This volume complements the author’s textbook [1]. The book is probably based on lectures given to his cartography students in which he places the subject in historical perspective and explains why they have to learn so much technical stuff. It introduces (1) the technical issues underlying computer cartography (such as DIME file layout, or how multi-spectral scanners and ink-jet printers work), and (2) the economic, organizational, and policy trends that are changing cartography from a craft with a large manual labor component to a sophisticated application of data management, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence. The author discusses this “technological transition” and the resulting changes in orientation and training required of cartographers.

There are seven chapters. The Introduction presents an overview of technological change in cartography and the problems institutions have in adapting. Location and Navigation starts with the Marshall Islanders’ stick chart and concludes with the digital terrain maps that guide the cruise missile. Boundaries and Surveys presents the history of survey techniques and the idea of “geodesy as a public utility.” Aerial Reconnaissance and Land Cover Inventories deals with the technology and politics of aerial and satellite reconnaissance. Decision Support Systems describes the principles of geographic DSS and computer mapping. Map Publishing and the Digital Map contains a brief history of map publishing and foreshadows the inevitable changes as maps evolve from paper sheets into software. The Summary reviews the earlier chapters and discusses possible futures, when “mapping will be a minor factor in the telepublishing network upon which it will depend.”

With such a wide range of topics covered in only 196 pages of the book, it could easily become a grab-bag, but the focus is maintained. The author does not have room to pursue technical topics very far, but they can be followed up in the extensive notes (30 pp.), Bibliography (20 pp.), and Glossary (23 pp.). These sections are necessary because each chapter is worth a book in itself. The Glossary is new; it is not a reprint of the glossary in [1]. Any student of computer cartography (Is there another kind of cartography anymore?) will find the book valuable.