The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World

Summary

Paul Knox reviews the 2014 fourteenth edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, praising its cartographic quality, hypsometric tinting, and 17 illustrated introductory essays, particularly the new discussion of critical cartography in “The Power of Maps.” The edition largely retains its predecessor’s map sequence and scales, enlarges the Arctic Ocean map, adds subglacial polar topography, and updates place names, boundaries, administrative divisions, and protected areas. Knox identifies reduced legibility of small toponyms near strongly coloured waterways and a numbering error in the map key. Recalling the thirteenth edition’s erroneous depiction of Greenland’s ice cover and subsequent correction, he welcomes closer collaboration with scientists as a move toward greater openness. He also defends the large printed atlas’s tactile qualities and capacity to encourage geographical exploration.