Via MapHist, news of Mark Monmonier’s latest book, coming out this month: No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control.

Some maps help us find our way; others restrict where we go and what we do. These maps control behavior, regulating activities from flying to fishing, prohibiting students from one part of town from being schooled on the other, and banishing certain individuals and industries to the periphery. This restrictive cartography has boomed in recent decades as governments seek regulate activities as diverse as hiking, building a residence, opening a store, locating a chemical plant, or painting your house anything but regulation colors. It is this aspect of mapping — its power to prohibit — that celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier tackles in No Dig, No Fly, No Go.

Dr. Monmonier is a favourite here on The Map Room: I reviewed How to Lie with Maps in May 2006, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow in July 2006, and Rhumb Lines and Map Wars in July 2008.

• Buy No Dig, No Fly, No Go (paperback) at Amazon.com
• Buy No Dig, No Fly, No Go (hardcover) at Amazon.com