How to Lie with Maps

Citation

Monmonier, M. (2018). How to Lie with Maps (3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press.

Chapter Summary

The third edition has fifteen chapters, about 205 pages of text, followed by an appendix on latitude and longitude, a list of selected readings, sources of illustrations and an index. Evan I. Levine's review in Cartographic Perspectives (no. 91, 2018) counts 97 black-and-white figures and 17 colour plates. The book first appeared in 1991; this edition, written for the digital age, adds a short new preface, moves the chapter on colour forward and replaces the second edition's brief chapter on multimedia maps with three new chapters (12–14) on image maps, prohibitive cartography and dynamic and online maps. Monmonier's opening chapter sets out the plan: after the introduction, four chapters on general cartographic principles that apply to all maps, then nine on particular kinds of map and how they can be manipulated, and a short epilogue.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The introduction states the "cartographic paradox": to give a useful and truthful picture of a complex three-dimensional world on a flat surface, a map must distort, simplify and select, telling white lies. It warns that any single map is only one of an indefinitely large number that could be made from the same data, and that cheap mapping software now lets people without cartographic training produce authoritative-looking but misleading maps. The aim is to promote a healthy scepticism about maps, not cynicism or deliberate dishonesty.

Chapters 2–5: Elements of the Map; Map Generalization: Little White Lies and Lots of Them; Blunders That Mislead; Color: Attraction and Distraction

The general principles. Chapter 2 treats the map's main elements, scale, projection and symbolization, as potential sources of distortion. Chapter 3 examines the white lies of generalization that scale makes necessary, Chapter 4 the common blunders that come from a mapmaker's ignorance or oversight, and Chapter 5 how careless or manipulative choices of colour can confuse or mislead. Levine judges this block a thoughtful, accessible introduction to cartographic theory in about sixty-six pages, though he finds the colour chapter's opening discussion of colour perception overly long.

Chapters 6–7: Maps That Advertise; Development Maps (Or, How to Seduce the Town Board)

The first of the chapters on particular kinds of map. Chapter 6 shows the seductive use of symbols in advertising maps; Chapter 7 explores exaggeration and suppression in maps prepared for development plans and environmental-impact statements. Levine finds Chapter 6 overly reliant on imagined scenarios.

Chapters 8–9: Maps for Political Propaganda; Maps, Defense, and Disinformation: Fool Thine Enemy

Two chapters on government uses of distorted maps, as propaganda and as disinformation aimed at military opponents. According to Levine, Chapter 8 discusses the use of the Mercator projection to make the Soviet Union and China look threatening, the Gall–Peters projection and Nazi cartographic propaganda; he calls it a very effective self-contained unit and, in his experience, the chapter most often assigned in class.

Chapter 10: Large-Scale Mapping, Culture, and the National Interest

This chapter investigates how national culture, bureaucratic inertia and, increasingly, commercial interests shape detailed topographic maps. Levine highlights its discussion of racist and derogatory place names.

Chapter 11: Data Maps: A Thicket of Thorny Choices

The chapter addresses distortion and self-deception in maps made from census, survey and other quantitative information. John Snow's map of the 1854 London cholera outbreak is among its examples.

Chapters 12–14: Image Maps: Picture That; Prohibitive Cartography: Maps That Say "No!"; Fast Maps: Animated, Interactive, or Mobile

The three new chapters. Chapter 12 examines maps based on satellite imagery and other remote-sensing measurements, with the misreading of supposed weapons sites before the Iraq war as a central example; Chapter 13 treats prohibitive mapping, maps that restrict or forbid, as a pervasive and potentially threatening genre; Chapter 14 covers animated, interactive and mobile maps and the particular advantages and constraints of online maps, including a critique of the Web Mercator projection.

Chapter 15: Epilogue

A brief conclusion on the dual and sometimes conflicting roles of maps, recommending a sceptical assessment of the map author's motives.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–5: Principles

• Cartographic paradox: to be useful and truthful, a map must distort and leave things out.
• Scale, projection and symbolization: the three basic elements of a map, each a source of distortion.
• Generalization: the simplification and selection of features that a map's scale makes necessary.
• Colour choice: how hue and shading can attract attention or distract and mislead.

