As long as north, south, east and west have existed, they have not just directed the world but defined it. In Four Points of the Compass, historian Jerry Brotton goes in search of their origins to ...

“Four Points of the Compass” is a slender volume ... by looking outward at our surroundings to determine north, south, east ...

North is both 0 and 360 degrees, east is 90 degrees, south 180 and west 270. To take your bearing, hold the compass flat and ...

where compass-holders can move in more directions than north, south, east, and west. That’s why space agencies use special compasses known as vector magnetometers, which measure not only the ...

and in “Four Points of the Compass,” he notes that the caricatures associated with southern cultures such as Italy’s are reversed in his native country, where the north is more commonly ...