North, south, east and west: almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves, to understand who they are by projecting where they are. For millennia, these four directions have been foundational to our travel, navigation and exploration and are central to the imaginative, moral and political geography of virtually every culture in the world. By looking at the history of the directions and their meanings in different religions and cultures, Brotton brilliantly charts their framing of the modern world.