Chapters 6–11: Maps with purposes

• Persuasive cartography: maps designed to sell, win approval or promote a political cause.
• Projection as propaganda: choosing a projection, such as Mercator, to enlarge or shrink regions for effect.
• Cartographic disinformation: deliberate distortion of maps to deceive opponents.
• Data maps: maps made from census, survey and other quantitative information, open to distortion and to self-deception by their makers.

Chapters 12–15: New media

• Image maps: maps derived from satellite and other remote-sensing imagery, open to misinterpretation.
• Prohibitive cartography: maps that mark limits, restrictions and forbidden places.
• Fast maps: animated, interactive and mobile maps, including online maps and Web Mercator.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Teaches cartography through its failures. As the introduction notes, examining the misuse of maps also introduces the nature of maps and their proper uses. The four principle chapters give a compact grounding in scale, projection, generalization, symbols and colour that Levine judges thoughtful, detailed and accessible.
• Readable. Levine describes the book as inviting and readable, concealing detailed introductions to critical cartographic concepts beneath humorous, casual prose, and earlier reviewers quoted by the publisher praised its clarity and humour.
• Thematic chapters that stand alone. Each of Chapters 6–14 takes one kind of map, so they can be assigned separately; Levine singles out Chapter 8 on propaganda as an effective unit and Chapter 14 on fast maps as an essential addition.
• Updated for digital mapping. The new Chapters 12–14 bring remote sensing, prohibitive maps, online and mobile maps into the book, and the introduction addresses the risks of mapping software in untrained hands.

Limitations

• Dated examples in the older chapters. Levine's main criticism is that the chapters carried over from 1996 have changed little: their examples, such as the Cold War Mercator maps or the historical treatment of public-health mapping, are rarely brought up to date, and statistics already old in 1991 remain.
• Uneven new material. Levine finds Chapter 13 closer to a list of map types than a thematic exploration, and some added paragraphs on digital mapping feel inserted.
• Production issues. He notes that some figures criticised in earlier reviews remain hard to read, that some figures are duplicated in colour and greyscale, and that the appendix on latitude and longitude is less than two pages long.
• Not a design or GIS manual. The book teaches critical map reading; it does not teach readers how to design maps or use GIS software step by step.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the GIS and cartography list this is the gentlest entry point and the best first reading for map literacy. It pairs naturally with Krygier and Wood's Making Maps, an illustrated guide to map design for people who make maps with GIS software: Monmonier shows how maps mislead, Krygier and Wood show how to design them well for a purpose and an audience. Harley's The New Nature of Maps is a collection of essays treating maps as cultural documents bound up with power, a more theoretical and historical development of the scepticism Monmonier encourages.

For the technical side, Bolstad's GIS Fundamentals and Longley, Goodchild, Maguire and Rhind's Geographic Information Science and Systems are textbooks on GIS principles, data and analysis, and O'Sullivan and Unwin's Geographic Information Analysis covers the statistical reasoning behind spatial analysis. Monmonier's Chapters 2, 3 and 11 on projection, generalization and data maps are a useful preview of topics those books treat formally.

How to Use This Book

No GIS or statistics background is needed. The book suits first-year geography students, students in journalism, planning or data visualization, and any reader who uses maps.

A suggested plan:

• Core: Chapters 1–5, in order. They provide the vocabulary (scale, projection, generalization, symbolization, colour) used everywhere else.
• Data and digital maps: Chapters 11 and 14 are the most directly relevant for students who will make maps from data or for the web.
• Thematic chapters by interest: Chapter 8 on propaganda is a good seminar reading; Chapters 6, 7, 9, 10, 12 and 13 can be chosen to match course topics.
• Epilogue last.

Turn the reading into practice. For each principle chapter, find a map in the news or online and identify the choices of scale, projection, classification and colour behind it; then remake a simple data map with different categories or colours to see how its message changes. Since several examples are historical, supplement them with recent cases, and use the selected readings to go further.