Customer Reviews

Atlas of the World, 10th Edition

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the best atlas you can get in this price category. The gold standard of world atlases - The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World - will cost you three times as much as this one.

The features of the Oxford University Press's "Atlas of the World" are quite similar to the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World. It has the same user-friendly overview over the maps contained in the atlas ("Key to the World/European Map Pages") on the insides of the front and back hardcover. And it has the same comprehensive index of names in the back, featuring not only the location of a certain place on the grid of a map, but also the place's longitude and latitude. As a bonus, there are 16 pages with stunning satellite pictures of - among others - cities like Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Sydney and Naples with Mount Vesuvius.

The main difference is the size of the two atlases: The Times Atlas is 19 by 13.3 inches, the Oxford Atlas is 15 by 11.3 inches. The bigger-sized maps of the Times Atlas allow greater detail.

If you still have small kids in the house who love to thumb through your books, this atlas will be your best choice. In its price category it is absolutely a 5-star book.

In choosing a world atlas for my family, I looked at all that were available: from Oxford, National Geographic, Rand McNally, Hammond, DK, and other publishers. This new edition of the Oxford
Atlas of the World is clearly the gold standard. Just published, it is of course the most up-to-date atlas available. More importantly, it is accurate and detailed, exquisitely produced (a joy to look at)and very readable. Unlike other atlases, for example, the maps do not run into the gutters. The introductory section containing informational maps and data (country population, income, products,languages, etc.) and stunning satellite photos is virtually a book in itself and worth the price of admission. And for all that one gets, the price is more than reasonable. This is more than a reference book--it's a good read. I highly recommend it.

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.

In choosing a world atlas for my family, I looked at all that were available: from Oxford, National Geographic, Rand McNally, Hammond, DK, and other publishers. This new edition of the Oxford Atlas of the World is clearly the gold standard. Just published, it is of course the most up-to-date atlas available. More importantly, it is accurate and detailed, exquisitely produced (a joy to look at) and very readable. Unlike other atlases, for example, the maps do not run into the gutters. The introductory section containing informational maps and data (country population, income, products, languages, etc.) and stunning satellite photos is virtually a book in itself and worth the price of admission. And for all that one gets, the price is more than reasonable. This is more than a reference book--it's a good read. I highly recommend it.

I just purchased Oxford's atlas and I'm amazed. It's half the price of comparable atlases and delivers everything my family needs. Clear, easy-to-read, and attractive. The city and satellite maps are also spectacular. Street names, major points of interest, train and subway stations, hospitals and police stations, you name it. I photocopied San Francisco for an upcoming trip. The reviewer who doesn't like the atlas is right--the colors are wonderful. But he's wrong about why they are there. It's not just eye candy. They allow for instant recognition of geographic features and altitude. I highly recommend buying this atlas. For the price there's nothing better.

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.

of the National Geographic Atlas. I teach geography and I use the Oxford Atlas. Unlike what another reviewer said, it's much more than pretty colors. Oxford's atlas is the most accurate and offers an unbiased viewpoint--not an Amerocentric one. It's also the easiest to read. I highly recommend it.

This wonderful atlas is a joy to read, re-read and keep as a family reference resource. The pages are very well laid out, the maps are easy to read, the colors are vivid. The amazingly vast amount of information about planet earth and space contained within its pages is extremely easy to locate. The glossary section is comprehensive and detailed. The 10th edition has upto date information as compared to most other atlases. Since so many borders have changed in the past ten years, I believe this book is an absolute MUST for anyone who has some interest in other parts of the world. I cannot think of a better use for the amount I paid to buy this book and I will recommend it whole-heartedly to students, teachers, writers etc. In comparison with other atlases like National Geographic, Hammond or DK, in my opinion, this book will give you the biggest bang for the buck!

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.

This rendition has a comprehensive coverage of the universe and
our 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 world
economic systems. The maps are easy to read and interpret.
The boldface print makes for ease of identification of even the
smallest 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.