Nieuwe kaarten van de wereld

by Alastair Bonnett

A unique and beautiful collection of fifty maps in which our physical, political and cultural world is visualised, measured and mapped like never before.

From charting energy networks to revealing new and emerging lands, measuring human migration to assessing the planet’s ant populations – and including the phenomena we have little control over such as lightning strikes or asteroid impact – each map asks you to question, wonder and look again at our rapidly changing and often surprising world.

Divided into three thematic sections: Land, Air and Sea; Human and Animal, and Globalisation, New Views offers a fresh and truly global portrait of our intricately fascinating planet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Geography, Maps, Social Science, Science, Picture Books

224 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Alastair Bonnett is a professor of social geography at Newcastle University. He is the author of several books, including What Is Geography?, How to Argue, Left in the Past, and The Idea of the West. He has also contributed to history and current affairs magazines on a wide variety of topics.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for maps and an atlas is an excuse to rely less on words and more of pictures, colours and variations.
An uncommon atlas is a set of 50 maps and diagrams reflecting some interesting trends and detailing statistical information by continents, countries and regions of the world. It is a wonderful colourful array of colour. Despite its title and scale these remain largely undiscernable other than pretty pictures. Some have lines of movement that have form and expression others look like a child's art project.
Each map has a detailed commentary explaining why the information was commissioned and what to shows and the trends going forward.
From 'Asteroid strikes' to 'Air pollution'. 'Water stress' to 'Petrol prices'.
The very diversity of the information depicted and the story behind the graphics makes each new page turned an exciting adventure. A stimulating quest for knowledge nothing like being back in the classroom.
Nearly all have interest beyond its title and each provides a smidgin of detail that sparks up the brain. I particularly enjoyed 'Drifters' (weather buoys), 'Bird diversity', 'Obesity', 'Flow of people' and 'Petrol prices'.
I found the physical data transposed onto a global map made these issues more problems for all inhabitants on this small planet. This made 'Ocean rubbish' both worrying and more desperate to fix than ever; don't get me started on greenhouse gases. ;Problem drugs; differs across our world and things are both evident as to why this was the original position and alarming as economic status change the dynamic. So too with 'Sugar consumption' and how things are changing on the global scale. Others, now seen in a mapped reality, made the world seem a smaller place, such as 'Remoteness from cities'.

[Mikko Saari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erittäin vaikuttava kokoelma karttoja. Osassa kartoista on vähän vaikeuksia tulkita värejä, mutta ehkäpä näissä kokonaisvaikutelma on se tärkein juttu: yksityiskohtiahan on muutenkin vaikea esittää kartoilla, mutta globaalin yleiskuvan asioista saa hyvin.

Luin tätä välipalapöydässä ja koululaiset olivat koko ajan kyselemässä, mistä kartoissa oli kyse. Sikälikin formaatti siis toimii aivan erinomaisen hyvin: mielenkiinto herää välittömästi. Mukavasti tuli keskustelua yhteiskunnallisista ja globaaleista kysymyksistä.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Give me an atlas over a guidebook any day."

The visual representation of data is an exciting and fascinating field, and we've come a long way from simple bar graphs and Venn diagrams. This book focuses on issues of global consequence, and does so by presenting fifty world maps, each drawn to illustrate a set of facts, observations, principles or data regarding a single topic.

Roughly organized among "Land, Air and Sea", "Human and Animal", and "Globalization", the topics range from distribution of ocean garbage to gasoline prices, to patterns of emigration, to religious diversity, to the world nut trade. The point of each map, of course, is to emphasize global connectedness as much as to provide information, and in this it succeeds remarkably well. There is much to consider here; it is a visual treat and a change of perspective for those of us who enjoy pouring over lists and collections of factoids.

Each map is accompanied by a narrative section that identifies the source of the data and that draws the reader's attention to highlights and connections of note. The maps vary, as one might expect, in what you might call "confidence" or "hardness". A map of, say, asteroid strikes or global distribution of fast food franchises is based on hard observational data. A map of "vulnerability to natural disasters" takes into account attitudes toward emergency preparedness and the robustness of infrastructure and emergency planning, and is much more subjective. So, some of these maps have to be viewed with some reserve.

That said, it never hurts to know as much as you can about home, and this is home writ large. There is much to see here, and much to suggest further inquiry and investigation. This was an intriguing and worthy find. (Check out "Pangea Ultima", a geoprediction of the future of continental drift, and another one - an eye opening map of undersea communications cables.)

