Kevin Curry
Harley Abstract
Harley, J. B. "Text and Contexts in the Interpretation of Early Maps, and Maps,
Knowledge, and Power." In The New Nature of Maps, edited by Paul Laxton, 33-81,
228-241. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2001.
In the first two chapters of The New Nature of Maps, author, J.B. Harley explores the
role of cartography in history and more specifically, how they were used in different
contexts and time periods. In the first chapter, Harley explains how to properly read
the maps by understanding the different contexts that “intersect the reading of
maps as texts”. These include the context of cartographers, the context in relation to
other maps and the context of society. In the following chapter, Harley describes the
significance of maps for knowledge and power through out the past. Maps were
important for leaders to understand because they were the key to power,
exploitation, expansion, and the preservation of law and order. And because of this
political influence on maps, Harley states that map can never be entirely trusted.
Harley sets up his argument and backs it up clearly with both concrete examples
and strong opinions. I believe it was so convincing because he was able to expose a
different argument towards the field of cartography that I have not yet explored.