Geography

Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography (Scribner, 2016) uses ten maps of crucial world regions to explain geopolitics. (Why is Putin so obsessed with Crimea? Why will Europe never be united?) For teens and adults.

For ages 8 and up, see Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography: Our World Explained in 12 Simple Maps (Elliott & Thompson, 2019).

Simon Garfield’s On the Map (Avery, 2013) is a fascinating history of maps from their earliest beginnings to the present day. Chapter titles include “Venice, China and a Trip to the Moon,” “The World in a Book,” “Cholera and the Map that Stopped it,” “X Marks the Spot: Treasure Island,” and “The Worst Journey in the World to the Last Place to Be Mapped.” A great read for teens and adults.

Ken Jennings’s Maphead (Scribner, 2012) is an addictive tour of the world of map culture, covering everything from geocaching and road atlas rallies to fantasy maps, the Google Earth programmers, and the London Map Fair. For teens and adults.

Simon Winchester’s The Map That Changed the World (Harper Perennial, 2009) is the story of William Smith, a canal digger, who created the world’s first geological map – a full-color hand-painted masterpiece, eight feet tall and six feet wide – and invented the science of stratigraphy. A tie-in to geology. For teens and adults.

Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map (Riverhead Books, 2007) is the story of physician John Snow – sometimes called the father of epidemiology – who discovered the source of London’s cholera epidemic of 1854 by means of a map, For teens and adults.

By John Noble Wilford, The Mapmakers (Vintage Books, 2001) is a history of cartography from antiquity to the space age, filled with amazing details. For teens and adults.

Jeremy Brotton’s A History of the World in Twelve Maps (Penguin, 2013) runs from Ptolemy to Google Earth in twelve cartographical jumps. For teens and adults.

True crime – with maps. Miles Harvey’s The Island of Lost Maps (Random House, 2000) is the story Gilbert Bland, America’s greatest map thief. For teens and adults.