Territorial Imaginaries - by Kären Wigen (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The edited volume Territorial Imaginings contends that conventional mapping practices are inadequate to illustrate the complex and multi-faceted reality of territory and political sovereignty both past and present. What we understand to be modern mapping, the volume argues, developed to represent a Westphalian order of sovereign states that never was and still is not sufficient to capture the many varieties of territorial and political arrangements globally. Volume editor Kèaren Wigen has assembled an impressive slate of contributors who speak to this overarching contention through a variety of scholarly approaches and case studies, covering many geographical regions and time periods. The essays encompass three main themes: mapping practices before the nation state, ways to rethink or critique mapping practices, and robust traditions of counter-cartography. Like Wigen's last volume, Time in Maps, this book features a striking array of maps and other images, and will be printed with color throughout"--

Book Synopsis

Fresh offerings on world mapping beyond Western conventions.

This strikingly colorful volume contends that modern mapping has never been sufficient to illustrate the complex reality of territory and political sovereignty, whether past or present. For Territorial Imaginaries, editor Kären Wigen has assembled an impressive slate of experts, spanning disciplines from political science to art history, to contribute perspectives and case studies covering three main themes: mapping before the nation-state, rethinking and critiquing mapping practices, and robust traditions of counter-cartography.

Each contributor proposes alternative ways to think about mapping, and the essays are supported with rich archival documentation. Among the far-reaching case studies are Barbara Mundy's cartographic history of Indigenous dispossession in the Americas, Peter Bol's examination of two Chinese maps created five hundred years apart, and Ali Yaycıoğlu's exploration of tensions between top-down and bottom-up mapping of Habsburg and Ottoman border claims.

Review Quotes

"--Susan Schulten, University of Denver

"What is sovereignty? And what should we do with it? Territorial Imaginaries brilliantly exposes the myths of jigsaw-puzzle territoriality and tears apart the familiar pastel-colored map. With essays that span almost a thousand years and reach across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, this volume offers a remarkable conversation between history, critique, and productive alternatives for understanding political geography and spatial imagination in new ways. The result not only showcases the diversity and malleability of territory over time, space, and culture but also asks us to rethink how maps and other visual material can stabilize--or destabilize--the relationship between peoples, states, and space. Every contribution is packed with insight and speaks convincingly across fields."--Bill Rankin, Yale University

About the Author

Kären Wigen is the Frances and Charles Field Professor in History at Stanford University.