“Maps are communicating vast quantities of new knowledge that was only estimated. They convey this imaginative energy — an imaginative energy that maps today have lost, because today maps are so functional, so utilitarian.” — Peter Keating
In the sixteenth century, Spanish cartographers represented California as an island. They weren’t being careless. Nor were they drawing New Yorker covers. These 16th century cartographers were, instead, mapping the limits of both what they knew and what they imagined.
Cartography is as much an art as a science and maps always mirror how we see the world. Thus Peter Keating’s beautifully illustrated new book, Power Lines: Maps That Shaped the Way We See the World. Assembling nearly 100 of history’s most consequential political maps, Keating’s thesis is that maps are not neutral. They are arguments. Every map centers something — a religion, an empire, a people — and pushes something else to the margins. The story of cartography, then, is the story of power.
Five Takeaways
• California Was an Island. Spanish cartographers drew it that way — not carelessly, but at the limits of what was known and imaginable. Before any map can draw a border, it has to decide what is real. Every map centers something and pushes something else to the margins.
• Sacred vs Scientific. Two traditions in constant tension: the cosmographical (center your gods, mix fantasy with inquiry) and the scientific (Ptolemy, ancient China — maps generals and kings could actually use). With Rome’s Christianisation, the cosmographical dominated for a thousand years.
• Poland: Most Erased Country in Cartographic History. Disappeared from maps at least three times. Survived every erasure in the hearts of its people. A 1956 communist May Day map of Poland as a carnation reads, Keating argues, as quietly subversive — a nation asserting itself against the regime that claimed to represent it.
• Lincoln’s Favorite Map. The 1861 Coast Survey shaded counties by enslaved population density. Lincoln studied it obsessively, using it to identify where Union troops could liberate and where they could make peace. A non-ideological project with enormous ideological consequences — and one that still explains the political geography of the American South today.
• Two-Color Election Maps Are Making Democracy Worse. Research shows they increase cynicism, distort perceptions of partisan geography, and entrench Electoral College biases. In a democracy, maps should reflect actual political support. The United States is overdue for population-based electoral maps.
About the Guest
Peter Keating is a narrative journalist, three-time National Magazine Award winner, and the author of Power Lines: Maps That Shaped the Way We See the World (Black Dog & Leventhal, May 12, 2026) and Dingers!
References
Power Lines by Peter Keating (Black Dog & Leventhal, May 12, 2026): hachettebookgroup.com
Saul Steinberg, “View of the World from 9th Avenue,” The New Yorker, 1976
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow
Chapters:
00:00:31 California as an island
00:02:14 What imagined maps teach us
00:04:30 The New Yorker cover of 1976
00:05:22 Sacred vs scientific: two cartographic traditions
00:09:11 Poland: the most erased country
00:12:40 The 1956 carnation map: subversive communism
00:30:00 Cold War threat maps
00:44:32 We need new maps of American power
00:45:28 Two-color election maps and democracy
00:46:23 Lincoln’s favorite map: slave density 1861