The directions are at \(90°\) angles on the compass rose. The four ordinal directions ... For example, Northwest is halfway between North and West, which is 45° from both North and West.

In “Four Points of the Compass,” Jerry Brotton explores the disorienting, dizzying history of our relationship to direction.

Jerry Brotton hails from northern England, 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, ...