Book reviews

Those of you who were at the 2005 Congress in La Colle sur Loup may remember that one of the goodies in your congress bag was a copy of the World Population Map provided by our sponsors, ODT, Inc. ODT specializes in maps that excite new forms of observation about our world. Now they have released a fresh edition of the classic Peters Map. “We've added more balance and created some intrigue,” says Bob Abramms, ODT's founder and product development director. “The map image itself is unchanged, but everything around the image has been brought into the 21st century.”

The original Peters Map was introduced in 1974 by Arno Peters, whose photobiography can be seen at www.odt.org/album.htm. In contrast to the prevailing navigation maps, Peters introduced a world-view that showed the relative sizes and proportions of continents and countries. Peters described his map as “fair to all peoples," in comparison to what he noted as the biases and distortions of traditional maps. Over 18 million copies of the map are now in circulation.

The 2006 version of the Peters' Map has fresh text and thumbnail images that present other maps, explaining their purpose and use. The map includes a web links list, brighter colors, and higher quality paper.

The Peters Map continues to intrigue people and serve as a fresh perspective on culture, history and politics. In intercultural training, where it is important to open our learners’ perspectives, this picture of the world is worth a thousand words!

The new map image is posted at www.odtmaps.org/link.htm along with a wide variety of other maps and map products.