New literature: Atlas of Israel

Summary

This review evaluates the expanded second English edition of the Atlas of Israel, a 71-sheet, approximately 290-page regional atlas incorporating the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip. Produced by leading scholars and government specialists, it combines historical cartography with maps and explanatory texts on physical geography, population, settlement, agriculture, industry, services, and social infrastructure. Particularly notable are its reproductions of early maps, detailed treatment of natural regions, and visualization of agricultural transformation, immigration, coastal concentration, urban expansion, and state-supported development in the south. Although conventionally organized, the atlas transcends a mere compilation of statistics: through abundant thematic and supplementary maps, it presents Israel’s development as a set of spatial and historical processes shaped by plains, highlands, and the Negev. The reviewer concludes that its excellent texts and cartography make it a comprehensive and analytically valuable regional study.