Atlases for Several Purposes: Review

Summary

This review examines seven atlases published in the late 1950s, using them to demonstrate the growing recognition that historical, religious, economic, and regional information can often be communicated most effectively through maps. The works are compared in terms of thematic scope, cartographic design, organization of evidence, scholarly usefulness, and limitations. Toynbee and Myers’s Historical Atlas and Gazetteer supplements A Study of History with maps and extensive indexes focused on the rise, expansion, and interaction of civilizations and religions. It is especially valuable as a location atlas, although its predominantly monochrome maps can be crowded. The Atlas of the Classical World and the Atlas of the Early Christian World combine lucid colour maps with photographs, illustrations, plans, and explanatory texts, vividly reconstructing Greco-Roman life and the spread and cultural expression of early Christianity. The revised Oxford Economic Atlas of the World assembles accessible comparative data on commodities, production, trade, soils, and climate. Atlas Östliches Mitteleuropa offers elaborate physical, historical, and economic mapping of East Central Europe, but its treatment of boundaries, place-names, settlements, and population movements reflects a pronounced German perspective. The Atlas de la France de l’Est emphasizes demography and social life in Alsace-Lorraine, illustrating the strength of regional consciousness and carefully noting methodological limits. Horrabin’s compact Atlas of Africa provides a stimulating overview of the continent’s history, politics, and economics despite notable omissions. Collectively, the atlases reveal the explanatory power of thematic and regional cartography while also showing how selection, scale, design, and political standpoint shape mapped knowledge.