Plotting the Oceans: Stories of Powerful Maps and Their Makers (Sarah Hamylton, Monash University Publishing)
In Plotting the Oceans: Stories of Powerful Maps and Their Makers, Sarah Hamylton reveals how maps chart landscapes and shape how we understand and connect with the world around us. Told through five interconnected historical narratives, the book traces the evolution of cartography from early voyages of discovery to the digital frontiers of modern spatial technology. From Charles Darwin’s 19th-century atoll studies to Terry Hughes’s contemporary work on coral reef decline, Hamylton weaves together past and present mapping practices to show how cartography has long informed and challenged views of the environment. Plotting the Oceans argues that maps are moral artefacts that can claim power, offer protection, distort truth or inspire care. Hamylton, a marine scientist, cartographer and president of the Australian Coral Reef Society, draws on more than two decades of fieldwork and combines scientific precision with a profound environmental consciousness. While occasionally dense with technical and historical detail, she skillfully connects these case studies to modern mapping and sustainability issues, keeping the narrative accessible and compelling. Plotting the Oceans is an illuminating investigation that traces how our knowledge of and stewardship over the world has evolved through the art and science of cartography. It will appeal to readers of science and nature writing, as well as anyone interested in the evolving relationship between humans and the planet. Hamylton’s work sits comfortably alongside Dava Sobel’s Longitude, Tim Marshall’s The Power of Geography and Jerry Brotton’s A History of the World in 12 Maps.
Books+Publishing reviewer: Samantha Mylan is a librarian and freelance reviewer. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
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Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews
