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