Customer Reviews

DK World Atlas: Second Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The second edition of the DK World Atlas has been devised from digital mapping entirely, and DK have done a very good job. For each area mapped, a pile of additional information about that area is given; thus, the maps and thematic sections are intertwined in this atlas, even though there is still a separate thematic section. The 202 plates give a well-balanced coverage of the world (in which Europe is not over treated for a change) with special attention to densely populated areas (up to a scale of 1:1 million). Maps are not squarely cut as usual, but are cropped according to some administrative boundary. The plates employ a very specific color scheme which is very pleasing to the eye. The relief shading, however, is at some places so dark that legibility severely suffers from it. Typefaces and font sizes have been chosen well. The maps are also very accurate, though not at all times highly detailed. The index size is 80,000 which is in general less than other atlases of this size. This is partly due to the fact that much more than just maps are offered in this atlas, which makes it an attractive choice to those who want a guide to the world, not just a collection of maps.

Dorling Kindersley have redefined what an atlas is, by shifting the emphasis from rather technical cartography (as other atlases have) - to providing a lively range of written explanations, annotated 3-D diagrams, colour photographs, and graphical semi-3D maps, for each region. Their rethinking of the priorities does bring smaller, less detailed maps - but the detail is still more than ample, provided you don't need to know where every last little hamlet and stream is. After buying this atlas, you'll never go back to the old-style ones: it's like upgrading from DOS to Windows.

My credentials: I set out on a quest to find a book like this, and I didn't know whether such a book existed. It was to have maps, photographs, and a detailed realistic write-up, for every country and region in the world. I spent several afternoons scouring the larger bookshops, picking up perhaps hundreds of atlases, maps and travel guides. Then I found this :) And I had lots of money left over.

Content: The entire book, I must say, is very nicely presented, with flowing page layouts and colour everywhere. It is divided into 3 main parts:
1. World overviews.
2. The continents & regional maps.
3. The index.

1. A series of world overviews, as found in most other atlases - the planets, politics, wars, etc. etc, but better. They are graphical and colourful, with many little diagrams & photos. Everything is explained neatly and in plain english.

2. The maps themselves are organised first by the continents, then by regions (a region is typically one country, or a group of countries); some regions are given extra treatment for the more populous areas.

The bias is noticeably western-centric, with more space devoted to Western Europe, the USA, Japan, etc: for example, Europe gets 46 pages, but Africa only gets 18! I would happily pay more money for a more complete & unbiased coverage, and this is my first main gripe (of 2) against this otherwise wonderful book.

* Each continent has a 6+ page introduction with maps & photographs covering: physical geography, climate, history, population, transport, language, industry, natural resources, etc (similar to the world overviews).

* Every regional page offers a mixture of maps, diagrams, photos and text, all in technicolour. Almost all regional pages contain:

- a written introduction, with a small map showing where you are in the world.

- the main map. These are colourful, dramatic, easier to understand than traditional flat-as-a-pancake maps, and come in irregular shapes according to the regional/country boundaries. Every map also has its own scale and key, so there is no need to rummage around for those. But the scales vary considerably and wierdly, like 1:7,750,000 on one page, and 1:7,000,000 on the next, and obviously the maps have been scaled to whatever fits nicely on the page, with no concern for standardising them. This makes it difficult to compare 2 different maps, or to develop a natural sensibility for reading them. (This is my 2nd gripe).

- about 6 mini-photographs of interesting landscapes or cultural features - with explanations.

- a small physical-geography map, showing the main mountain ranges, rivers, and areas to note (which are annotated with fascinating little descriptions, often with photographs).

- a small land-use map.

- a small map of transport routes and industry.

- sometimes another small diagram or two to explain things.

* It also contains statistics & flags for every country.

* My UK edition also includes a 24-page atlas-within-an-atlas (with its own index) for the british isles.

3. The index covers all of place-names & natural features found on the maps, and is also very nicely done, telling you the page, grid ref, country, & lat/long for each entry.

* Summary. Much thought and intelligence has gone into this book. It gets 5 stars for being *easily* the best atlas I could find on my little quest, despite my 2 gripes.

Even people who wouldn't normally bother buying an atlas, should consider buying this: it sits well near the television, for a quick glance whenever there is a global news story, or a documentary about some remote place.

