Customer Reviews

National Geographic Atlas of the World

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In December 2004, National Geographic (NG) updated the Persian Gulf plate (Plate 75) to accomodate the controversies surrounding the place-names used in the 8th edition.

Here is my understanding of the changes made:

1. The term "Arabian Gulf" in parenthesis has been deleted. Instead, there is a small note that reads: "Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is also referred by some as the Arabian Gulf."

2. Persian names of all Iranian islands are used. (Kish instead of Qeys, Lavan alone instead of adding Sheykh Sha'eyb in parenthesis)

3. Deletion of "Occupied by Iran (Claimed by U.A.E.)" in reference to the islands Abu Musa, and Greater and Lesser Tunbs.

These changes already appear on the website (www.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine) and will apply to further printings or editions of the NG Atlas. Also, on the password-protected website for NG Atlas owners, there is a "brief summary of the historical origin of the term Persian Gulf". There is also a note on the place-naming policy of NG. (The online update feature is great - you can download and/or print updated plates and put them in your atlas. This not new for NG Atlases, except that they used to send updates by mail.)

Overall, I am impressed with NG's response to this situation. I am also very impressed with the quality of the atlas and its contents, except for the outermost/superficial binding paper. I have had the atlas for about 6 months, and with moderate use, the paper around the bottom of the spine has frayed. The binding itself is intact, though.

The National Geographic Society (NGS) Atlas of the World is an "evolutionary" rather than a "revolutionary" publication. Besides updated boundaries, etc., compared to prior editions it makes much better use of shading to indicate topography and has more detailed city maps. I buy an atlas primarily for the maps, and it's the maps that make the NGS Atlas superior to all others.

The traditional NGS "look" sometimes seems dated compared to the flashier colors and trendy graphics employed by some other publishers. However, the more I study the maps, the more information I find in them. A few years ago I did a comparison of this NGS with the most recent edition of the much more expensive Times Atlas of the World for a professional geographer's meeting. I was amazed to find that many of the NGS maps of North America had more than twice as many place names and named physical features as the Times Atlas. I also found the NGS Atlas maps equal or superior to the Times' maps for parts of the Middle East and northeast Asia with which I'm familiar (frankly, I found the 10th Edition Times Atlas inferior to the prior edition in several regards; for example, the elevation colors are far less discernable and detailed city maps have been virtually eliminated). Despite contrary opinions by some other reviewers, I judge the National Geographic Atlas maps to be far and away superior in content and sheer volume of information presented to all the other "high end" atlases published by Oxford, Hammond and DK. In fact, I couldn't justify recommending any of the other atlases (except possibly the Times, which, I admit, does offer fantastic detail for village names in the rural plains of India where I hope to never visit) to a library.

The National Geographic Society Atlas of the World is a great investment for travel planning, tracking current events, studying geography and history or just reading maps for pleasure. I recommend it highly.

The 8th edition is not as well organized as the 7th. In the previous edition, information about countries and states were in their respective continent section. The 8th edition has grouped them all together at the end of the atlas in alphabetical order. Someone at National Geographic has determined that the new edition no longer needed separate maps for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, just an overall map of Britain and Ireland, which was also in the previous edition. What happened to all of the city maps, temperature data and and major cities of the world? Finally 8th edition has a cover that is inferior to the other 7 editions, paper vs cloth. I think I will keep my 7th edition.

I've had the new atlas for 60 days and find myself looking something up every 2-3 days. It's really been fun looking up remote places like Palmyra Atoll, Kerguelen Island, the Fly River and other obscure places I read about.

And now I've found an interesting use for the password protected online atlas as well. The online Atlas gives you high-resolution access to all the Atlas map plates. You can print, copy or email maps or portions of maps. I expect the online Atlas to come in handy for school projects.

If you've read through the reviews you'll know the Iranians are upset about the "renaming" of the Persian Gulf. OK, since I'm at work, I'll log in to the password protected Atlas website, pull up Plate 75 and take a look. The Persian Gulf is labeled "Persian Gulf" but underneath it in parentheses is the label "Arabian Gulf". Apparently "Arabian Gulf", even in parentheses, is an affront to Iranian pride.

I want to be fair on this so I decided to check out some other atlases at my local bookstore to see how they handle the Gulf label. Most of the atlases use the term Persian Gulf by itself, but several prominent, highly-rated Atlases use the label "The Gulf" with no Persian or Arabian modifier, so there is legitimate debate in the cartographic world about how to refer to this body of water. For nationalistic reasons the Iranians want it only to be called the Persian Gulf, but I suspect the other countries bordering the Gulf would disagree. Most people will continue to call it the Persian Gulf, and the NGS Atlas appropriately uses that name as the primary label.

