Spirit of the Age
Jerry Brotton shows how maps can reveal the fears and prejudices of their age, from medieval religious passion to Victorian obsession with poverty and disease.
In a series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton shows how maps can reveal the fears, obsessions and prejudices of their age.
Religious passion inspires beautiful medieval maps of the world, showing the way to heaven, the pilgrims' route to Jerusalem and monstrous children who eat their parents. But by the Victorian era society is obsessed with race, poverty and disease. Royal cartographer James Wyld's world map awards each country a mark from one to five, depending on how 'civilised' he deems each nation to be. And a map made to help Jewish immigrants in the East End inadvertently fuels anti-semitism.
'Map wars' break out in the 1970s when left-wing journalist Arno Peters claims that the world map shown in most atlases was a lie that short-changed the developing world. In Zurich, Brotton talks to Google Earth about the cutting edge of cartography and at Worldmapper he sees how social problems such as infant mortality and HIV are strikingly portrayed on computer-generated maps that bend the world out of shape and reflect the spirit of our age.
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Clip
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Religionβs influence on mapmaking
Duration: 02:58
Music Played
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Gil ScottβHeron
Me And The Devil
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Portishead
Roads
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Gil ScottβHeron
Me And The Devil
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Jerry Brotton |
Director | Helen Nixon |
Producer | Helen Nixon |
Series Producer | Annabel Hobley |
Executive Producer | Chris Granlund |
Broadcasts
- Sun 25 Apr 2010 21:00
- Sun 25 Apr 2010 23:00ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ HD
- Mon 26 Apr 2010 02:10
- Tue 27 Apr 2010 19:30ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ HD
- Thu 29 Apr 2010 21:00
- Fri 30 Apr 2010 00:00
- Fri 30 Apr 2010 03:30
- Thu 3 Mar 2011 20:00
- Wed 16 Mar 2011 21:00ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ HD
- Thu 17 Mar 2011 00:50ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ HD
- Wed 29 Jun 2011 20:00
- Thu 30 Jun 2011 01:50
- Sat 1 Nov 2014 20:00
- Sun 2 Nov 2014 02:55
- Thu 15 Jan 2015 22:00
- Tue 10 Nov 2015 22:45
- Tue 21 Nov 2017 23:00
- Fri 7 Sep 2018 00:00
- Thu 12 Sep 2019 20:00
- Fri 13 Sep 2019 01:30
- Sun 27 Jun 2021 20:00
- Mon 28 Jun 2021 01:50