Map Bias and the Politics of Cartography

Because every map projection, symbol scheme, and classification method necessarily involves selective distortion and omission, as established by both Gauss's Theorema Egregium and the practical realities of cartographic generalization, maps can never be perfectly neutral records of geographic reality; they always embed the choices, priorities, and often the interests of their makers. Geographer and historian of cartography Mark Monmonier makes this argument the explicit centerpiece of his widely read book "How to Lie with Maps" (1991, 2nd ed. 1996, University of Chicago Press), showing through numerous real examples, from misleading choropleth classifications to selectively drawn boundaries, how ordinary, technically defensible cartographic decisions can nonetheless be deployed to advance a particular argument or interest, intentionally or not.