Book reviews: Atlas of the Netherlands

Summary

This review assesses the first six installments of the Atlas van Nederland, a large-scale national atlas commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Education. By the end of 1969, 55 of more than 100 projected sheets had appeared. The atlas is distinguished by its principal scale of 1:600,000, high production quality, bilingual Dutch-English presentation, and broad organization into seventeen thematic sections. The reviewer examines its cartographic design, thematic structure, statistical methods, and capacity to represent regional differentiation. Notable strengths include the historical surveys of Dutch cartography, detailed soil maps, groundwater and water-management materials, monthly climate series, exemplary depictions of rural settlement forms and urban expansion, and maps of technical infrastructure. These sections combine informative thematic coverage with generally impressive graphic execution. However, the oversized and somewhat unwieldy format is inefficiently used, since the national territory occupies only a limited share of each sheet. More importantly, many demographic, social, and economic maps rely on municipality-based choropleths and relative statistical values. Because municipalities vary greatly in area, population, and settlement structure, this method visually emphasizes administrative territory rather than the population actually being analyzed and impedes comparison across themes. Some detailed maps are also weakened by an excessively simplified topographic base, while the explanatory texts—especially the abridged English versions—are insufficient for readers unfamiliar with specifically Dutch conditions. Overall, the atlas is judged an ambitious, culturally representative, and cartographically sophisticated national project whose strongest contributions lie in regionally differentiated physical, settlement, historical, and infrastructural mapping. A final assessment of agriculture, fisheries, industry, transport, trade, and spatial planning must await publication of the still largely incomplete sections.