Atlas of the World

When Oxford's Atlas of the World appeared last year, it was widely praised for the incredible beauty and accuracy of its maps and for its wealth of geographical information. Booklist hailed it as "one of the most current atlases available today" and singled out its "well-designed format and superior use of map colors." And John Noble Wilford, writing in The New York Times Book Review, called it a veritable encyclopedia of geographic information, underscoring its "greater variety of maps and the inclusion of so much noncartographic information" and adding that "those old staples of geography textbooks--fossil fuel reserves, steel production, literacy standings--never looked more inviting of further study."
But world politics has been especially volatile in recent years, producing numerous changes to the face of the globe. To bring our Atlas of the World completely up to date, Oxford now announces a new Second Edition, with dozens of significant alterations to the maps of Europe, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. For instance, the Atlas now shows the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia; it redraws the boundary between Saudia Arabia and Iraq; and it displays new administrative divisions in Nigeria. The new maps also reveal extensive updating of finer details such as the latest Trans-Amazonian highways, a new reservoir south of Bamako, Mali, and the Guri Reservoir in Venezuela. And the index has been completely revised to reflect all these changes.
Of course, the basic qualities of the Atlas--the exquisite mapmaking and the wealth of supplemental information--are as superb as ever. As in the original edition, readers will find hundreds of outstanding, full-color maps produced by Europe's finest cartographers, George Philip Ltd. The heart of the book is the 160-page section of large-scale world maps, providing detailed political and topographical information about every nation on Earth, enhanced by relief shading and layer-colored contours. There are also 66 city maps charting the key urban centers of each continent. The 75,000-entry index offers easy, convenient access to specific locations, with full geographical coordinates and a convenient number-letter access system. And the stunning 48-page Introduction to World Geography section--beautifully illustrated with lavish color maps, graphs, and diagrams--offers a systematic look at world geography, covering topics such as climate, the greenhouse effect, plate tectonics, agriculture, health, population and migration, international organizations, global conflicts, and much more.
Exquisitely designed, thoroughly updated, and packed with informative articles, graphs, and charts, Oxford's Atlas of the World offers the finest global coverage available. It is the benchmark by which all other international map references will be measured.