Reviews: The Atlas of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Summary

This is an academic review of The Atlas of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963). Written from a historian's perspective, the review first acknowledges the atlas's outstanding achievements in cartographic technique and aesthetic presentation, but then identifies serious flaws in its function as a historical document. Core criticisms include: inconsistent base years across thematic maps (e.g., coal data from 1954 vs. oil from 1958), rendering temporal comparisons impossible; arbitrary content selection that omits crucial social topics such as unemployment, education, health, and religion; and failure to cite statistical sources, violating basic scholarly standards. The reviewer concludes that despite being a technical masterpiece, the atlas's editorial decisions lack rigorous academic criteria, substantially diminishing its value as a reference work.