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284 of 288 people found the following review helpful:
Great for family use, 15 Jun 2002
With the release of the 2nd edition of the Reference Atlas of the World, Times Books have now completed the re-styling of their entire range of world atlases. This Reference edition takes the middle position of the five volumes, having two smaller siblings and two larger. In fact, this atlas is characterized by compromises on almost all levels. This is not necessarily always bad: you get a fairly detailed coverage of the world, plus 46 city plans and much information on the states and territories of the world. World coverage is more or less based on land mass, which means Asia gets a lot more than Europe, though densely populated European areas such as southern UK and German Ruhr area are mapped at larger scales. France and Spain are a bit disappointing, though U.S., India, China, and SE Australia are very good. The coloring of the maps is highly subtle but not overall consistent with the other Times atlases. The plates are highly legible and what's more, the data is very up-to-date. For example, cities that have recently exceeded 1 million inhabitants are shown as such, and the recent borderline agreement between Yemen and Saudi-Arabia is also incorporated.The 103 maps together show 47,000 place names which is good for an atlas of this size. The thematic section is not large but it provides very handy concise information on the most important topics. The 46 city maps are a real treat - and these are not included in the largest edition, the Comprehensive edition. If you want an atlas primarily for answering the question "Where is it located", I suggest you buy one of the two bigger siblings, but if you want a world atlas with a general overview of the world, this one does a good job. There are comparatively-sized atlases a |
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