The Historical Atlas of World War I (Henry Holt Reference Book)

Double-page maps with annotated overlays, along with insert maps, photographs, detailed narrative, and eyewitness accounts from personal records explain the Great War battle by battle, and illuminate the global politics behind it. 10,000 first printing.

This work differs considerably from Oxford's Atlas of World War I [RBB Ja 1 94]. The Oxford work consists of maps only, with textual matter limited to a preface and explanatory sidebars. The work under review is divided into five major parts, each having an introductory essay, as well as text explaining each map. The Oxford atlas has only black-and-white maps, while the Holt book has multicolor ones, making clear by the use of colored arrows and lines just which army is moving in attack, defense, or retreat. Also, the Holt maps show variations in terrain by the use of color, with scales showing elevations in meters. The text is easy to read and closely relates to the adjoining map. There are also black-and-white contemporary photos of the trenches, armaments, troops, cavalry horses, and the like.

The American contribution to the war is rather played down, being limited to two pages of text, two small photos, and only two maps, those of the St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne offensives. Surprisingly, these two text pages are not findable in the indexes, under either U.S. or under America, though they are identified under Pershing and the two place-names.

Several double-page time lines show in linear format the activities on the various fronts during each year of the war. In addition, there is a selective bibliography, as well as two indexes, one of general topics and the other of places. The endpaper maps are especially useful. One is a general map of Europe, with numbers corresponding to the pages in the book where that area is discussed; the other end-paper does the same with a map of the world, showing, for example, the area of von Spee's Pacific squadron and even the far-distant battle of the Falkland Islands.

Libraries already owning the Oxford Atlas might wish to supplement it with The Historical Atlas of World War I, which has colored maps, more explanatory text, and presents to its readers a better understanding of the event that was thought to be "the war to end all wars."

The 80th anniversary of the beginning of the "war to end all wars" has surprisingly not been accompanied by a flood of publications. However, military historian Livesey (Great Battles of World War I, LJ 9/1/89), consulting with H.P. Willmott of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, England, has produced an atlas primarily of battle maps in color with commentary and time lines arranged in chronological order. The maps are clear and well keyed, and the entire volume is handsomely printed and bound, in contrast to the Atlas for the Great War (Avery Pub. Group, 1986 ), a spiral-bound collection of similar maps in full-page format but devoid of text. Livesey treats the war as a global conflict, not merely a European affair, with maps documenting battles fought in the colonial theaters. At least two maps should have been included but were not: the results of the March 1918 Treaty of Brest Litovsk, which inflicted severe territorial losses on the newly formed Soviet Union, and the dramatic boundary changes in Europe resulting from the treaties that ended the conflict, only briefly discussed in the epilog. For a broader overview, both on the battlefield and the home front, The American Heritage History of World War I (reissued by Random House Value Pub., 1988) is still a very useful source. Nevertheless, the present offering makes an excellent addition to any reference collection.?Edward K. Werner, St. Lucie Cty. Lib. Sys., Ft. Pierce, Fla.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.