In the 1990s Daniel Yergin emerged as one of the great chroniclers of our day. Both The Prize, his epic history of oil (which won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction), and The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, written with Joseph Stanislaw, were turned into blockbuster television series. The New Map is Mr Yergin’s effort to chart the world of 2020.
A sense of increasing disorder and multipolarity pervades The New Map. Indeed, it is implied in the book’s organising idea — the map. Maps are ordering devices. But they are also perspectival. There are as many maps as there are mapmakers. What Mr Yergin offers us is not one map, but an overview of the many maps contending for influence in the world today.
