The question of whether the power and purpose of maps are inherently political is addressed by this book, which seeks to emphasize that the apparent "objectivity" of the map-making and map-using process cannot be divorced from aspects of the politics of representation. Maps have played, and continue to play, a major role in both international and domestic politics; they show how visual geographical representations can be made to reflect and progress political agendas in powerful ways. The major developments in this field over the last century are responses both to cartographic advances and to a greater emphasis on graphic imagery in societies affected by politicization, democratization, and consumer and cultural shifts. The author argues that maps are not straightforward visual texts, but contain political and politicizing subtexts that need to be read with care. He examines various issues such as ethnicity, the role of socio-economic forces, the influence of mapping on elections, the mapping of frontiers, and the place of maps in warfare, to show to maps and politics overlap.