Howard A. Meyerhoff; Gerado Canet · 1950
This is a book review of "Atlas de Cuba," a bilingual atlas co-authored by Gerado Canet and Erwin Raisz, published by Harvard University Press in 1949. The review notes that the atlas vividly presents Cuba's geographic, social, and economic backgrounds through maps, diagrams, and pictographs, making it valuable for tourists, businessmen, and students seeking to understand Cuba. The author highly praises Raisz's cartographic skill and creativity, while also pointing out shortcomings such as the lack of basic geographic information on area, elevation, and hydrography. Overall, the review concludes that the atlas successfully achieves its goal of familiarizing readers with Cuba, its people, and its economy.
Henry Sterling · 1950
This is a review of the book "Atlas de Cuba" by Gerardo Canet, with the collaboration of Erwin Raisz, published by Harvard University Press in 1949. The review notes that the atlas, through varied use of colored maps, cartograms, graphs, and pictorial symbols, vividly portrays and evaluates the principal elements, patterns, and trends in Cuba's history, physical geography, production, demographic and social conditions, communications, and trade, making it a valuable aid for teaching and understanding Cuba's cultural geography. The atlas includes running Spanish textual comments accompanied by condensed English translations; however, without a reading knowledge of Spanish, users may find it laborious to translate descriptive captions, legends, and unfamiliar units of measurement. The review also points out minor drawbacks, such as occasional mismatches between legend colors and map colors, and incomplete legends. Overall, the atlas is deemed a reliable and competent work, carefully documented and based on the latest available statistics, and a welcome addition to the limited array of graphic aids for making Latin-American cultural and economic patterns more understandable to the layman.
N.P. · 1950
This review evaluates *Atlas de Cuba*, compiled by Gerardo Canet with Erwin Raisz and published by Harvard University Press in 1949. The volume is less a conventional atlas than an illustrated outline of Cuban history, climate, physical geography, biology, demography, and economy, presented through maps, cartograms, and diagrams. While visual representations of statistics can enhance public comprehension of facts and issues, the method is overused here, resulting in cluttered pages filled with sketches lacking in design and purpose. The technical quality of color printing falls below expectations, and poor registration in diagrams and scenic illustrations produces an unattractive, unfocused effect. The only genuinely valuable component of this highly priced atlas is the large folding map of Cuba at the end, which notably attempts to depict landscapes using techniques and colors that convey the region's overall character while avoiding the well-known deficiencies of conventional small-scale relief representation.
