Rethinking the Power of Maps Annotation

To make an annotation more fun, I think I'll introduce it with a video.



Wood, Denis. Rethinking the Power of Maps. Guilford Press: New York, 2010.

Rethinking the Power of Maps is a follow up to Denis Wood’s 1992 book, The Power of Maps. It takes a historical/theoretical approach to interrogating both the way maps have been used to constitute and reify the nation state, as well as the map-based responses to those map-based expressions of traditional power. Each point Wood raises is backed up by a couple of historical examples, which he proceeds to unpack to reveal the theoretical underpinnings that allowed maps to have such a pervasive influence.

Despite engaging with many heavily theoretical texts and dealing with topics, such as power, traditionally steeped in opaquely academic language, Wood’s writing is highly accessible if not informal. There are numerous ellipses throughout the book, and he frequently makes his point through a series of rhetorical questions rather than argumentation, limiting his usefulness for direct quotation, though not for citation.

Though much of the book illuminates the historical function of maps, the most salient and unique arguments come from part two, when Wood moves past state-based mapping arguments and explores contemporary mapping practices such as protest maps, critical cartography, counter-mapping, counter-counter-mapping. Many of these topics have limited theoretical discussion because of their recent development, but Wood not only explains the impact of the examples, but also effectively situates them in relation to past mapping practices.

Ultimately, Wood’s analysis of maps is an excellent primer for thinking about how maps re-entrench dominant ideologies by passing off subjective perception as objective fact. Though the analysis in the first half of the book is not entirely unique, it does provide an essential background for understanding the contemporary role of maps and mapping generally. So not only is the book useful for understanding the power of maps generally, it also extends the discourse of cartographic power into present practices. It critically examines both the effect of modern mapping systems like Geographic Information Systems and the technophilic discourses surrounding them – even if it is sometimes closer to a rant than a well-structured and thorough critique.