Off the Map: The Curious Histories of Place-Names

by Derek Nelson

Explores the origins of place names and the relationship between geography, cartography, and historical events

Genres: History, Geography, Nonfiction, Maps, Travel, Language, Reference

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Margaret]

This book has everything, geography, history, international politics and of course topography plus etymology. Informative and amusing, although sometimes vague. We are told that a certain name comes from a certain language, but we are not always given the source word ..I found this a little frustrating.

[Christel Keijzer]

We are so comfortable today in how the technology can precisely map our earth - that it is a treat to delve into all the little anecdotes on how countries were discovered, mapped and named over the ages - as well as showing that the worlds' borders and names continue to change through time.

[Ralph McEwen]

I found the book a little dry. For a small book it covered a lot and the topic is dry. I am left feeling that all maps should come with a disclaimer that all sizes are approximated and names should be verified before traveling. There are some humorous stories and a lot of interesting facts (at least I hope they are facts). I was some what bothered finding out that even modern maps are subject to political pressure and suffer for it. It is said that history is written by the winners and I guess that maps are covered by the same rule.

[James]

There's lots of interesting information in this book, but there doesn't seem to be any real organisation involved in the book. The author flits from topic to topic without there being much of a sense of connection between the facts - even though the book is divided into chapters by topic, the topics overlap and blend so much that any chapter plan is extremely vague. As a result, reading this book left me feeling the same way as reading a book of trivia - I learnt a lot of new bits and pieces but was left with the slightly unsatisfied feeling of not having actually read any kind of cohesive work.

[Will Plunkett]

As a lover of geography, travel, and maps (a cartophile, mayhaps?), this book drew me in from the dust jacket summaries. Learned quite a bit, confirmed much of what I already knew. I'd have given it a higher star rating, except for the dirth of transitions between paragraphs and subjects; this structure reminded me of The Five Paragraph Essay where not enough of the ideas get connected but thrown together. Good variety of map images, though.

[Spencer]

I've always been a sucker for the overlap between geography and linguistics, so combine both with a pinch of indigenous studies and political history, and I'm totally on board. I expected a few more narratives about the specific history of place names, but in exchange, I got a much broader history about the different influences that shape the names beyond just the Anglicizing that I'm familiar with. Plus, there's a shoutout to my current home of El Dorado, Arkansas!

[Melody Schwarting]

A fun exploration of maps and place names. Lots of trivia, and paragraphs going from one continent to the next. I skimmed for things I was interested in (such as Myanmar/Burma). There aren't many deep dives, mostly selected facts that can pique interest for further research. A good book to build your dinner party repartée with well-traveled friends.

[Maddy]

This was interesting as I read it and had the benefit of being a physically small book with a lot of pictures. But, for the most part, the info went past my eyes and not into my head. I can see myself in the future thinking, “I read something about that!” And not recalling the specifics.

[Jill]

Interesting information, but would benefit from better organization as well as thorough copyediting.

[Nav]

This could have been an article.

[Bill Sleeman]

Off the Map: the curious histories of place-names by Derek Nelson is a well-researched but not especially engaging overview of the political, social, and cultural effect of cartographic naming conventions. As other reviewers have pointed out, and I agree, Nelson has not written a history as such but more of a general reference guide that brings together facts and events without much connective tissue in the text. Too bad as I think he has a good idea here and an editor that insisted on a closer attention to the narrative flow would have helped Mr. Nelson. Two examples: Chapters five and ten should really have been one chapter as the topics and the author’s approach to them, in my opinion, are so similar that it was hard for me as a reader to fathom out why he separated them? I kept wondering as I reach chapter ten, why was I reading about the same issue and points as I did earlier? Chapter eleven is only a few pages and would have been better presented as an epilogue or folded into another chapter altogether. The last chapter isn’t developed fully and reads almost as if Mr. Nelson had reached the end of the contracted number of words so needed to wind it up – brisk but not informative.

This is an okay book. I picked it up hoping to learn a bit about cartographic naming practices and that is exactly what I did.

[Eliza]

This book is extremely unorganized. The author skips to different geographic places every paragraph, and there is no rhyme or reason for the sudden change. The book does not flow well, and does not seem to have a point, just that many place names have odd origins that don't make sense unless the roots are traced back, and that maps are extremely dependent on who it was that made them.

