John Rennie Short, professor of public policy at UMBC and expert on urban and environmental issues and political geography, has published the first general history of Korea as seen through maps. Korea: A Cartographic History, from the University of Chicago Press, provides a visually stunning introduction to how Korea has been represented through maps over the last 600 years. The book description reads:

A common theme running throughout Short’s study is how the global flow of knowledge and ideas affects mapmaking, and Short reveals how Korean mapmakers throughout history have embodied, reflected, and even contested these foreign depictions of their homeland.

Reviewers call the book “superb” and “masterful.” Laura Hostetler (University of Illinois at Chicago) writes, “Both a history of cartography and a cartographic history, John Rennie Short’s highly readable and beautifully illustrated book recounts the absorbing story of Korea’s integration into global space with accuracy and aplomb.”