Atlas of the World (Atlas of the World, 11th Ed)

Rating:
Summary: Fine maps, but nothing special about this atlas
Review: First of all this atlas is a little over 300 pages, not 448 as the book details give (and yes this is the 10th 2002 edition). The maps are well detailed, but my biggest complaint is with the United States maps. They break it down by region, not by individual state, hence one has to flip back on pages to find the half of a state that gets split up. Also with the u.s., county divisions nor their name are included, something one thinks would automatically be in a atlas like this. I paid about $12 for this atlas, which is about the maximum price you should pay, otherwise look around for something better if your going to pay more than that.

Rating:
Summary: The Most Accurate World Atlas
Review: After the recent controversy with the 8th edition of National Geographic Atlas, I have checked all world atlas books in Georgia Tech library and also in Barnes & Noble, but none of them was as accurate and comprehensive as this atlas from Oxford University Press.
I highly recommend it, specially when you consider its very reasonable price.

Rating:
Summary: Maps and so much more. . . .
Review: As an avid traveler, I've missed having a good set of world maps, and this book more than met my expectations. The maps are clear, readable and up-to-date. But there's so much more here--the "Images of Earth" from outer space are truly breathtaking. The "Introduction to World Geography" is misnamed. In 50 or so beautifully laid out pages, all the statistical information you'd ever need to know about our world is beautifully laid out in maps, graphs and charts--everything from wealth to health to population to natural resources to climate to migration patterns and more. A gazetteer of nations contains thumbnail descriptions of countries with key facts available at a glance. This is the kind of book a bright child will pour over for hours, and remember forever.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Not One Of The Best
Review: As with a lot of atlases, many reviewers rate this one favorably apparently because it has lots of pretty colors. However, the map content, completeness and legibilty of this atlas is NOT EVEN CLOSE to the standard of the National Geographic Atlas of the World. I compared several atlases in detail last year in a talk at a professional geographer's meeting. Although the National Geographic maps may not look as slick as those from other publishers, I discovered that they invariably have far more detail and useful information. This is true even when compared to the far more expensive Times Atlas (unless you are looking for nauseating detail about rural areas in India).

Rating:
Summary: Ultimately disappointing
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: GORGEOUS!
Review: Beautifully done, wonderfully accurate and captivating. The maps are wonderfully placed on the page so that no information is located within the crease. I purchased this atlas based on other customer reviews...they were all correct! Less money, more atlas...this is certain to please anyone looking for a reference atlas.

Rating:
Summary: Comparing with Britannica
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Comparing with Britannica
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Good but could have been great!
Review: Disappointed with the atlas, but making due. I wanted more accuracy and detail in an age of satellite imagery, computer aided drafting/topography and widely available mass media access. I didn't buy this atlas to look up my hometown --I really wanted clarity and detail of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. I wanted to quickly find and see Mt Ararat in Turkey, or Israel's West Bank or details of Oman etc. Overall a good Atlas that works well for introduction of geography with my kids.

Rating:
Summary: (Oxford) World Atlas, Good but lacking detail
Review: I bought the Atlas of the World, 5th edition to use mainly for three purposes: working crossword puzzles, current events, and research for travel. For current events and travel the Atlas is fine. I like the shading for altitude which makes it easy to see where a place is located in relationship to mountains. However, there are several things that frustrate me. Many features, such as rivers, lakes, bays, etc are shown but not named, which makes this a poor choice for crossword puzzle information. Secondly, the names are often located in such a way on the map it is impossible to tell to what town or area they belong. Names of Rivers and Lakes are not followed by any notation that tells you it is a lake, althought they print the river names on the river bank, so if the river is not even you can tell that the name belongs to the river, because it is not in a straight line. Names of mountain ranges are printed without any reference to what they are, so that you don't know if it is the name of a region, province, etc. unless you already know this before hand. If you want an Atlas that you can really use to find detailed information, I believe this is not the best choice.