However, Iran does not own the Persian Gulf, and if a different name is now used by millions of people, then you have to admire the NGS for including both labels and not bowing to pressure from any political group, unlike the Atlases that meekly call it "The Gulf". I sympathize with the Iranian's anger over what they perceive to be psychological warfare by the Arabs, but I would still prefer to know if an alternate name is in use locally, and that is what the NGS atlas provides. Geographic names evolve, and the NGS continues its strong history of providing up-to-date cartography.

The new NGS World Atlas is among the top two or three World Atlases available, and the discounted price from Amazon makes it a relative bargain, especially when you consider you also get an online Atlas that mirrors the printed edition.

I for one feel the maps in the NGS World Atlas are as accurate and beautiful as you will find anywhere and now they're available online as well. This is a great family resource.

I also own what may be considered the definitive world atlas - that of The Times. The Times atlas has shaded colors for elevations and greater general detail than that of the National Geographic Atlas.

Still, for me, I find myself picking up the National Geographic Atlas way more often. Why? Simply put, it's just the most enjoyable to look at and easiest and most fun to use. I like it better.

A great work.

With a limited number of printings and a three-digit price, you expect great things from National Geographic's Altas of the World. And, for the most part, the book delivers. In lieu of a long review, I though I'd just come up with some pros and cons to explain why I gave the book the rating I did.

Pros: amazing quality of pictures/maps, city maps, intresting nation and political information, wealth of information, built-in bookmark.

Cons: not 400 pages like amazon claims (137 pages sans index), index is almost as long as rest of book, will not fit in any bookcase you own, poor binding for such an expensive book, hard to fit back in cover.

The last atlas I owned was a child's atlas from 1987. I bought the National Geographic version because I took it to be the diffinitive atlas. And it is. I'm happy with the 8th edition and I'm sure it will be a usefull reference for years to come. But given how few pages it is and how much money it cost, I'm not sure I would buy the 9th edition.

I have always enjoyed maps, atlases and geography, above and beyond the little I got in school. The National Geographic Atlas was the successor to my dated (and beat-up) 1985 copy of the Hammond Citation Atlas, which I spent long hours looking over in the days when there was still a Soviet Union. I am glad to have something so current that it even shows the splitting of the Canadian NWT to create the new territory of Nunavut in 1999. The satellite imagery is certainly a good summary of overall surface detail, something that no "physical" map will provide, but most of what there is to read is in the selection of principally political maps. National Geographic has taken the approach of presenting "chunks" of landmass roughly chosen to include certain countries, states or regions, and one often finds a given division shown on numerous maps at numerous scales--European countries, for example, might appear in their own maps, in maps of Europe, and at the edge of a map of Asia. In this regard, the cartographers do well to keep all the details at the peripheral areas that are shown for the ones the map is "supposed to" depict. This serves to create a continuity that draws one's attention from place to place, which is how the one earth really exists, after all. Most notably missing from this Atlas is topographic indications, though the shading of relief and numerous elevations allow a person to perceive the general lay of the land. Being American, I naturally have a bit of trouble with the use of metric measurements for altitudes and soundings, but after reading off enough peaks I was already familiar with, I formed a usable enough reference frame in my mind. One feature of the Hammond Citation that is missing from this otherwise more extensive atlas is the coupling of thematic and political maps. I had grown accustomed to having land use and mineral information in the context of the more detailed maps. The National Geographic Seventh Edition presents all of the thematic maps for the entire world in the opening section, making a person flip back and forth. Another difficulty I'm still adjusting to is the sheer size of this book. I find myself needing to stretch a fair distance beyond my typical range to get from a position at the bottom of the page to detail at the top. All in all, however, this Atlas contains a wealth of well-thought-out and consistently presented data on the entire earth. It is sure to be something I'll use for quite some time, as I continue to feed my appetite for facts, big and small, about our terrestrial home.

National Geographic retains its reputation as one of the finest mapmakers of the world with the seventh edition of their atlas of the world. The maps look the same as the sixth edition, but a fully updated section of urban area maps has been included. Again, color usage is very sparse, but the relief shading has improved. What really makes this atlas more valuable than its predecessor is the thematic part. A large number of topics are elaborately treated. With the 140,000+ index, this atlas remains in the top 5 of best atlases ever produced.

I found the quality, accuracy, and ease of this atlas underwhelming for the price. It's the most expensive atlas out there, but has nothing on Hammond, Oxford, or Goode's--all of which are half the price. Don't be fooled by the big marketing campaign. NG might be powerful, but it doesn't make the best atlases.

All the family look at this often. The kids like all the country facts. If you want an atlas that is affordable with lots of detail, this is a good choice. Looks very nice in it's box on our coffee table.