Graduation Semester and Year

2008

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in History

Department

History

First Advisor

Dennis Reinhartz

Abstract

Maps do more than simply record geographical locations: maps link locations to the past and present, and even propose future possibilities. Maps graphically display information (or data) that is at once geographic, economic, political, social, scientific, and religious and they can be a starting point for the study of past cultures. Through careful analysis, including the conscious and subconscious selections of map-makers, maps reveal a perception of the world that is as fascinating as it is complex. This is the subjective vision of the world buried beneath the seemingly "objective" façade of the map--the hidden story that the cartographer did not even know they were telling. Such an analysis applied to Guillaume Delisle's 1718 "Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississippi" not only reveals the state of French geographic knowledge about the North American continent, but also reflects political, social, and economic aspirations as well as a culture in transition from a Catholicized classical Greek view of the world and humans' place in it to a view of the world through the emerging eyes of science in the service of the state.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | History

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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