Author Jerry Brotton Discusses "Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction"

  

We're so happy to be chatting with author Jerry Brotton on his book, "Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction" (released on Nov 5th - it's also a book birthday!). As we head into the busy holiday travels, don't you wonder about where you are going and why? How did the four directions - North, South, East, and West become a thing? Whether you are directionally challenged or savvy, this program is for you! Jerry will be answering these and so many other directional questions. We hope you can join us for this fascinating conversation!!

You can buy signed books (by bookplate) by Madelinefrom Aesop's Fable. Just write that you would like the book signed in the notes section at checkout. 

 

This is a hybrid program that will be offered in person at the library and virtually on Zoom. The speakers will be virtual. If you are attending in person, registration is requested, but not required. If attending virtually, please register to receive the zoom link.  RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

To attend virtually: Register via Zoom

To attend in person, please use the registration form below.

  

About the book:

From the New York Times bestselling author of A History of the World in 12 Maps, this is the revelatory history of the four cardinal directions that have oriented and defined our place on the globe for millennia 

North, south, east, and west: almost all societies use these four cardinal directions to orientate themselves and 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 sometimes contradictory—than we might realize.

Four Points of the Compass takes us on a journey of directional discovery. Societies have understood and defined directions in very different ways based on their locations in time and space. Historian Jerry Brotton reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east; why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps; why early Islam revered the south; why the Aztecs used five color-coded cardinal directions; and why no societies, primitive or modern, have ever orientated themselves westwards. In doing so, politically-loaded but widely used terms such as the “Middle East,” the “Global South,” the “West Indies,” the “Orient,” and even the “western world” take on new meanings. Who decided on these terms and what do they mean for geopolitics? How have directions like “east” and “west” taken on the status of cultural identities—or more accurately stereotypes? 

Yet today, because of GPS capability, cardinal points are less relevant. Online, we place ourselves at the center of the map as little blue dots moving across geospatial apps; we have become the most important compass point, though in the process we’ve disconnected ourselves from the natural world. Imagining what future changes technology may impose, Jerry Brotton skillfully reminds us how crucial the four cardinal directions have been to everyone who has ever walked our planet.

 

About the author:

Jerry Brotton is a professor of English and History at the University of London. A renowned broadcaster, curator, and critic, he is the author of the New York Times bestselling, award-winning A History of the World in 12 Maps, which has been translated into nineteen languages, The Sultan and the Queen, a Financial Times and Waterstones Book of the Year and winner of the Historical Writer’s Association Prize, The Renaissance Bazaar, and The Sale of the Late King’s Goods, a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize. He lives in London. 

 
 

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library and in partnership with a multitude of MA Libraries.