure our world. He details the innovations, from John Harrison's eighteenth-century marine chronometer, which enable navigators to calculate longitude at sea, to the Pentagon's Global Positioning System (GPS), now used as widely by civilians as by the military to pinpoint the bearer's exact location on the globe.

With three new chapters, more maps, and illustrations, and many revisions and amplifications, this edition reflects the great changes that have taken place in mapmaking in the past two decades. Wilford shows how these advancers have made possible a precision and range in mapping never before imagined, and how they have led to new and vital applications: locating mineral energy, and freshwater resources; identifying pollution and other environmental hazards; uncovering precious archaeological treasures; and plotting the terrain of our neighboring planets.

A fascinating account of man's inventiveness and limitless curiosity, The Mapmakers is the definitive book on our continuing quest to chart the vast unknown.