Hors du monde. La carte et l’imaginaire/Fantastische Welten. Kartographie des Unbekannten

become enmeshed in ‘cartographic’ strategies that contribute to the making of what Thongchai Winichakul has famously termed ‘geo-bodies’. Laura Lo Presti’s analysis of the presence of the multi-sensorial cartographical representations of the Italian fascist empire in the everyday life of the 1930s and 1940s is unsurpassed. It includes the analyses of postcards, murals and mappings emerging from radio programmes, documentaries and films that all showcase how the Fascist regime trusted the power of repetitive mappings when ingraining Italian people with the image of the empire. In sum, the authors have created a sophisticated combination of stimulating discussions on the post-representational and processual approaches to the study of maps and in-depth empirical examples that effectively combine international-relations scholarship, map history and imperial history to interrogate the making of spaces. The chapters show how the processuality of maps reflects that of the empire: as Lobo-Guerrero suggests, empires have always been in the making. It is refreshing that the authors also highlight the moments when maps fail or are redundant. As Lo Presti summarizes in her chapter, these are the moments when ‘maps are useless, do not do their job, are impotent, or work differently than expected’. Consequently, it is important to scrutinize the unintentional ways that mappings have affected the politics of space as discussed by Goettlich as well as to acknowledge, as Strandsbjerg reminds us, that maps are not a necessary condition for the social and political organization of space. The inclusion of only six chapters is a clear benefit: there is ample space in each for the writers to present their analysis and develop their arguments. Regrettably for the reader the fine details of the maps studied are lost in the black-and-white reproductions and the small page size. Nevertheless, for someone interested in novel theoretical approaches to map history, this is a page turner. The volume will be of interest to map scholars as well as historians of empire and experts in international relations. Since the chapters are clearly written and effortlessly combine theoretical considerations with empirical analysis, they will make fine readings for graduate-level courses.