Customer Reviews

The World Encyclopedia of Flags

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had great expectations for this book, but opening it the first time I was let down by the overwhelming historical and heraldic content. I had to go 3/4's of the way back in the book to find the modern flags of the world. When I did find that portion of the book, not only wasn't it alphabetized, the descriptions and narratives about the flags were skimpy. I was expecting an alphabetized listing, showing ALL states, nations, territories, islands, dependencies, etc. with the coat-of-arms, date the flag was adopted, explanation of the colors/symbols on the flag,flag proportions, a current synopsis of the country's population, capital city, language, religion, land area included in the description, but only the name of the country, date of adoption and proportions were provided. It is a beautiful book, with great color illustrations, although there were several obvious errors, such as the flag of Taiwan, and Palestine (which pictured the flag of Spain) among others. My main gripe is that the book deals far too much with history and heraldry, and not enough on current flags.

I originally bought the first edition and reviewed that version. I've since bought the current edition (only because I was able to do so cheaply) and there aren't a lot of changes, the most noticeable being the different cover artwork, but the few changes inside the book are significant. For example, the incorrect pictures shown for Taiwan and Palestine in the first edition have now been corrected while new flags are shown, including those for Afghanistan (actually a revival of an earlier flag) and Tristan Da Cunha (not represented in the first edition). Other than those and other similar changes, the remainder of my review (listed on Amazon on all editions) applies equally to all editions.

To begin with, this is not the book to buy if all you want is a guide to the current flags of each country around the world. You will find those flags here (accurate for when the particular edition was published, except for the mistakes in the earlier edition) but this book contains much more besides. There are many other guides to current flags that are both cheaper and more up to date. One thing you learn about flags is that a new national flag will replace an old one somewhere in the world at reasonably regular intervals because of political changes. After all, flags are the ultimate political symbol. The 1990's saw many changes. The break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia meant lots of new national flags, but South Africa and many other countries also changed their flags.

Besides the flags of all nations, you can learn much from this book about the origin and history of flags and about many other flags in current use - regional, local, state and provincial flags, as well as maritime flags, protest flags (like the Basque separatist flag), organizational flags (like the Red Cross) and commercial flags.

Of course, even in a book this size, it is not possible to cover everything comprehensively, but the author manages to make the development of flags seem interesting, explaining how various basic designs evolved and were copied by other countries.

I have seen the development of the stars and stripes explained and illustrated in greater depth than it is here, but the description here is a good starting point for anybody not familiar with it.

For anybody wanting to explore the history of flags, this is the best book available. Even if you buy this, you may still occasionally want to buy a book devoted to current flags to keep up to date with all the changes. That will normally be cheaper than buying an updated edition of this book - I just happened to get lucky.

There has not been a comprehensive reference book about flags since Dr. Whitney Smith's "Flags Through the Ages and Across the World" was published in 1975. There have been a number of "observer" type books but now we have a scholarly work that goes beyond colorful images. Not that the images are neglected as this work supplies them in great quantity as well as quality, but there is also a well written text to accompany them. As another reviewer noted there are a number of pictorial errors (another is the Royal Banner of Scotland being substituted for that of the Dutch province of South Holland). However, these should not deter any potential purchaser to pass this book by as they would be missing a real treat. As someone who has been buying flag books and charts for more than thirty-five years (and who now goes to various on-line flag sites) I can readily say that this is the book that flag-lovers have been waiting for. If you are interested in learning about flags beyond the usual national flags that you can get in the "World Almanac" or any decent encyclopedia, this book will suppy you with a cornucopia of historical, regional and special purpose flags that should be a source of endless fascination.

With all the upheaval in the world over the last ten years, a new flag book was badly needed. And this is as good as any I've seen in some time. It's up-to-date, its coverage seems comprehensive, and its illustrations are spectacular.

I did run across three rather glaring errors in the edition I own. The national flag designated as the flag of Taiwan is actually the flag of Taiwan's founding political party, the Kuomintang. Palestine seems to have the civil ensign of Spain. And the flag of Schleswig- Holstein is pictured but not identified.

But if these and any other errors are corrected, this book will be as vital a flag reference as there is.

My name is Derkwillem Visser Jr. editor of Vlaggen-Info, a Dutch/English magazine for people interested in flags, heraldry and history. This flagbook is absolutly beautiful done and I admire the work the autor did. However, there are made many mistakes, unfortunatly. But altough the mistakes, I strongly advise people who are interested in flags and history to get this book, you will not regret it and I'am glad Amazon.com is having it in store.

Alfred Znamierowski compiled this exhaustive work on flags, the meanings behind the colors, flag families, parts of flags, and flags of countries, states, organization, of revolution and politics. There are even some old heraldry flags from medieval times included.

Some countries have flags of their states included, such as Australia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia's autonomous republics (Dagestan, Chechnya), and oh yes, the U.S. From looking at our states, it's disheartening to see how many states still have the Confederate flag or red saltire on them (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi).
The best thing about this book is how the colours and symbol of each country/province/state/canton's flag is explained. For example, Ireland has a tricolore of green, white, and orange vertical stripes. The green represents the Catholics, the orange the Protestants (as in William of Orange), and the white is for peace between both groups. Let's look at another tricolore, Guinea's red-yellow-green. The red is the blood/sacrifice of the people, the yellow is the gold of Guinea and the sun, and the green represents vegetation and agriculture. Isn't this useful?