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

[Cathy Geha · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Uncommon Atlas by Alastair Bonnett

50 new views of our physical, cultural and political world

What a fascinating book this proved to be! I can see wanting it for myself, buying it for gifts and available in lending libraries across the. I was amazed by all of the information included in this book and came away thinking about the earth new and different ways.

The first section discussed land, sea and air and included information on fire activity, water stress, ocean rubbish, lightning and a whole lot more The next section was related to humans and animals and there ecological footprint, linguistic diversity, obesity, happiness and even more intriguing issues were shown. Finally globalisation was the topic and here I learned about twitter relationships, shipping routes, energy flux, petrol prices, sugar and even the nut trade around the world.

Want to know where obesity is greatest? You will find it in this book.
Want to know who has the greatest number of edible insects? Look no further
Want to know what a “black marble” is? Pick this book up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion Publishing for the ARC ~ This is my honest review.

5 Stars

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know a fictional book is going to be good when it includes a map, so I was intrigued by a book that’s a collection of them, and I am glad I was. Covering a wide range of different topics, New Views gives a glimpse on a variety of different ideas that kept me reading.

What I like about this book is that it makes you think. Maps such as the ‘Rebounding Land’ maps certainly make you wonder who does own the land when land is being created or changed? And asks more questions about how we treat our planet and whether we should be doing more to protect it, particularly when these maps are combined with graphs such as the one showing the global temperature rising.

This book is mindblowing in moments and thoughtful in others, maps which show just how much of the ocean is left unexplored fascinate me and others such as the ‘Air Flight’ map certainly show the inequalities that exist still when it comes to economies around the world and access to air travel that’s slowly changing.

I learnt so much from this book and recommend it for anyone who really is into planet Earth, and I like to think we all are.

(I received an ARC from Netgalley for this book in exchange for a honest review).

[Fern A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It does exactly what it says in the title, provides maps that are not what you would find in your usual atlas. There is a real mix of geographical, sociological, anthropological and political maps in here; in short something to probably interest everyone. From maps of ants to amphibian diversity, air traffic control to lightening strikes, neglected tropical diseases to peacefulness even twitter relationships and sugar consumption- it is all here. Each map is shown on a double page and then the authors go on to explain how and who compiled each map, possible reasons for surprising data and also limitations to each study. There was the perfect balance here as well between providing in-depth detailed information and not completely saturating the reader so they couldn’t remember what they had just read. Well worth a read!

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was made for me! I'm obsessed with maps like this, so to have an entire book full of them is like heaven. My first read through was just a quick skim of the maps, but I'm already going back to read deeper into the text. I absolutely love that there is a detailed explanation accompanying each map, along with some stats about which countries fared the best and worst. I'm adding this to my wishlist immediately and can't wait to have my own copy.

[H Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

an interesting book with a lot of fun facts about the planet we live. A lot of things that are really astounding and I totally did not know before reading this book. The perspective is unique and refreshing.

Wish there could be just a little bit more examples in graphs instead of showing examples only in the main text. Also, it could be valuable to provide some error estimation such as STDV or error bars, as data without error estimation could be meaningless sometimes, or at least provide references wherever data has been cited.

[Francis Tapon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you a mapaholic? Do you just love to scrutinize maps? If so, I've got the book for you.

In 2018, Alastair Bonnett released New Views: The World Mapped Like Never Before: 50 maps of our physical, cultural and political world.

I adore maps and I soaked up all 50 maps.

It's not available as an ebook, which is fine since the colorful book is designed to be flipped through, touched, and examined.

VERDICT: 10/10 stars

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting coffee table book. The maps cover issues from global warming to petrol prices to sugar consumption, edible insects, varieties of amphibian species, and the amount of ocean trash and numerous other important and interesting topics. The mapping of the issues provides a perspective that words and stats simply cannot.

Review copy provided.

[Jeanette Blain · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the proliferation of big data and data visualization, future maps will inevitably be more than muted blocks of color arranged along shaky lines that are drawn and redrawn by governments. New Views is a diverse collection of modern maps that synthesize data into a compelling and more accurate representation of what it means to live in the 21st century. It's the kind of coffee-table book that goes beyond platitudes and pretty images and lets us explore our world in a novel way. I especially enjoyed the well-crafted essays that Bonnett pairs with each map. For me, they pushed this book from 4 to 5 stars.

