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Assemblingtheworldinanimage:15ofhistory'smostrevealingmapsCNN.com

Assembling the world in an image: 15 of history's

most revealing maps
By John Hessler, Special to CNN
Updated 1421 GMT (2221 HKT) December 18, 2015

15 photos:
Death to Fascism, 1941 Immediately

recognizable because of its striking graphic design and Soviet CCCP

made by artists shortly after Germany ended its nonaggression pact in the early summer of 1941, and
troops. The image shows a monstrous Hitler (one should note the mustache and cropped hair) being h
of the CCCP.

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Assemblingtheworldinanimage:15ofhistory'smostrevealingmapsCNN.com

Editor's Note: John Hessler is a Specialist in Modern Cartography and Geographic Information Science,
Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. He is the author of Map:
Exploring the World, published by Phaidon.
(CNN)The world is always changing, moving, never really in equilibrium. This is a feeling, a concept, a fact
that mostly we avoid. Stability is what we as humans are drawn to as if by instinct, as there is no safety in
motion or in change. We want to be grounded in a place, in a space, with which we are familiar.
Perhaps that is why throughout the centuries we have loved and created maps. Pictured on these surfaces
is an image of our world and its spatial complexities abstracted and made simple; reduced from threedimensions to an easier to handle two. Maps give us the illusion that nothing is changing, and that all the
paths we want to travel are clearly marked for us to follow. At least that is how is used to be.
Click through to gallery above for maps that are as beautiful as they are informative.
7 things you probably didn't know about maps
Map: Exploring the World (Phaidon) is available now.

The airline: Reimagined

NASA's awesome space tourism posters

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