A study of the mappings used to impose meaning on the world, this text argues that maps create rather than merely represent the ground on which they rest. From the history of cartography to the mappings culture, sexuality and nation, it draws on a range of materials including mappings imposed in the colonial settlement of America, the Cold War, Vietnam and the events since the collapse of the Soviet bloc. The book argues for a deconstruction of the opposition between map and territory to allow dominant mappings to be challenged, their contours redrawn and new grids imposed.