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D. Graham Burnett’s Masters of All They Surveyed is the fascinating tale of
how Guyana, first glimpsed by foreigners as a lush green shoreline, came to be
mapped. Somebody had to mark the boundaries for rival colonial powers to quarrel
over, and this is as much a history of imperialism as an attempt to understand
what drove one man to attempt such a thankless task. Published by the University
of Chicago Press, $45, ISBN 0226081206.