{"id":1844790,"date":"2025-07-29T08:38:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1844790"},"modified":"2025-10-05T22:52:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T02:52:40","slug":"review-telling-stories-with-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/07\/review-telling-stories-with-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Telling Stories with Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Book<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Fundamentally, Allen Carroll\u2019s Telling Stories with Maps: Lessons from a Lifetime of Creating Place-Based Narratives<\/a><\/em><\/strong> is a book about using Esri\u2019s ArcGIS StoryMaps<\/a> service for creating digital narratives with maps. It\u2019s of little use to anyone not using StoryMaps, but it\u2019s not quite a user manual either. It presents the theory and practice of map-based storytelling, as applicable to the StoryMaps user base, with examples from Carroll\u2019s long career, most notably at the National Geographic Society from 1983 to 2010, and then at Esri, where he went on to found their StoryMaps platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carroll\u2019s transition from National Geographic to Esri\u2014a good chunk of Telling Stories with Maps<\/em> serves as a memoir of Carroll\u2019s working life\u2014parallels a transition from analog to digital storytelling, and despite differences in medium, Carroll demonstrates that map-based narratives cover both the National Geographic maps (think the back sides of the map inserts) and interactive maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As StoryMaps emerged, one tool at a time, it presented a challenge: as Carroll notes, its users were GIS professionals who were not necessarily equipped to be storytellers\u2014to be able to craft a narrative that held the attention of the reader. Telling Stories with Maps<\/em> is an attempt to address that knowledge gap, with a bit of theory of narrative and a boatload of real-world examples (collected online here<\/a>, because in-book screenshots can only do so much). As such it\u2019s a book about what StoryMaps is for<\/em>\u2014what you can do with it, the best way to use it\u2014rather than a step-by-step instruction manual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I received an electronic review copy from the publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telling Stories with Maps<\/strong><\/em>
by Allen Carroll
Esri<\/a>, 10 Jun 2025
Amazon<\/a>\u00a0(Canada<\/a>,\u00a0UK<\/a>),\u00a0Bookshop<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fundamentally, Allen Carroll\u2019s Telling Stories with Maps: Lessons from a Lifetime of Creating Place-Based Narratives is a book about using Esri\u2019s ArcGIS StoryMaps service for creating digital narratives with maps. It\u2019s of little use to… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo","date":"2025-07-29T12:38:40+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lv44s3iwn526","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lv44s3iwn526\",\"cid\":\"bafyreie7zftvnbr4bk3p3cafdgsynm7vruywu3u437dtschgwgdaiftx3a\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreidhsjtsontzxxm2kade3wibpdpqmt6we74ljej7awxzuix3txkwxy\",\"rev\":\"3lv44s3jecn26\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,28],"tags":[179,30,244,1745],"class_list":["post-1844790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-gis","tag-arcgis","tag-books","tag-esri","tag-storymaps"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1837739,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/03\/replicating-iconic-ocean-floor-maps-in-arcgis-pro\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844790,"position":0},"title":"Replicating Iconic Ocean Floor Maps in ArcGIS Pro","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 March 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"John Nelson John Nelson has found another analog map style to replicate in ArcGIS Pro: Heinrich Berann\u2019s iconic National Geographic maps of the ocean floor (which were paintings based on the work of Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen). Direct link to the video tutorial.","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nelson-seafloor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nelson-seafloor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nelson-seafloor.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nelson-seafloor.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nelson-seafloor.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nelson-seafloor.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1827730,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/02\/one-map-to-rule-them-all-fantasy-map-design-elements-in-arcgis-pro\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844790,"position":1},"title":"One Map to Rule Them All: Fantasy Map Design Elements in ArcGIS Pro","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 February 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"John Nelson\u2019s One Style to Rule Them All is an ArcGIS Pro map style that applies fantasy map design elements to real-world geographic data. 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Google Earth Blog reports on the mid-January imagery update for Google Earth. Google Earth Blog also reports that\u00a0version 1.0 of ArcGIS Earth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1836989,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/02\/designing-for-colour-blindness-in-arcgis-pro\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844790,"position":3},"title":"Designing for Colour Blindness in ArcGIS Pro","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 February 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"On the ArcGIS Blog, a guide by Stephanie Oliver to designing maps that are more accessible to readers with colour blindness. (This is very specifically an ArcGIS Pro guide, down to the palette menus.)","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786276,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/09\/maps-middle-earth-style-by-hand-and-by-arcgis\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844790,"position":4},"title":"Maps Middle-earth Style: By Hand and by ArcGIS","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 September 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Dan Bell's career drawing maps of real-world places in the style of maps of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth continues apace; a recent piece, a map of San Francisco, got written up in the San Francisco Chronicle, and his website is full of other recent works. 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