Disclosure: I received this book as an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#NewViews #NetGalley

[Nathan Albright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of this book was deeply enjoyable, as I am someone who likes reading atlases [1], but part of this book was somewhat irritating as well.  As someone who greatly enjoys geography, it is pretty easy to notice when someone is attempting a political angle that I disagree with, and that was certainly the case here.  The author checks of all of the boxes for someone whose leftist mindset is not compatible with my own, and the stridently political tone of the commentary on the maps gives the author's worldview a feel that is less friendly than it could have been.  The author need not have been so heavy-handed; it would have been very possible for the author to have chosen maps to illustrate his ideas but go a bit easy when it comes to the heavy-handed rhetoric, but no, it is asking too much to expect some restraint.  It often seems as if people do not realize the need to appeal to those who do not agree with their worldviews and their assumptions and presuppositions, and so one gets books where someone is obviously a talented geographer but also not someone whose writing is enjoyable to me.

This book is about 200 pages long or so and contains fifty maps, some of which I was familiar with, belying the book's claim to map the world like never before.  The maps are divided into several categories.  The first is land, air, and sea, which includes environmentally friendly looks at rubbish in the oceans, water stress, vulnerability to disasters, and undersea cables as well as unknown oceanic territory that has not been deeply explored.  After that there are some maps on humans and animals, including obesity, ecological footprint, electric lights at night (called the "black marble"), and obeseity.  After that there are some maps on globalization, including the flow of people, critically endangered languages, as well as the world nut trade and edible insects.  Some of the maps are at least quirky, but in general  the author squanders whatever goodwill he creates in terms of making maps that have some enjoyment value by writing particularly strident and leftist interpretations of said maps.  The author revels in the fact that everything is political these days, but errs by assuming that his viewpoint is one that his readers wish to endorse or support.

Even so, this book is not completely worthless.  As a geographer, the author deliberately avoids the Mercator projection but misses the chance to be even quirkier than he is by failing to use the Armadillo projection, a compromise between equal area and correct shape approaches.  Some of the maps chosen are particularly humorous, and that improves the book at least a little bit.  If you are not the sort of person who agrees with the worldview and perspective of the author, it would probably be best for you to enjoy the maps, note what sort of oddities you can find there--it is particularly disappointing that the author focuses on national boundaries rather than exposing regional differences that would have added more nuance and meaning to the maps--and then skim the text because it does not say a great deal that is worth remembering or even noting.  The author's fixation with politics makes this a less enjoyable book than it could have been otherwise, but knowing a bit about the author's work, it seems unlikely that he could have made any other type of work, since everything I have ever seen of his is of a particularly unfortunately political turn.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...

[Ekbal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book for review.
Working professionally as a remote sensing scientist it is perhaps no surprise that I’m lover of maps and data. And so I was very excited to read New Views, a beautiful book full of fascinating maps and cartographic visualisations depicting global data in all its visual glory.

Created by Alastair Bonnett, Professor of Social Geography at Newcastle University, it is worth noting that many of the maps and/or the data behind them are the creation of other scientists and organisations, including NASA and various bodies of the United Nations. In each case Alastair declares the source of the data, often with a quote or two from the original creators as well as some fascinating insights gleamed from the visualisations.

The book broadly cover three main topics: Land, Air and Sea, Humans and Animals, and Globalisation. The fifty maps are illustrated with highly visual and extremely informative data, which gives a global perspective to events like asteroid strikes, fire activity, religious diversity and critically endangered languages. My favourite was the global energy flux, which depicts the abundant energy infrastructure of the power hungry West with the growing energy fluxes in the booming countries of East Asia; while the dark expanses of the African continent illustrate the energy access and development challenges of the region.

So this book isn’t purely a collection of maps, it is a vivid illustration of global wealth inequality, of health disparities, of economic development, and environmental treasures. The global perspective they offer show us that we live in a highly diverse and unequal world, and only through such visualisations can we appreciate the global nature of our influence and our impact on the world.

The book ends with a mention, that delighted the map nerd in me, of the various map projections used in the book. It would have been great to learn why the author chose to use certain projections in his visualisations but alas, we shall never know!

‘Give me an atlas over a guidebook any day, for there is no more poetic book in the world.’ – Judith Schalansky

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic, fantastic book! If you're interested in data and like visual representation of information, you will love this book. There is a huge range of information in this book from asteroids, to water usage, to bug variety, to drifters, and so, so much more. Each piece of data overlaid beautifully onto a world map and explained with interesting tidbits. Here's a tiny selection of things I highlighted as I read my copy:

"In Hong Kong, about 80 per cent of residents flush their toilet with seawater"

"Hydropower makes up nearly 100 per cent of electricity production in Paraguay."

"There have been six different manned missions to the moon, but there have only been two crewed trips, down the almost 6 miles (11km) to the deepest part of the ocean."

"About 300 cable systems carry almost all the world's transoceanic data."

There are three sections: "land, air, and sea", "human and animal", and "globalisation." My favorite was the first one. But all three are phenomenal.

