Prof. Matt Zembo published a review in H-Net Review.
H-Net R
in the Humanities &
A. Crispin Jcwitt. Jnrclligencc Revecile<l: Maps. Plnns <m<l Viewstit Horse Guards and 1he War Office, 1800·1&!10. London: .BritishUbrary Board, 2011.M«ps. illustrntlons. 390pp.$95 00, c!oth, IS.BN
97&-0-7123-58-i3-9.
Reviewed by Mau Zembo (Hudson Valley Community College)
[Preprint.I H-War (February. 2020)
Commissioned by Margaret Sanl,cy (A.lr Unil ersity)
In /11Wll(l(e11c<' Revealed: Maps. Plm1s anoses of the War Office.Instead, Jewitt concentrates on the bureau cratic end of things.If th,•re is one thing the British are consL temly good at it isweaving a complicat ed bureaucraric web, and War Office cartography is quite the web for the pe1iod the book COl.”Cl’S. Je witt starts in 1803vith the creation of the Depot of Military Knowledge and the Quarter Master Gen eral Office at Horse Guards. The Quarter Master General Office produced mapsthrough Dublin Cas tle, Columbo. Ceylon. and Simla, lndia. The Ctimean War revealed gaps in the intelligence and mapmaking of the Quarter Masrer system so in 1855 the Topographical and Statistical Depot was created. To add to the general confusion, Jcwitt poiJ1ts out, private contractors and other institu tions were producing official maps for govern ment use as well. fl’Om tht• Ocdnanct• Survey, the Royal Engi.neer’s School of MUita ry Engineering. and the Directorate General of fortifications, to narne 1.lnly a few. At various times. th<.lSe instit u· tions were combined and then pulled back apart i.t1 the name of eflickncy and s11vi.t1gs. a jumbled tale tl1at Jev.itt explai.t1s in a masterly ancl easy manner for rhc reader.What makes the story so complica ted isthe sheer nwnber of map producers within the governmeJ1t and the overlapplng areas
Published: by k.haynes