Mark Stephen Monmonier is a Distinguished Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is the public policy school of Syracuse University...

 of Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

. He specializes in toponymy

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

, geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

, and geographic information systems. His popular written works show a combination of serious study and a sense of humor. Most of his work is published by University of Chicago Press. He has appeared on National Public Radio interview programs.

For example, in his work, From Squaw Tit

Squaw's Tit

Squaw's Tit is a mountain in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta. It is located at Lat/Lon: 51.13°N, 115.33°W and is one of themost prominent landmarks in the vicinity of Canmore, Alberta....

 to Whorehouse Meadow: how maps name, claim, and inflame, Monmonier discusses topics such as:

• the propensity of conquerors to rename places after those friendly to the new regime
  Regime
  The word regime refers to a set of conditions, most often of a political nature.-Politics:...
  
  .
• the tension between place names assigned by the federal Board on Geographic Names and state and local government agencies.
• the effects of political correctness
  Political correctness
  Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
  
   and racism
  Racism
  Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
  
   on place names.

In How to Lie with Maps, Monmonier gives us a different view of maps: different projections

Map projection

A map projection is any method of representing the surface of a sphere or other three-dimensional body on a plane. Map projections are necessary for creating maps. All map projections distort the surface in some fashion...

give vastly different impressions of the same "facts" or terrain.

Partial list of titles by the author

• Air apparent: how meteorologists learned to map, predict, and dramatize weather, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c1999.) ISBN 0-226-53422-7
• Bushmanders & bullwinkles: how politicians manipulate electronic maps and census data to win elections, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c2001). ISBN 0-226-53424-3
• Cartographies of danger: mapping hazards in America, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.) ISBN 0-226-53419-7 (pbk.)
• Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.) ISBN 0-226-53403-9
• Computer-assisted cartography : principles and prospects, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, c1982.) ISBN 0-13-165308-3
• Drawing the line: tales of maps and cartocontroversy, 1st ed., (New York: H. Holt, 1995.) ISBN 0-8050-2581-2
• From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: how maps name, claim, and inflame, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.) ISBN 0-226-53465-0
• GIPSY: a geographic incremental plotting system by Mark Stephen Monmonier, (University Park, Pennsylvania: Dept. of Geography, Pennsylvania State University, 1969.)
• How to lie with maps, 2nd ed., (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c1996.) ISBN 0-226-53421-9 (paper)
• Mark Monmonier and George A. Schnell, Map appreciation, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, c1988.) ISBN 0-13-556052-7
• Mapping it out: expository cartography for the humanities and social sciences, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.) ISBN 0-226-53417-0 (paper)
• Maps, distortion, and meaning, (Washington: Association of American Geographers, c1977.) ISBN 0-89291-120-4
• Maps with the news: the development of American journalistic cartography, (Paperback ed.), (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1999.) ISBN 0-226-53413-8 (pbk.)
• No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control, (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2010.) ISBN 9780226534671
• Rhumb lines and map wars: a social history of the Mercator projection, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c2004.) ISBN 0-226-53431-6
• Technological transition in cartography, (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.) ISBN 0-299-10070-7

External links

• Author's web site.
• An excerpt from Air Apparent on television weather maps and forecasting.
• An essay by Mark Monmonier titled "Spotting Bushmanders".
• An essay by Mark Monmonier titled "Ten Risky Places."
• An excerpt from From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame.
• An essay by Mark Monmonier titled "Eleven Ways You Are Being Watched".