Mid-Afternoon Map: Why North Is Up, and Who Really Knows?

Welcome to Mid-Afternoon Map, our exclusive members-only newsletter that provides a cartographic perspective on current events, geopolitics, and history from the Caucasus to the Carolinas. Subscribers can look forward to interesting takes on good maps and bad maps, beautiful maps and ugly ones — and bizarre maps whenever possible. *** Why do maps show north as being up? Anyone who’s bothered to ask has probably gotten a simple answer: “Because Europeans made the maps, and they wanted to be on top.” As a result, the upside-down map has become a popular symbol for rejecting Eurocentrism in college classrooms across the country. Ironically,