Book Reviews: Atlas of the Danubian Countries

Summary

Wolf Tietze reviews the 1981 sixth instalment of Josef Breu's Atlas of the Danubian Countries, which adds five map topics to the 25 previously issued. Fritz Neuwirth's climate maps use Thornthwaite's classification and 1931–1960 temperature data; data shortages helped determine the choice of classification, while Tietze praises the cartography and colour printing. Miroslav Macka's commuter map draws on heterogeneous 1960/61 statistics and is restricted to Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary by the lack of uniform data, with smaller centres omitted because of scale. Tietze considers its regional structure still valid. Breu's predominant land-use map covers the entire mapped area, distinguishes six major categories and supplies national tables and diagrams; Tietze praises its detail while stressing the generalization required by scale and the geographical knowledge needed for interpretation. Breu and Florian Parti's crop maps locate eight crops with symbols representing 1,000 hectares and chart national production and yields for 1950–1978. Karl Hawranek's tourism map includes accommodation capacity and comparative statistics for 1950–1979. Tietze discusses investment and political constraints on tourism and criticizes bed counts as an inadequate measure of business travel's importance. He concludes that the instalment handles a particularly difficult source base with impressive skill.