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61 cartographic perspectives Number 43, Fall 2002 The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology Simon Winchester. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 10East 53 rd Street, New York, NY 10022, 2001. 325 pp, maps, diagrams, illustrations, suggested reading list, index. Hardcover. USA $26.00 Canada $39.50 (ISBN: 0-06-019361-1). Reviewed by Brenden E. McNeil Ph.D. Student and W.M. Keck Research Assistant Department of Geography, Syracuse University 144 Eggers Hall; Syracuse, New York 13224 Simon Winchester has a knack for digging up beautiful stories from the lost pages of history books. My introduction to Winchester came in the same delightfully surpris- ing manner in which he spins his tales. I literally stumbled across Winchester's work one night in a dimly lit Nepali tea-house, trip- ping over a well-worn travelers copy of his remarkable descrip- tion of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. As I carried that chronicle throughout my travels, Winchester's eye for historical detail and penchant for anecdote caused me to wonder, "Why I had never heard this story before?" Re- ally, a mental institutionalite wrote the definitions quoted at keynote speeches and in term papers across the world? That book, The Professor and the Madman, succeeds in bring- ing vivid life to the creation of one of the most important, and com- monly taken-for-granted, books of our time. Winchester's most recent opus, The Map that Changed the World, succeeds in much the same way. Here, Winchester replaces the dictionary for something far more familiar to me, a geologic map. I must admit my bias here; I was excited to read this book from the moment it landed (again by chance) in my hands. If Win- chester's writing had me excited about something as mundane as the dictionary, how could I not like this new tale about the creation of the world's first true geologic map? Bias aside, I loved this book. Even if you are not versed in the intricacies of geology, Winchester is able to describe the detail and significance of this map, entitled (in appropriately English fash- ion) "Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with part of Scotland exhibiting the Collier- ies and Mines, the Marshes and Fen Lands Originally Overflowed by the Sea, and the Varieties of Soil According to the Variations in the Substrata, Illustrated with the Most Descriptive Names." Instead of repeating this loqua- cious title again, I will borrow a page from Winchester's account and subsequently refer to it as "the map". The map is one that defined the field of geology, marked a paradigm shift in scientific inquiry, revolutionalized the coal industry which drove the industrial revolu- tion in early 19 th century England, and is the theoretical basis for the billions of dollars spent on modern petroleum exploration. While this wonderful cartographic element of the story is not to be understated, the true complexity and bril- liance of the map is found through Winchester's riveting account of its cartographer, William Smith (1769-1839). The artistic mastery and scientific endeavor contained within the map was entirely the product of this singular man. Winchester's tale follows William Smith from the depths of a debt- ors prison, back to his childhood fossil digging days in Oxfordshire, across his young apprenticeship as a canal digger, and arrives at his peaceful retirement by the sea in Scarborough. His story is very readable throughout and support- ed by wonderful anecdotal tan- gents, that enliven the life, work, and historical context of William Smith in way that can only serve to honor one of history's great scien- tists and cartographers. In Winchester's tale, we first meet this great scientist and car- tographer as he emerges from a debtor's prison, penniless, hope- less, and thoroughly crushed by the conservative society of early 19 th century England. In a time that should have been the pin- nacle of Smith's career, he finds himself stripped of his due glory as the "father of modern geology," robbed of his priceless fossil collec- tion, and thoroughly disconnected from the map he spent his lifetime creating. This paradoxical injustice was a product of the certitudes of religious dogma and class struc- ture that defined Smith's world. Through this injustice, Winchester gives the reader a glimpse of what is to come in the book. More importantly, he uses this paradox to speak volumes about the his- torical context of Smith's life and work. Thus, in the first chapter, Winchester shows the reader the importance of Smith's work; it was to eventually crumble the founda- tions of English society. It was not Smith's original intention to begin this Copernican revolution, he was just a curious and innovative blacksmith's son from Oxfordshire. Smith was only revolutionary in that he innately possessed what is now known as a scientific method. production of atlases in elec- tronically readable formats is still young. Atlas of Oregon CD-ROM succeeds in assisting the matura- tion of this process. It admirably achieves the goal of its designers that it becomes a complementary reference and learning tool to ac- company the outstanding printed version of the Atlas of Oregon. The Atlas of Oregon CD-ROM is also most highly recommended.

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