Atlas of the World: Fourteenth Edition
Oxford World Atlas - This rendition has a comprehensive coverage of the universe andour solar system in full color. There are pictures of earthquake zones and weather belts worldwide. Constellations of stars are depicted for astronomers . There is good coverage of the worldeconomic systems. The maps are easy to read and interpret.The boldface print makes for ease of identification of even thesmallest cities and towns. This book is perfect for any school project in geography, earth science, world history and a whole host of other academic constituencies. It is a worthy investment if you have any children in school- at any level.
Comparing with Britannica - Comparado con el Atlas de la Britannica, este no tiene nada que hacer. La claridad de los mapas, que es la esencia del Atlas, es bastante superior en la Britannica. Poseo la edición del año 1994 y me parece superior.Lo único que justifica la compra de este Atlas de la Oxford es que trae la información de geografía humana y política más actualizada. Además, lo interesante y útil de los pequeños planos o mapas de las últimas noticias mundiales (en este caso, medio oriente).Si desea actualizar su Britannica, mejor espere la nueva edición de ese Atlas.
One of the best atlases - This is one of the best atlases - and a newly added country profiles section and foreign goegraphical terms glossary make this book even more useful. The atlas is well designed and beautiful. However, I recommend this atlas be bought together with the Hammond World Atlas, another excellent atlas, because of different place names,thematic information,statistical data,etc.
Ultimately disappointing - At first glance this is a beautiful, almost spectacular, book. Lots of color, dramatic aerial photos of the earth, and a large section devoted to topics ranging from the earth s history to modern population shifts.But as a reference book it falls short. There are a lot of maps, but there is really less there than meets the first look: a lot of space is taken up with a narrowing down of detail - one map shows the hemisphere, then another an area of the hemisphere, then another a detail, of sorts, of the area. And often a detail of the detail. The cost to the reader is a lot of redundancy, and that very few countries get a full, detailed, page of their own. And many of the larger maps, especially, are quietly inaccurate. Towns are shown in the wrong places, major towns are missing at the expense of smaller ones. For a representative example: on map number 147, Statesboro, Georgia, which is 23 miles north of the I-16 expressway, is shown south of it, one of the largest cities in the hundred miles north of Atlanta, Marietta, is not there at all, but Roswell, 13 miles away, is shown at Marietta s location. Similar problems abound in other places.As a geographical reference it lacks any claim to completeness: hundreds of towns that are shown and indexed in my forty year old Encyclopedia Britannica World Atlas are not in the new Oxford at all. There are over 84,000 listings in the old Britannica, Oxford claims 75,000, but quite a few are duplicates, because the same city appears on several of the various sized maps. Elkhart, Grapeland, Latexo, and scores and scores of other Texas towns that made it into the Britannica forty years when they were much smaller, are nowhere to be found in the new Oxford. They may be comparatively small towns, but a good atlas should show such things: I don t need an expensive coffee table book to find Dallas three times. And even when a town makes it, it gets short shrift: the Britannica index told us the county, state, and population of Creede, Colorado, the Oxford lists it merely as Creede, U.S.A.Unfortunately, the Britannica appears to be out of print, but if you have one, don t replace it with the splashy Oxford, even tho it does have pretty pictures of the earth from outer space.
Superb atlas and superb value - This atlas is even better than I had anticipated based on its reviews. The book, quite a large tome, is a beautiful and comprehensive cartographic overview of the world. The atlas s weakest area might be considered to be its US map section, as those maps are presented by specific regions and not by individual states. However, the latter is nit-picking since this is indeed a world atlas and not intended to be a road map of the USA. (Nevertheless, my 22-year-old Hammond Medallion atlas features detailed maps of individual US states (showing each county, major roads, etc) as well as the individual provinces of Canada, and a quite comprehensive world map section. Those big old Hammond atlases were better than their modern counterparts, but I digress...) I also own the latest edition of the National Geographic atlas and the 2000 edition of the largest Hammond World Atlas. While the latter have their strong points, I d rate the 11th edition Oxford as the best general-purpose world atlas, and the Amazon price is certainly right. I ordered mine next day air to minimize shipping damage but its good packing would probably have kept it safe even via UPS ground. However, I still recommend 1 or 2-day shipping for buyers particular about book condition--- this is a very large, heavy book!Besides the excellent main map section, the Oxford has an extensive introductory section with all types of specialized maps and related data. Furthermore, the atlas s index is well-organized and extensive. The maps themselves are unusually legible and don t require squinting to find towns, rivers, etc. The book is an invaluable reference and also a work of art. A must buy as far as I m concerned!