Four Points of the Compass

The Unexpected History of Direction

Jerry Brotton author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Published:5th Sep '24

£20.00

This title is due to be published on 5th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Four Points of the Compass cover

North, south, east and west: almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves, to understand who they are by projecting where they are. For millennia, these four directions have been foundational to our travel, navigation and exploration and are central to the imaginative, moral and political geography of virtually every culture in the world. Yet they are far more subjective and various – sometimes contradictory – than we might realize.

The Four Points of the Compass takes the reader on a journey of directional discovery. Jerry Brotton reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east; why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps; why the early Islam revered the south; why the Aztecs used five colour-coded cardinal directions; and why no societies, primitive or modern, have ever orientated themselves westwards. He ends by reflecting on our digital age in which we, the little blue dot on the screen, have become the most important compass point. Throughout, Brotton shows that the directions reflect a human desire to create order and that they only have meaning, literally and metaphorically, depending on where you stand.

ISBN: 9780241556870

Dimensions: 222mm x 138mm x 25mm

Weight: 400g

224 pages