Reviews: National atlas of Hungary

Summary

This review evaluates the 1967 National Atlas of Hungary, edited by Sándor Radó, as an authoritative cartographic synthesis that overcomes linguistic barriers and reflects Hungary’s profound territorial, demographic, and economic transformations. It praises the atlas’s printing, thematic breadth, and analytical presentation of geology, climate, hydrology, population, settlement, economy, and transport. Particularly valuable are its depictions of Hungary’s southwest–northeast structural lineament, flood hazards, groundwater, regional divisions, Tanya settlements, and recent economic statistics. Nevertheless, the reviewer identifies methodological flaws in the language maps, insufficient documentation of settlement examples, excessive complexity in some economic maps, and the omission of non-Hungarian place names and historical processes shaping the cultural landscape. The review concludes that national atlases reveal the relationship between scholarship and state policy, and recommends that the International Geographical Union establish continuing publications to update atlas data and encourage geographical representation beyond political borders.