Maps : Their History, Characteristics, and Uses. By Sir Herbert
George Fordha,m. (Cambridge Universitypress. 7s. 6d. net.)—As chairman of the Cambridgeshire Education Committee and as an accomplished student of cartography, the author was fully qualified to write this excellent little book. It is at once a compact and accurate history of map-making and a practical guide to the use of maps in schools. Sir Herbert Fordham urges the teacher to construct a rudimentary map of the neighbourhood on the blackboard_ with the help of his class, so as to interest his pupils in the subject, giving them first of all the idea of direction and then the idea of distance, followed by the use of pictorial symbols for the objects marked. "The constructive effort should be imposed on the class and should not come from the teacher." Geography taught in such a fashion would assuredly not be the dull subject that it usually is, when the text-book is slavishly followed and the use of maps is not explained. Sir Herbert Forclliam's brief history of cartography, which is intended to enlarge the teacher's view, is a model of scholarly precision. Many people who are not teachers will read it with pleasure. It is appropriately illustrated with reproductions from the old maps, of which the author speaks with special authority..
Previous page
