The Map Tour

Produced in collaboration with the Royal Geographic Society, this illuminating volume looks at the ways in which maps facilitated, dictated, and directed the burgeoning travel industry.

Arranged chronologically from the seventeenth century on, and featuring the personal anecdotes, diary extracts, and photographs of intrepid early travelers, this exquisite collection of maps traces the evolution of tourism. Part travel guide, part social history, it charts a course across the globe on the first steam voyages, captures the romance of the golden age of train travel, and delves into the very heart of why we journey to new lands: for adventure; for education; for escapism; for pilgrimage. As it stretches from the elite realms of the Grand Tour to beyond the boundaries of the known world, this book showcases the progress in cartography, and reveals how people used maps to navigate their immediate environment and understand their place in the world. In looking back, it considers the shape of global tourism today, reflecting on just how accessible--or hostile--the world has become.