الجهات الأربع لـ البوصلة .. التاريخ غير المتوقع للاتجاه

From the New York Times bestselling author of A History of the World in 12 Maps, this is a revealing history of the four cardinal directions that have guided and defined our place on the globe for thousands of years North, South, East, and West: Most societies use these four cardinal directions to determine their locations and understand their identity by determining their geographic location. Throughout the ages, these four directions have formed the basis of our travel, navigation, and exploration, and are central to the imaginative, moral, and political geography of almost every culture in the world. However, it is more subjective – and sometimes contradictory – than we might imagine. The Four Directions takes us on a direction-finding expedition. Societies understood and defined trends in very different ways depending on their locations in time and space. Historian Jerry Broughton reveals why Hebrew culture favors the East; Why did Europeans in the Renaissance era begin to draw the north at the top of their maps? Why did early Islam sanctify the south? Why the Aztecs used five major color-coded directions; Why did no societies, whether primitive or modern, orient themselves westward? Thus, commonly used terms, albeit with political connotations, such as “Middle East,” “Global South,” “West Indies,” “East,” and even “Western world,” acquire new meanings. Who decided on these terms, and what do they mean for geopolitics? How did trends such as “East” and “West” gain the status of cultural identities, or rather stereotypes? But today, thanks to GPS technology, original directions are less important. In the virtual world, we place ourselves at the center of the map as little blue dots that move through geolocation applications; We have become the most important point of the compass, even though in the process we have become disconnected from the natural world. Jerry Broughton brilliantly imagines the future changes that technology may impose, and reminds us how important the four archetypal tendencies are to everyone who sets foot on our planet. For anyone interested in history, geography, or new and surprising ways of thinking about the world, The Four Points of the Compass will be a stimulating experience.