I would not recommend this book. Although parts were moderately interesting, the author disputes himself in places and does not seem to know anything about the topic at hand, just some random facts he stirred up somewhere about its name origination. He writes about what it seems that he has very limited knowledge of. Not worth reading.

[Quin]

I decided to read this book as a break from novels (for the evening, at least), and it did the trick. It wasn't fantastic, but it was enjoyable overall. My biggest complaint would be that it was at times over-simplified. Some of the explanations of word origin and lingual differences, in particular, could have used more explanation and less "dumbing down". It was a really fast read, and I would think it would make a good book for an airplane or other several hour trip...
It contains lots of maps from different historical period, which is nice to have for reference to whatever they are trying to explain.

[Maureen]

There was a lot of information in this book, so much so that I'm not sure I even held onto it. Some paragraphs contain information on unrelated things. While it's fun to know where names came from, I'm afraid there are just too many little tidbits of information here so that you don't really get a good grasp on the larger points he makes about how place names are created, reproduced, and so forth. I appreciate Nelson's efforts, but a lot more editing and more focused discussions, several case studies instead of everything and the kitchen sink, would have resonated better with me. And, the maps were far too small and without clear dates or origination which was incredibly frustrating.

[Dave]

I liked this book. It wasn't heavy reading. It was fast and interesting. I'm sure that Derek could have made this into a really scholarly work, but then who would want to read it? As it was, I found it fast enough of a read that I didn't loose interest.

I would recommend this to anyone who has ever stared at a map and wondered about how places must have gotten their names.

My one negative comment would be as to the quality reproduction of the maps that Derek included in the body of his text. If the book had been a larger version, those maps could have been reproduced better.

[Nina]

The first part of this was the most interesting. It covered the politics of naming p;laces, including the impact of naming American lands "uninhabited territory" which effectively gave Europeans confidence that it was OK to push the Indians aside. It also discussed how a map is not fact. Different countries have different versions of the facts, including p;lace names and political boundaries. The last few chapters started to drag into a litany of "this used to be called that.'

[Erica]

summary: places have names. some places have or have had more than one name. sometimes the history of those names is complicated. unfortunately, he went on. and on. and on, in a very disjointed, superficial listing of those names and how they were derived. i don't think there were 2 consecutive paragraphs in the book that stuck with any one topic. oh well. cool old maps though.

[Jim]

This book is a fun, quick read. It gives interesting and sometimes oddball explanations as to how hundreds of place names around the world came to be, but it could benefit by some beter organizational scheme either geographical or chronological. The author touches down at semingly randon points on the globe tells us a story or two and then moves on.

[Massanutten Regional Library]

Katie, Main reference volunteer, May 2015, 2 stars:

This is a fun book and has lots of interesting info--but it's not particularly well organized. I enjoyed reading it but didn't like that the author doesn't site specific sources for individual facts (after complaining that other authors take too many liberties with the histories of place-names).

[Sara]

This is a book full of interesting anectdotes and images of old maps, but there is no story to the chapters. Instead, it feels like reading a list of all the interesting things the author dug up. This is a book that I'd recommend for random browsing but it's not one to sit down and read all the way through.

[Watson]

This would be a neat introductory text to map history, but it's kind of a rambling collection of cartographic and historical curiosities without much structure. There are some interesting anecdotes about place names and speculative maps, but nothing that really sets this book apart.

[Kristen]

Lots of fun little tidbits, but not much organization. Though tackling place names of the entire world in one book of this size would be pretty impossible without a lot of jumping around anyway! It was interesting if you are a person who loves maps

[katie]

This is a fun book and has lots of interesting info--but it's not particularly well organized. I enjoyed reading it but didn't like that the author doesn't site specific sources for individual facts (after complaining that other authors take too many liberties with the histories of place-names).

[Liz Logan]

Although the topic was quite interesting, the book itself had some dry moments. The slides of the maps were fascinating. I would look to see a newer edition with added information, especially given new countries and political bounds.

[Mary]

Fascinating!

[Paul]

Meh. One good thing about this book it is much shorter than Moby Dick.

[Sara]

enjoyable,fairly light read about geographic names.

[Taylor]

Great concept, lackluster delivery. As someone who loves maps, the topic pulled me in. As someone who loves good writing, I wasn't impressed.

[Edward Fenner]

An interesting read. I learned quite a bit.

[Lauren]

Informative book about how places got their names throughout history. I did feel, however, that it was thrown together a little too fast, and the quality suffers for this.