{"id":28269,"date":"2022-02-23T21:43:59","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T05:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28269"},"modified":"2022-02-26T08:34:34","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T16:34:34","slug":"map-making-tales-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/map-making-tales-from-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Map-Making Tales From the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Simon Winchester\u2019s 2001 bestselling book, The Map That Changed the World<\/em>, the true story is told of the world\u2019s first geographical map and the man who created it. Such a mundane description however belies the fascinating tale that lies behind the man and his achievement. With a novelist\u2019s touch, the author Simon Winchester details the man behind the achievement more than the achievement itself. That is where the real drama lies.<\/p>\n

Smith was born in in 1769 at a time when the history of the world was thought by almost everyone to only be several thousand years old. That perception was changing among the educated however, and today the map is viewed as a giant step to a deeper understanding of the creation and formation of the earth. Much like Darwin\u2019s, The Origin of Species,<\/em> Smith\u2019s great geological map of England shook people\u2019s foundational understanding of the world in which they live. Smith\u2019s discovery and his detailed maps changed people\u2019s understanding of the age of the earth and how it was formed. But whereas Darwin received immediate praise and fame for his accomplishment, Smith became financially ruined, homeless, and for far too long, plagiarized by his colleagues.<\/p>\n

The lion\u2019s share of Winchester\u2019s book details these unfortunate chain of events. The book becomes a human drama of persistence in the face of resistance, lies against him by his enemies, and his need to overcome one obstacle after another. Winchester, who was already a best-selling author, with The Professor and the Madman,<\/em> brings out the human element expertly so anyone who does not have an interest in geographical map making will be held captive.<\/p>\n

Our hero was born to a low-class family and his education was in surveying and canal digging for the transportation of goods. He held a natural curiosity for fossils and noticed different levels in the soil where fossils existed. All of this learning lead to his ground-breaking map of 1815 entitled \u201cA Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with Part of Scotland.\u201d Sounds triumphant enough and it should have been except for some forgeries that surfaced and discredited his work. Fortunately for Smith his place and his accomplish was recognized before his death in 1839. Since then, his reputation and recognition for his important work has only grown.<\/p>\n

This book is an excellent example of how powerful this genre of nonfiction writing can be. A well-told story no matter the subject can capture the reader and keep them turning the pages. Lieberman\u2019s, The Molecule of More <\/em>is another example, as is Jared Diamond\u2019s, Guns, Germs, and Steel.<\/em> They are educational as well as inspiring. There is no need to entertain the reader per se, but just inform the reader and let the story of the people and events unfold. That becomes entertaining enough. I would read anything Simon Winchester writes. Perhaps for his next project he could tell the story of all the great maps of the universe that the James Webb Telescope is going to produce. Write on, Winchester.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Simon Winchester\u2019s 2001 bestselling book, The Map That Changed the World, the true story is told of the world\u2019s first geographical map and the man who created it. Such a mundane description however belies the fascinating tale that lies behind the man and his achievement. With a novelist\u2019s touch, the author Simon Winchester details […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2221],"class_list":["post-28269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-winchester","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28270,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28269\/revisions\/28270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}