New Internationalist Magazine and ODTmaps.com Launch New Politically-Edgy eBook on Maps with Huge Viral Give-Away

Amherst, MA, March 05, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Two organizations on opposite sides of the globe have collaborated to co-publish a new eBook designed to demystify maps, and help detect the hidden meanings behind them.

How Maps Change Things: A Conversation About the Maps We Choose and the World We Want by Ward Kaiser is being released on March 5th, the 500th birthday of famous map-maker Gerhard Kremer, aka Mercator. The book is available as a free download for the full month of March, 2012 as a PDF, for iPhones and Kindle. The book examines maps as change agents, reflecting intentions and setting agendas, revealing who has power and resources, and who has not. It helps to explain the messages maps send.

The book is being hailed by the professional geographic community, political activists, faith-based groups, and media literacy educators as a landmark resource to better understand the world around us.

Dr. Danny Dorling, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield says, “A tour de force, from the mapping of Iraq as a set of oil wells, through Mercator’s love of Germany, first nation Canadians’ and current Palestinians’ land rights, through to a detailed history of how one man’s re-creation, just four decades ago, of what is now the third most widely read world map, to calls for an end to borders, bigotry, disease and war. This is not just a book about maps, although its full of maps - it’s about a worldview.” Dr. Joseph J. Kerski, Education Manager at Esri in Broomfield, Colorado and current president of the National Council for Geographic Education, says the book is “very thought provoking, easily-understood by non-geographers, and timely. Bravo!”

Gerald Robison, Vice President of Unveiling GLORY says, “At last! Somebody has put into print what we've heard 'snipets' and 'rumors' of before – ‘that the map we tend to use isn't the way things look!’ Author Ward Kaiser does it, not only with insight - he helps us everyday folks understand it ourselves! The information gathered here is written in everyday, down-to-earth language that nearly all of us can understand and explain it to others!” The Rev. Arthur Bauer, a long-time advocate for equal area world maps , says it is “an exciting book! I appreciate the strong awareness of social issues throughout it. Kaiser’s telling the story of the Peters Map, and making the case for social justice via equal area maps is well done. The wide use of various map projections and map examples is effective in carrying the case forward.”

Craig Wiesner, Progressive activist and co-founder of ReachAndTeach.com, says, “How Maps Change Things is a critical resource for people to understand the power of maps to influence how we look at each other across the table and across the globe. For those of us trying to make the world a better place, this book is a critical tool for understanding how we all look at it now and how we all want it to look in the future.”

Antonio Lopez, media literacy educator based in Rome, Italy says, "those who practice media literacy know that media are not just maps of the world, but prescribe how to act in the world. How wonderful then, that How Maps Change Things, shows these principles in action. With ample case studies and sober explanation, this book will not only change how you view maps, but how you see the world."

How Maps Change Things: A Conversation About the Maps We Choose and the World We Want.

Publication Date: March 5, 2012; ebook format $9.99

Free download during March, 2012 for PDF, Kindle & iPhone at http://www.newint.com.au/freebook.Mercator.Bday

Table of Contents at: odtmaps.com/detail.asp_Q_product_id_E_howmapschangethings_A_Contents
=TAB3

Co-Published by New Internationalist (Adelaide, Australia) and ODTmaps.com (Amherst, MA, USA)

Details and ordering information at: newint.com.au/newsletter/ni-media-maps-ebook.pdf and newint.com.au/shop/how-maps-change-things-ebook-download-3124.htm

Author bio at: newint.com.au/shop/ward-kaiser-p414.htm

Unusual & provocative map images available to media as JPGs or PDFs

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