Simon Clark's Reviews > A History of the World in 12 Maps

A wide-ranging, deftly told history of the world. The book ranges from the very earliest maps in the Babylonian world to modern geospatial applications such as Google Earth. This book could have been complete drudgery in the hands of a lesser author, but Brotton creates a compelling narrative in each chapter, weaving a tapestry of many key threads through world history. And I really do mean world history - while Eurocentric, map-making in China, Korea, and the Americas is discussed, as well as the impact of map-making on European colonialism (and no, what you think about the Mercator projection is probably simplistic and wrong).
The book is clearly well researched with lashings of references, and felt similar in tone to the also excellent Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World by Amir Alexander - if you liked one of these books then you'll definitely enjoy the other. It did drag a bit for the first third, but after that the book skips along nicely and is a compelling read. Highly recommended.