Book reviews: Atlas of Switzerland

Pillewizer reviews the first eleven plates of the Atlas of Switzerland, edited by Eduard Imhof and produced by the Swiss Federal Topographical Survey. The planned atlas comprises 86 double-page plates and over 300 colour maps covering Switzerland’s natural conditions, history, population, economy, and social structure. The reviewer praises the clarity of relief shading and colour design, particularly paired, population-scaled semicircles comparing municipal employment structures in 1910 and 1960. He nevertheless identifies missing place names as an obstacle to locating municipalities and proposes a transparent name overlay. Further discussion addresses relief backgrounds and labelling in climatic and geophysical maps, the relationship between arable land and rainfall, and 1:50,000 specimen maps depicting the Aletsch Glacier and hydropower installations in the Hasli Valley. He notes that some glacier outlines derive from 1926–1929 surveys and commends marginal notes explicitly identifying their outdated coverage.