Featured Reference Books
November 2005

selections and annotations by Barbara Miller

Featured Reference Atlases:

Reference            E77 .W195 2000
Waldman, Carl, and Braun, Molly, illustrator. Atlas of the North American Indian. Rev. ed. New York: Facts
On File, c2000.

An example of a historical atlas, this atlas provides geographic distributions of cultural groups from prehistoric times to the present including routes of migration, trade, life ways, language distribution, and material culture, European incursion and subsequent wars, depopulation, and resettlement, as well as contemporary tribal nations in the United States and Canada.  Includes a chronology of events.

Reference             E184.O6 A89 2002
Avakian, Monique. Atlas of Asian-American History. New York: Facts on File, 2002.

Contents include: The Asian heritage: a short history of a continent -- Gam Saan: the Chinese in 19th-century America -- Closing the door: Asian immigration from Chinese exclusion -- A question of citizenship: Asian-American history from 1910 to 1946 -- From Red Scare to Yellow Power: Asian-American history from 1946 to 1972 -- A new wave of Americans -- Asian America today.  Similar atlases were published for African American
History and Hispanic American History.

Ref Atlases          F867 .A445 2002
Allen, James Paul, and Turner, Eugene. Changing Faces, Changing Places: Mapping Southern Californians.
Northridge, CA: Center for Geographical Studies, California State University, c2002.

Allen and Turner update their atlas: Ethnic Quilt -- see next entry -- with data from the 2000 Census for the first time providing documentation for the rapid ethnic transformation of Southern California neighborhoods between 1990 and 2000.

Reference            F867 .A45 1997 
Allen, James Paul, and Turner, Eugene. The Ethnic Quilt: Population Diversity in Southern California. Northridge,
CA: The Center for Geographical Studies, California State University, Northridge, c1997.

Using variables such as ethnicity, household income, and immigration data from the 1990 census, the authors map Southern California’s basic urban spatial pattern measuring ethnic enclaves, residential and employment patterns, and interracial marriage rates.

Ref Desk             F867 .A85 v. 1- 4
University of Southern California. Southern California Studies Center. Atlas of Southern California. Edited by
Michael J. Dear, 1996- , and Heidi Sommer, Heidi, 1998- . [Los Angeles, Calif.]: Southern California Studies
Center, University of Southern California, [1996]-

Another example statistical data can be viewed geographically. There are four volumes so far in this series from the Southern California Studies Center at USC. Vols. 1and 2 have no special title, v. 3 is Health atlas of Southern California , and v. 4. Sprawl hits the wall: confronting the realities of metropolitan Los Angeles [displayed]

Ref Atlases            G1000 .G68 2001
Greeley, Ronald, and Batson, Raymond. The compact NASA atlas of the solar system. Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge University Press, 2001.

While cartographers are busy mapping the earth, astronomers are mapping the sky.  The maps in this atlas were created by the Astrogeology branch of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Ref Atlases           G1046.E1 O9 2004
Onians, John, ed. Atlas of World Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Mapping the totality of human artist expression over time and space is the ambitious goal of this atlas and brings together the work of archeologists, anthropologists, art historians, and scholars of particular media or of particular regions as well as the indigenous practitioners. As stated in the introduction (p.10), “With its combination of great breath and constant clarity of focus, the Atlas allows exceptional insights both into what unites all art and into what makes it so varied.”

Ref Atlases           G1046.E57 W67 2004
Cliff, Andrew David, Haggett, Peter, and Smallman-Raynor, Matthew. World Atlas of Epidemic diseases. London:
Arnold, 2004.

Are you ready to be scared out of your wits? Just browse through the pages of this atlas to get an idea of diseases spread.  The atlas contains both the history and current status of major diseases including major outbreaks of infectious diseases such as measles, tuberculosis, influenza, malaria, and AIDS.

Reference            G1046.E622 M2 2000
Mackay, Judith. The Penguin atlas of human sexual behavior. New York: Penguin Reference, c2000.

This clever atlas puts a global perspective on sexuality and sexual practices.  Just compiling the data was a monumental task as just a handful of countries gather this kind of data en any systematic fashion. Chapters cover sexuality, mating, reproduction, sexual health, the business of sex, sexual rites, sex crimes, and the future of sex.

Reference            G1046.Q1 G3 2003
Gabel, Medard, and Bruner, Henry. Global Inc.: An Atlas of the Multinational Corporation. New York: New Press,
2003.

Examine the global reach of the world’s multinational companies; follow the historical development of world-wide trade and industry from the opening of trade routes and the founding of economic colonialism to today’s multinationals.  Did you know that of the 100 largest economies in the world, 53 are corporations?

Reference            G1046.R1 S65 2003
Smith, Dan, and Brin, Ane. The Penguin Atlas of War and Peace. 4th ed. New York: Penguin, 2003.

The fourth edition of this ongoing atlas series covers the late 1990s, devoting five chapters to the major regions of global conflict. Other chapters cover military service, spending, the arms trade, terrorism and peacekeeping. Going beyond the mapping of military might, this atlas explores the root causes of war and including maps the document global poverty, rights violations, political systems, and ethnicity.  Please note: does not include data on the current war in Iraq.

Reference            G1201.E27 F5 1998
Flanders, Stephen A. Atlas of American Migration. New York: Facts on File, 1998.

A conventional look at migration, this atlas’ organization covers the expected topics from an East-West perspective and with a Eurocentric bias including early immigration, conquest and colonization, forced migration, Manifest Destiny, and Urban and suburban development. Includes statistical charts, graphs, tables and chronologies.

Ref Atlases          G1201.E63 R6 1992
Rooney, John F., and Pillsbury, Richard; McMichael, Jeffery, cartographic supervisor. Atlas of American Sport.
New York: Macmillan Pub. Co., 1992.

This atlas does not just contain maps of sporting venues, but takes a closer look at the concept of sports hearths, which is the idea that certain regions produce more athletes for certain sports than other areas.  Here is a geographically-based look at the world of American sports and contains data on the number of teams per state, the media outlets, spectators per 1000 in population. Happens to be in dire need of an update.

Reference            G1551.S1 H2 2003
Hall, Carolyn, and Pérez Brignoli, Héctor; Cotter, John V., cartographer. Historical atlas of Central America.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.

A spectacularly rendered atlas covering a little-known region of the world, this atlas packs a great deal of detail on the history, environment, cultures, and economic development of this region of the Americas. Other such regions of the world deserve such a treatment. Another copy of this atlas is located in Special Collections.

Reference             G1786.S1 R9 2004
Ruthven, Malise, and Nanji, Azim. Historical Atlas of Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Here is an example of an atlas devoted to the understanding of a single religion: in this case Islam.  The atlas includes early maps created by Moslems, documents the spread of Islam through Eurasia and the current tensions.

Reference             G3201.C1 2004 .W67
McGuire, Bill et al. World atlas of natural hazards. London: Arnold, 2004.

Water, wind, ice, fire, earth, oh my!  Mass movements mapped on a grand scale.  Impacts and avoidance, mitigation and management are discussed. The future looks hazardous.

Reference            GB671 .C54 2004
Clarke, Robin T. and King, Jannet. The Water Atlas. New York: New Press, 2004.

Understanding water in our world is crucial.  This atlas provides visual analysis of this vital but finite resource including uses and abuses, water health issues, water conflicts and the future of water resources.

Reference             HQ76.3.U5 G355 2004
Gates, Gary J., and Ost, Jason. The Gay & Lesbian Atlas. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press, 2004.

Using 2000 census data, compilers of well organized atlas answer the question: Why study gay and lesbian location patterns? Chapters include: Data and methods -- Estimating the size of the gay and lesbian population -- Where do gay and lesbian couples live? -- Comparing location patterns across different couple types -- Other demographic characteristics -- Maps -- Beyond the atlas.  The maps are organized by national overviews,
states and cities.  Each state and city map is accompanied by additional data in the form of tables and graphs depicting: rankings, comparison data with total population, breakdowns of age, ethnicity and the presence of children in each household.

Reference            HV6783 .A85 2000
Turnbull, Linda S., Hallisey Hendrix, Elaine, and Dent, Borden D., eds. Atlas of Crime : Mapping the Criminal
Landscape. Phoenix, AZ.: Oryx Press, 2000.

Contents of this atlas include Geographic history of crime -- Crimes of personal violence -- Crimes against property -- Family violence -- Organized and entrepreneurial crimes -- "Film at ll" crimes -- Mental mapping  -- Criminal justice. Highlights include cognitive perception maps of high crime areas, mental maps of criminals, and crime scene sketching.

Reference            KF387 .F35 1997
Fast, Julius, and Fast, Timothy. The Legal Atlas of the United States. New York: Facts On File, 1997.

Covering current legal issues, this atlas maps the justice system, including family law, personal law, and violent and property crime from a state and regional perspective.

Reference            PN164 .A85 1996
Bradbury, Malcolm, general ed. The Atlas of Literature. New York: De Agostini, 1996.

Explore the geography of fiction in this unique atlas that has as its premise “…literature itself is an atlas, an imaginative map of the universe….” It “ … explores the many connections … have existed between writers and books, and landscapes, cities, islands, continents. It looks at many of the revealed and hidden maps of literature, past and present, real and imaged.” (p. 8) Coverage is from medieval times to the present.

¹ See some of these mapping systems in action on the Web:
USGS (U.S. Geological Survey -- http://www.usgs.gov/ ;
U.S. Census Bureau’s American Factfinder -- http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en ;
The Weather Channel -- http://www.weather.com/ ;
U.S. Army’s Topographic Engineering Center, GIS Internet Resources -- http://www.tec.army.mil/gis/ ;
Digital Atlas of California -- http://geogdata.csun.edu/CApage1.html ;
Alexandria Digital Library -- http://webclient.alexandria.ucsb.edu/mw/index.jsp

Library Home Page