{"id":1844984,"date":"2025-09-25T11:22:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1844984"},"modified":"2025-09-25T11:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:22:22","slug":"how-maps-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/09\/how-maps-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"How Maps Lie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How Maps Lie - September 19, 2025\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1qnTKEuWrbg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week Andrew Middleton (he of The Map Center) gave a presentation at the Dickinson Memorial Library in Northfield, Massachusetts. Titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/1qnTKEuWrbg\">How Maps Lie,<\/a>\u201d it\u2019s the kind of introductory talk that can never be done too much: about what maps actually do, and the distance that can exist between the map and the territory. The video is an archived livestream; the talk itself stars about 15 minutes in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week Andrew Middleton (he of The Map Center) gave a presentation at the Dickinson Memorial Library in Northfield, Massachusetts. Titled \u201cHow Maps Lie,\u201d it\u2019s the kind of introductory talk that can never be done&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/09\/how-maps-lie\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo","date":"2025-09-25T15:22:25+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lzoaycmnxf2f","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lzoaycmnxf2f\",\"cid\":\"bafyreiaocfsumpmgpm5tyynfk2e4nef7w5vkmsffvfxb4srohs5iibfkqu\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreieo5tzkqabcediehssiv3jhnz6ji5hvbeljfgdcohrh64ba77hfoi\",\"rev\":\"3lzoaycmyp52f\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1844984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-cartography","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6171,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/11\/fake-maps-very-dishonest\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844984,"position":0},"title":"Fake Maps! (Very Dishonest)","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"24 November 2017","format":"video","excerpt":"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/241238519 Here's a video of Steven Feldman's informative and entertaining talk at FOSS4G in Boston last August: \"Fake Maps, Very Dishonest\" looks at the ways in which maps, through ignorance, incompetence or deliberate intent, can mislead, misinform, misfire and miss the point. Very much in the vein of Monmonier's\u00a0How to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cartography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fakemaps-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1785913,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/how-to-lie-with-maps-third-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844984,"position":1},"title":"How to Lie with Maps, Third Edition","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark Monmonier's How to Lie with Maps has always been about how to read maps, not how to make them. The map-using public is inclined not only to believe what's on the map, but to trust it: why would so many people willingly drive their cars into ditches, if they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Book Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/how-to-lie-with-maps-3rd-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1787866,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/10\/trump-maps-and-manipulation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844984,"position":2},"title":"Trump, Maps and Manipulation","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"3 October 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"\u201cDonald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States, has become a master of the use of the map to assert his agenda.\u201d From election maps to hurricane forecasts,\u00a0Kenneth Field looks at the ways that Donald Trump uses maps to assert power, dominate the narrative and, well, lie. So Trump\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1167,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/03\/when-maps-lie\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844984,"position":3},"title":"When Maps Lie","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 March 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Andrew Wiseman's \"When Maps Lie\" was posted on CityLab last year, but its importance is evergreen: it's about map literacy, and how to avoid being fooled by confusing, misleading or simply bad maps. This is very much what Mark Monmonier did in\u00a0How to Lie with Maps\u00a0(see my review;\u00a0Amazon,\u00a0iBooks); Wiseman updates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cartography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1788902,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/06\/bending-lines-an-online-exhibition-from-the-leventhal-center\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844984,"position":4},"title":"Bending Lines, an Online Exhibition from the Leventhal Center","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 June 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Bending Lines: Maps and Data From Distortion to Deception, the latest exhibition from the Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library, is a wide-ranging, comprehensive look at the relationship between maps and the truth. We expect maps not to lie, but maps have misled, propagandized or at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cartography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1784938,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/02\/wislawa-szymborskas-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844984,"position":5},"title":"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska&#8217;s &#8216;Map&#8217;","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"6 February 2018","format":"quote","excerpt":"I like maps, because they lie. Because they give no access to the vicious truth. Because great-heartedly, good-naturedly they spread before me a world not of this world. From \"Map,\" the last poem the Nobel laureate Wis\u0142awa Szymborska wrote before her death in 2012. Translated and reprinted in The New\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Maps and Literature&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1844984"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1844986,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844984\/revisions\/1844986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1844984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1844984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1844984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}