Book reviews: Geographic atlas of the Socialist Republic of Romania

Summary

This review evaluates the 1965 Geographical Atlas of the Socialist Republic of Romania in terms of thematic scope, cartographic design, and scholarly value. The atlas covers geology, geomorphology, climate, hydrography, soils, population, industry, agriculture, transport, tourism, and administrative organization, while recurring map scales facilitate comparison. Its physical-geographical sections are particularly substantial, and several double-page maps—notably those of relief, geology, river density, industry, vegetation, and agriculture—are graphically effective. Nevertheless, the population section remains incomplete, industrial diagrams lack absolute-value scales, color sequences are inconsistent, and identical features such as forests are generalized differently across maps. The monochrome illustrations are also poorly reproduced and insufficiently representative. Despite these technical and editorial weaknesses, the atlas constitutes the first detailed and comprehensive cartographic account of contemporary Romania and is therefore a valuable reference for regional scholarship.