D. Graham Burnett

D. Graham Burnett teaches at Princeton. He is the author of Masters of All They Surveyed: Exploration, Geography and a British El Dorado (2000).

Consolation Cartography: the power of maps

D. Graham Burnett, 3 November 2005

In the wake of last year’s US presidential election, a map was emailed among despondent Democrats. Instead of depicting the nation as a broad crimson carpet trimmed at either end with a narrow cerulean fringe, it resized each state according to its population, transforming the Republican heartland into a small, livid bud enveloped by a corolla of healthy blue petals. This was an example...

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