Maps organize space and define the relationships of its natural and political elements. For those who possess the appropriate cartographic reading skills, the map serves as a spatial orientation tool, a basis for political decision-making, or an instrument for social self-location.

The cartography of the 19th century also pursued this goal and developed its own methods and approaches for it. Thanks to scientific precision, abstract aesthetics, and organizational innovation, it produced works that enjoyed a new legitimacy through their processes. The new images simultaneously enabled a nationalist reading of the landscape and the cartographic reproduction of the nation.

The ease with which map and nation ultimately aligned towards the end of the century has a history that can only be understood as a historical configuration of politics, cartographic order, and landscape. This is the subject of this book. Using the example of the Swiss national survey conducted between 1832 and 1865 under the leadership of General Guillaume-Henri Dufour, "Topographies of the Nation" examines the social prerequisites for the cartographic readability of the world.