Where Is Here

by Alan Morantz

Canadians have been confronted by this riddle since the first hunters appeared on the frozen northern tundra via the Bering land bridge. The Aboriginal peoples learned to survive by charting the land and sea with stories, songs, and stones. The Europeans who followed them employed modern tools to draw their own lines, using maps as agents of exploration and conquest. Even today we try and win ownership over nature from our foothold in outer space, using satellite images to photograph and chart the Earth’s surface. Where Is Here? Canada’s Maps and the Stories They Tell is about how, from the earliest days, we have used maps to shape our country and how, in turn, maps have shaped us. And it is about how maps are embedded with our memories, perceptions, and stories; as author Margaret Atwood has written, “maps contain the ground that contains them.” Where Is Here? features an eclectic cast of Inuit elders, hobos, a self-destructive Oblate missionary, gold-seeking seducers, a doctor turned mapmaker, a modern-day marketing guru, artists who turn maps inside out, orienteering athletes, a quirky road map collector, and a millionaire eccentric and Nazi sympathizer.

Genres: Maps, Canada, History, Geography

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Judd Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Where Is Here" is a delightful exploration of Canadian maps.

I know that sounds boring... but, hear me out: this is actually a book well worth reading.

If you imagined a history of the maps of Canada, you'd probably imagine some dry book that discusses who made what maps when. "Where is Here" is nothing like that. Instead, Morantz flips the idea of 'maps' on its head, focusing instead on what it means to even 'map' something and how different that activity is across different cultures, communities, places, and times.

This reimagined discussion, of course, starts with Indigenous traditions of 'mapping.' Whereas cartographic maps try to represent things from a 'god's eye view,' plotted onto neat and linear grids, Morantz introduces us to Indigenous mapping as a combination of place-making, memory-keeping, and relationship with the environment. He shares maps told through stories; maps based on landscapes or landmarks; maps that don't look anything like a European's map, but serve many of the same roles.

In the same vein, then, Morantz leads us on to talk about the ways that European mapping traditions shaped the very country. Our visual representations, for instance, were part of cutting the country up in particular and peculiar ways. We laid down straight surveying lines that ignored important geographical features, for instance. Or, we battled for the design of the country we wanted through competing maps that highlighted certain features, obscured others, or literally redrew lines (then attempted to become the recognized arbiter). In this work, Morantz reads as a beautiful addition and extension to James C. Scott's seminal "Seeing Like a State," building on this notion that those in power remake the world around them through beautiful examples of maps being used to fulfill just that role (sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally).

We also are guided through a variety of other kinds of maps, from orienteering to timber, each of which has a delightfully contingent history, social construction, and remarkable influence over how we see the world.

This book earned a five star review, but for one very frustrating omission (two, if you count the surprising lack of bibliography, which would be incredibly helpful given the excellent sources Morantz drew on throughout). The book is shockingly light on maps themselves, featuring very few reproductions of the maps being discussed. There are, perhaps, between 10-20 images in the entire book, which is a crying shame given the subject matter. Nearly continuously, I found myself longing to /see/ the map that Morantz was discussing to be able to understand what he was describing. Some of these maps could be found online in parallel, of course, though that didn't help much while reading the book on a plane. But, others are sufficiently obscure that they'd be hard to Google... and their lack of inclusion meant that it was difficult to fully appreciate Morantz's descriptions without the ability to look at them in tandem.

Despite this, if you're interested in social histories of Canada, technology, or statecraft, "Where Is Here" is an excellent contribution. I cannot believe how few folks have read/reviewed it on GoodReads: it deserves to be widely read and enjoyed.

[Warren Wulff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fabulous introduction to the history of Canadian cartography, as well as how different people have thought of, interpreted, and made Canadian maps over time. I appreciate that the focus is both on the mapping itself and on the motivation (and sometimes scheming) behind mapping endeavours. It even movingly explores mapping mental geography of the neighbourhoods and regions where people grew up and how different people, even within the same family, often represent their memory geography very differently when asked to map it.

This book is not exhaustive and ranges wildly over time, focus, and regions of Canada. However, it is a perfect starting point for beginning a journey into Canadian history through cartography. For exhaustive, read the three-volume Men and Meridians by Don Thomson from the 1960s, covering exploration and cartography from earliest Europeans to 1947. Then tackle Shoalts’ A History of Canada in Ten Maps, followed up by reading all the books of Derek Hayes, Canada’s greatest living cartographical historian. Then read Maps and Dreams, a rare book about Canadian indigenous perspectives on geography, and finish by reading Reading the Rocks by Zaslow, the massive history of the Geological Survey of Canada for the period 1842-1975. This deep read into Canadian cartography, history, and psyche opens one up to more fully appreciating Canadian history. And Where is Here? is a perfect place to begin.

I gave four stars because there are unfortunately some regrettable errors that a good editor should have caught (e.g., the 1800s and the 18th century are not the same century). As well, this book badly needs a bibliography of further reading or a listing of maps mentioned in the text. So many great resources are buried and I found myself flipping through, trying to find references again. Still, the overall writing is excellent and was a pleasure to read.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

[Jonathan Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book changed the way I think about maps. Morantz focused a lot more on the abstractness of maps than I anticipated and showed what maps mean and how they're used by different groups, especially First Nations. This is a good piece of Canadiana that will alter the way you see our history and culture.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read about the history of mapping Canada. There were a lot of screwups along the way(some purposeful to benefits different people). A good read and something different.