I have enjoyed every single minute I spent with this book, I can't recommend it enough.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Art in the service of wisdom. Randomly chosen subjects displayed on a world map. Colourful, informative, thoughtful. Not quite at the "Massive Change" level of controversial subjects but still nice to know and think about.
This was a pre-pandemic title, but topics still apply. And of course the inter connectedness of the world was just emphasized buy the extent of the Pandemic impacts.
The air travel map shows what a miracle it was that it did not spread faster or how difficult it was to get it under control with immunizations. It could have been so much worse if it had been more lethal, like SARS, but just as non symptom spreadable. Yikes.
Even the dropping sea level map, while I wish it showed rising seas, still shows how much population centres around the water line. Vulnerability is paramount.
So interesting. Let's see more.

[Book Him Danno · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book full of amazing views of the world and stat I have never thought of before. I found myself spending an hour looking and reading the book. My 11 year old son and 8 year old daughter loved this book and want to take it to bed every night. They love reading about the world around them and better understanding their place and footprint on the earth.
It will be a beautiful addition to any coffee table book and in fact will out shine almost every single one.

This book has wonderful facts, pictures, charts and graphics that will have everyone finding out the different ways they impact the earth as well as a great starting point to research.
Thank you to the Author as well as the publishing company for sending me an advance copy.

[Charity · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew I would love this book but I didn’t know I would love it as much as I did! Some of the maps that were created were ones that sorted out global questions in geographic ways I’d actually wondered about long before picking up this book. For example, issues like peacefulness, gun ownership, religious diversity, etc. are all topics I have researched before. However, there is an amazingly vast difference between reading a statistic and seeing those statistics graphically laid out on a world map. I typically pass on books when I am finished with them, especially when they are as big as this one, but I know I will have to keep this one around as a reference!

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fascinating book, showing various metrics overlayed on a map of Earth - everything from energy usage to gun ownership, from bird diversity to endangered languages. These images were accompanied with quick summaries explaining the maps and metrics and pointing out some visible trends. A really unique way to look at the various forces shaping and being shaped by human activity.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, provided by the author and/or the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really informative, with some lovely snapshots into the world we live in.

I would only recommend that this book be treated similarly to the Guinness World Records; updated periodically, sometimes with new entries and removing old ones. The information is time sensitive.

The only con with the publication was that Europe was often cut in half by the page break, so I had a hard time figuring out the status of the country I'm living in.

[Theediscerning · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that has to count as a success, from the very serious data it presents about the world, with its shipping lanes, tw*tter connections and emigration flows, right up to the very unexpected trivia you can derive from its pages. There are over 300 species of edible insect in Mexico, don't'cha know. I also liked the page about ants, but before I start to sound like an insect freak I'll just declare this a really good volume.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A fascinating and engrossing book that provides a new and unique view of data throughout our world. The maps are visually stunning and easy to decipher. If books of this type interest you, then you will not be disappointed. If books of this type usually are not your thing, you will still probably find something of use in this particular book.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provided beautiful and informative representations of the world. I have always enjoyed browsing an atlas but this version provides such a breathtaking and informative approach. This is the sort of atlas you can just flip through or you can spend several hours devouring. I highly recommend it for fans of maps and world geography! Thanks to the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Greg Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book visualizes a wide variety of data on global maps. I found it to be fascinating. You don't read it as much as you look at a map visualization and think about what the mapped data is revealing. Each map has accompanying text that explains the source of the data and points out a few observations.

This is a great coffee table book and conversation starter. And I loved it!

[Victoria Peipert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating data visualization series. I love the unique information that the author was able to capture and the well done analysis of it to provide readers with new perspectives on why the mapping is meaningful - I never thought about underwater cables or knew much about them before!

[Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful maps and interesting stats, a great coffee table book.

[Lechw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karttojen taso vaihteleva, mutta tekstit pelastivat paljon.

[Noorilhuda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely informative, thoughtful and timely book. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This one's a keeper.

[Katariina · Rating 5 out of 5]

might be my new all-time favourite book and I stand by that

[Olivia U · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good, so interesting, could look through it all day everyday

[Suzanne Bhagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Uncommon Atlas: 50 New Views of our Physical, Cultural, and Political World by Newcastle University Professor of Social Geography Alastair Bonnett is a collection of fifty maps that categorizes the world under different headings including but not limited to linguistic diversity, peacefulness, obesity, bird diversity, ecological footprint per capita, petrol prices, edible insects, problem drugs, sugar consumption, number of Twitter users, and flow of people. The cartography here is unconventional, rich in data, and easy to read.