A French National Atlas

This review examines the first four instalments, comprising sixteen sheets, of the Atlas de France, issued in 1933–1934 by the Comité National de Géographie. Planned as an eighty-sheet national atlas to be completed within five years, the project seeks to synthesize cartographically the physical, biological, economic, human, and political geography of France. The article assesses its standardized layouts and comparable scales, focusing on maps of relief, climate, mineral resources, manufacturing, telecommunications, and population. The four relief sheets are especially praised for their judicious selection of contours, altitude tints, and place names, which produces a balanced representation of the relationships among lowlands, uplands, and mountain systems and establishes a valuable generalized map for research. Temperature and phenological maps, production maps employing graduated symbols and colors, and detailed representations of communication networks likewise demonstrate the atlas’s informational strength. Particular attention is given to the 1931 population-density map, constructed from data for roughly 38,000 communes. Although the fine statistical units reveal urban and industrial concentrations with exceptional detail, abrupt color changes between administrative areas create a visually restless mosaic. The review therefore compares the cartogram approach with isopleth, natural-region, and dasymetric methods previously used in France, Romania, Russia, and Britain. It concludes that neither administrative-unit shading nor isopleths fully captures the complex spatial distribution of population, leaving cartographic technique open to productive professional debate. Overall, the atlas is judged a first-rank scholarly and planning resource, and its achievement underscores the need for a comparable national atlas of the United States.