Atlas of Florida (review)

156Southeastern Geographer two of them entire passages from earlier papers are repeated verbatim. My own favorite, which I would heartily recommend to anyone, is one ofthe earliest papers, "A Karl Marx for Hill Billies: Portrait ofa Southern Leader," but anyone who would understand the South must be conversant with Vance's work. John Fraser Hart, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Atlas ofFlorida. Edward A. Fernald, ed. Tallahassee: The Florida State University Foundation, Inc., 1981. 9 inches x 12 inches, xi and 276 pp., illus., gazetteer, index, and bibliography. $27.50 cloth. (ISBN 0-9606-7080-7) While many states are fortunate to have one state atlas (and a good many still have none), Florida is at a considerable advantage, having been the subject of an atlas three times within the last 20 years. Reviewing this newest contribution to the genre, one can consider the current achievement not only in its own terms (as best they can be inferred from what the editors say and from what they have created), but can compare it to previous atlases as well. The first Atlas of Florida, published by the University of Florida Press in 1964, was essentially a creation of Erwin Raisz. It was large in format, but thin—about 50 pages. It is cartographically imaginative and has considerable graphic charm. An interesting and comprehensible atlas for the average reader, it still possesses cartographic and geographic integrity. In 1974 Trend Publications issued an atlas that contained more than twice as many pages and maps. This volume, The New Florida Atlas: Patterns of the Sunshine State, is not especially attractive, with gross type and linework, and many two-color maps with coarsely-screened tints ofbright red, green, and blue inks. Choropleth maps dominate, and the volume lacks the beauty and variety of map types that occurred in the earlier Atlas of Florida. The emphasis here is on maps for professional geographers—more maps, more map categories, more detail. Small amounts of text tend to be non-interpretive, statistic-laden, and quite Vol. XXII, No. 2 157 dull. This volume was created at Florida State University, under the joint editorship of Edward Fernald and Roland Wood. Now a new and different Atlas of Florida has been published, again under Fernald's direction. As the "Preface" says, "This volume is the first comprehensive atlas of Florida, covering in detail all aspects of a complex and growing state." And all aspects there just might be, on more than 800 maps! Anyone who has seen the Atlas of Michigan (1977) will experience a sense of déjà vu in looking at the Atlas of Florida, and the editors acknowledge this debt to the creators of that attractive volume. The Florida volume is almost a clone, even to page layouts and types of illustrations. Yet, somehow the Florida volume is not as visually successful —it has a heavier, duller, more overwhelming appearance. Color schemes seem less well-integrated, more "variety for variety's sake" in nature. It is earnest but amateurish bookmaking. The intended audience is to include everyone, "students, researchers, policy makers, and planners as well as citizens, potential residents, and tourists." But since it is impossible to be all things to all people, this atlas, while reasonably attractive, often tends to resemble a scholarly monograph, written by professional geographers for other geographers. The too-cryptic "Contents" page lists eight sections of material, including such standard topics as "Natural Environment," "Population," and "Economy." "Natural Environment" contains more than one-third of all the maps (300+) with "Recreation and Tourism" and "Economy" making up about another third (150 maps each). Some pictures, graphs, charts, and lists are interspersed with maps, but it is not true, as the editors write, that this combination of graphic treatments is "unique." The atlas is dominated by five-category choropleth maps (based on county units), and class intervals were selected so as to group areas statistically most similar. As a result, intervals are uneven and widely variable, effectively preventing one from making any quantitative comparisons from map to map. This technique accomplishes the editors' stated intention—it emphasizes patterns ofmore and less—but it is frustrating to try to compare...