Mapping Out the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Its 21st Century Legacy from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

The historic slave trade from Africa to the Americas was so widespread and so horrific as to remain difficult to entirely grasp. A new book, “Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade," aims to turn historic data from the period into a more coherent view, through maps and data. The book uncovers information that may soon have us all reconsidering not only America's history, but many of our own, personal stories. David Eltis, Professor of History at Emory University and co-author of the book, says that the data put forth in the atlas reveals a modern reintegration of peoples from around the world. The transatlantic slave trade marked the very beginning of that shift, which is still happening today.

View The Takeaway webpage on this story here. [Podcast will be made available after the show airs.] See also: George Washington's America: A Biography Through His Maps, Atlas of Remote Islands

Cartographical Fantastication from Metroblogging Los Angeles by Will Campbell

In any of my many urban explorations and travels over my native city I’m that guy: the one who always stops and marvels upon discovery of a broken patch of asphalt that reveals a strata of brick roadway beneath it. The one who sees a bit of exposed trolley car track and sighs. I ride Angel’s Flight with my eyes closed. I stand at Los Angeles Plaza looking across the street and back through time when instead of a parking lot and freeway onramp stood a literal den of inequity and ill repute in the form of an alleyway called Calle de los Negros. As a reveler in what lies beneath and a craver of historical context, all I had to do was see the cover and read the title of the new book by Glen Creason — the map librarian for the LA Public Library — and my response was Pavlovian. Seriously: one moment last month I was flipping through the current issue of Los Angeles magazine and there it was. Next thing I knew I was on Amazon pre-ordering it. I may or may not have been drooling.

Here's the full post.