And most flag proportions are 2:3, but others are 1:2 (Latvia, Libya, Nigeria). And some are irregular. Belgium's flag is 13:15, Switzerland and its cantons are 1:1, Mexico is 4:7, and our own, 10:19.

What about flag families? Then there are colours associated with certain movements. For example, green, yellow, and red are the Pan-African colours. Black, green, red, and white are the Pan-Arab colours. They represent the colour of the dynasties of the Islamic Empire (black for Abbasids, green for Fatimids, white for Umayyads, and red for Hashemites). Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria have flags with those colours. And with the breakup of Yugoslavia, all but Bosnia and Macedonia have the blue, white, and red Pan-Slav colours.

The French tricolore has influenced many other countries' flags with its three vertical stripes. Romania, Italy, Belgium, Guinea, and Cote D'Ivoire. And it's no coincidence that all the Scandinavian countries have identical flags--they're based on the Scandinavian cross.

Symbols are also explained. The Muslim crescent and star, a main symbol of Islam and mentioned in the 53rd surah of the Quran, is adopted by Turkey, Algeria, and Pakistan, for example. And writing. The writing on the Iraqi flag reads "God Is Great," which ironically is what is written 22 times in Sufic script along the Iranian flag. ...

Parts of flags: this is an interesting one. Much of this is technical terms. The hoist is the first (left) vertical half, the fly is the right vertical half. Then there are charges (figures) For example, that upper rectangle of our flag is a canton. A saltire, i.e. the cross part in the British flag, is what is used to divide the flag into four parts. And the trapezium, a sideways trapezoid on the left part of a flag, is what Kuwait has.

There are also flags of international organizations, such as the UN, Red Cross, or League of Arab States. Regional flags, flags of revoltution (Sandinistas, Viet Cong, FRELIMO) flags of ethnic people without nation-states (Kurds, Shans, Sorbs), and political flags are also included. Example: white is a monarchist flag, black is for anarchists, red is for socialists. And the Nazi flag spawned so many imitations, such as the Arrow Cross, Afrikaner Resistant Movement, and Fronte della Gioventu--all are red with a white circle and black symbol.

This was updated in 2002, before East Timor gained independence, so much of this is up-to-date. Who knows, those inspired to create your own personal flag may take notes from this valuable reference work.

It isn't just that he gives all the flags of the world's contemporary countries as UN members, but he lists and depicts the 8 or 9 secessionists who are dba as independent countries, recognition or not, UN membership or not. If you know flag books, this is uncommon. We're also used to US state flags and just to show we're more international now we'll tolerate Canadian Provincial flags and the territories which make up the UK. But the states of not only Germany and Switz., not only all the new colorful and imaginative flags of Republics of the Russian Federation, but get this! Appearing for the first time north of the equator, the flags of the states of Brazil! Plus ALL of the UK's colonial flags (including BR. Antarctic Terr. with the Union Jack, a singular white field, and a penguin scrolly badge the Brits are so very fond of!). We're also treated to a plethora of very accurate renditions of historical flags of the world, including some of the Republics spawned by the French Revolution, an 1861 State of Louisiana which is incorrectly labeled (about 5 such entries are the only marring of an otherwise highly accurate and very informative book) but which when I saw it for the first time, I said, "no way--couldn't be" but it too is accurate. Plus 2 Confederate flags I had never before seen depicted. A landmark of publications on the subject, it will be the standard to adhere to or the volume to best for at least the next 20 years.

This book is a great guide for flags. It is non-ponerous, but still very informative. An excellent balance between consice information and quick referencing. It makes it rather fun to read.

I have this Hardcover version book,2003 Hermes Publishing,my Book has American Flag in the Middle and then other flags..(Just like in the pic) Good book, Lots of countries and flags.Highly recommended.

When I ordered my copy of The World Encyclopedia of Flags from Amazon, in April 2002, I was expecting to get the non-revised first printing, so I was nicely surprised to see that the current printing being sent to Amazon customers is a revised one, with the mistakes mentioned by some of the reviews below corrected. Some quibbles can still be raised (such as Hitler's personal flag being shown upside-down, something that can only be noticed through the oak leaves circular pattern that should run from bottom to top, and not the opposite way around), but the same can be said for every flag book in print. The subject itself is full of traps and difficulties and most of these can be found in: 1) the blurred, often confusing, border between legendary flag origins / meanings and the historical facts behind them, and 2) the problem of adequately distinguishing different colour shades in print, a very important point in flag books with no counterpart in heraldic works, since the heraldic spectrum is limited and much more open to free artistic interpretation. Although not perfect, this book is reasonably good on both accounts (well, the green in my own Portuguese flag should be dark -- as defined in the law of the country -- and not medium as portrayed, or still less the sort of light lettuce-green that can frequently be seen in old flags that have outlived their symbolic accuracy by being over-exposed to the sun). All in all, this is a very good book presenting many interesting features and examples for both the serious vexillologist interested in old flags and flag history & lore and the amateur reader interested mainly in an encyclopedic compilation of contemporary flags. And the Amazon price that will apparently send a fully revised version your way -- similar to the one I got -- is a bargain!