It is interesting that Dorling Kindersley should be the people to make this leap forward, having always primarily made books for children, while the other publishers continue to slave away at their overly-detailed technical maps!

DK World Atlas won out in my review over Oxford and Hammond because of overall appearance and ease of use; color topography; entire country shown together and not split; beautiful and useful fold outs; and the number of actual maps. Compare Alaska in Oxford with a tiny inset to DK with a full page. Or compare Italy in Hammond on multi-pages to DK where it is shown all together on two page spread. Also, I like the side bar information right on the page with the map. Only one negative and that is the print in the index is rather small and harder to read. Still a best buy at lowest price of the three.

In the spirit of Dorling Kindersley, this new edition of the World Atlas is a masterpiece of presentation. Colorful illustrations and miscellaneous information abound. It has none of the stuffy professional feel to it, but is bright with plenty of white space. The little info tidbits are also interesting for trivia buffs like myself.

This is an excellent volume for a family library, as kids and adults alike will find much to like about it.

I bought this atlas for my third grade son. Unlike atlases for adults, which are mostly pages of maps with a summary for each section, there is something to read about each region on every page. The maps have callouts to little tidbits on each area. He can learn something about any area he opens the page to. Highly recommended for independent readers from third or fourth grade on.

This book makes you want to know more about the world, by showing detailed maps as well as pictures and short essays that descibe the regions. The stuff on Russia is really good beacuse I didn't know much about the geography of the country. It makes me want to go travelling round the world (although the atlas is probably a little too big to take with me). Great book.

Yes, this is one heavy book, but it is most beautiful World Atlas I have yet to see. It portrays the earth in sumptuous detail and with such accuracy it is astounding.

If one could ever be speechless about a book, this might be the one. The word: WOW comes to mind the minute you open this book. It is highly detailed and has more than 750 photographs, 150 diagrams and more than 80,000 geographical place names.

Forget going to the library...just buy this book! You will find it to be extremely useful for researching countries. There is a section that shows all the countries of the world with their current statistics. You can look up the Official name, Formation date, Capital, Population, Total square miles/km, Languages, Religions, Ethnic mix, Government, Currency, Literacy rate and Calorie consumption (3,732 kilocalories in the United States as compared to 3,497 in Austria).

The glossary helps to explain terms like Sea-floor spreading or Tombolo. The inside back cover has all the world's flags. The inside front cover has a key to map pages picture which is such a great feature.

Lavish? You bet! I feel completely spoiled owning this HUGE ATLAS. The INDEX is extensive and the largest one I have ever seen in my life. We are talking page 218-353.

If you love studying the world or have a relative who loves to spend time just dreaming about traveling the world, this makes a wonderful gift. The only thing better than this Atlas would be watching a video or actually traveling.

Great Study Aid.

~The Rebecca Review

As others have already written very complete reviews of this fine atlas, I just had a brief comment or two. Like DK's other books, this atlas is notable for DK's facility for innovative and attractive graphical design. One thing they do that nobody else does is to angle the maps at different orientations, which sometimes looks odd, as they stretch across the two-page spreads of the book, so that the many illustrations and paragraphs of text will fit. This makes it possible to cram a lot more material on a given page and makes the DK atlas the busiest and densest looking of all the big atlases out there, which can sometimes get a little distracting. But it also allows them to impart a lot of information and include many other graphics that might not otherwise fit. I didn't mind this really and give them credit for being creative here.

I also compared this book with the even bigger and truly gargantuan DK Millenium Atlas, but which is more than twice the price. The main difference seemed to be the latter book's inclusion of cloud-free satellite photos along with the traditional geographical maps of each region, making it possible to correlate real photos of the earth with the more standard maps, an interesting feature and contribution, but as I said, it's more than twice the price of the present volume. Both are superb atlases, however, and whichever one you pick, they are great books for teaching, learning, or just to browse through for the fun of it.

Good, thorough information but due to size constraints the map plates were crammed and cluttered. Difficult to extract data from maps. Edutainment style Software readily displaces this book with easy to use, point and click technology. Bulky, hard to use, disappointing graphics. Ho-hum.

I was looking for the New York Times large atlas and it continues to be out of print. But I love the DK eyewitness guides to Paris and London so I thought I'd find the same high standards here, but not so. Even if you look up something so mainstream as New York State you only get a 9 state regional map with so little detail as to be virtually useless. It was as expensive as a big atlas and I expected more for the money.