What they are saying about The North Carolina Atlas...

  "Most any new book that deals with North Carolina sooner or later wends its way across my desk.  Those that touch on business or economics wind up in our editorial library.  Others, especially those dealing with Tar Heel history, go home with me, joining their brethren on my bookshelves.  This one, however, never leaves my office, perched always within arm's reach of where I sit writing this.
  As any craftsman can tell you, a well wrought tool is a thing of beauty, its form and functionality transcending its utilitarian nature.  The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait for a New Century is just such a tool- and an essential one, I believe, for anyone who does business in this state.  Nary a day passes without me pulling it down to look something up, check a fact or just peruse a passage that piques my curiosity."
David Kinney
Business NC magazine
  "It may sound daunting, but this book really does commend itself to a general audience.  It is happily free of encyclopedic density, either of information or of style.  It should become a standard reference in libraries, boardrooms, and classrooms."
Roy Parker, Jr.
Fayetteville Observer
  "In movies or books, it is the rare sequel that is as good as the original. The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait for a New Century is one of those exceptions.  The first North Carolina atlas... came out in 1975.  It was and is a comprehensive reference book with a solid grasp of the subtleties of out state's history, possibilities and problems.  The new atlas takes up where the first one left off.  A lot has changed in North Carolina, and this atlas chronicles most of it in a format that's easy to read and engaging to look at.  It's lavishly illustrated with photographs and dozens of crisp graphs, charts and maps.
  What's nice about this atlas is how easy it is just to dive into a section and find something of interest.  The chapters on business, for example, make clear the sweeping overhaul in the state's economy.  The text and crisp charts show the exodus of tobacco and textiles jobs and the surge in high-tech and finance jobs that have changed North Carolina.
  Most good atlases accomplish two basic goals: they give the sweep and context of history and a snapshot in time of the here and now.  This atlas does both.  If it's a bit corporate in doing so, that's a reasonable tradeoff for the amount of ground the atlas covers and the competent manner in which it covers the ground."
  Ken Otterbourg
Winston-Salem Journal
April 9, 2000
  "The Atlas is a magnificent accomplishment and what a contrast to its predecessor, which was very good, but qualitatively (and quantitatively) just a promising forerunner.  Your coverage and detail, approach and originality are unmatched, and no State atlas I know of even begins to approach it.  You have done the State an enormous service, and the field as well, by example."
Harm de Blij
Former Geography editor for ABC "Good Morning
America;" co-author, Geography: Realms, Regions 
and Concepts 2000, 9th ed., John Wiley & Sons.
  "A definitive analysis of changes in North Carolina.  This is the most comprehensive and informative state atlas I have ever reviewed.  Excellent maps, great charts and clearly written text makes "The North Carolina Atlas" a book that needs to be on the shelf of every public library and in the hands of all North Carolina devotees.  Over the last century North Carolina hs transformed itself from a struggling southern state to one of the fastest growing economies in the US.  "The North Carolina Atlas" provides a definitive analysis of the changes that have created this wonderful state.
  History, population, urbanization, and economy are transforming forces that molded North Carolina into what it is today.  Each of these sections are clearly laid out so that the reader can make a critical analysis of the change and forma an assessment of the coming changes the future may bring.
  Especially interesting are the sections that deal with quality of life in North Carolina.  Crime, education, health care, water and air quality, cultural arts and outdoor recreation ar profiled and supported by scores of maps, charts and diagrams.  This is a book I would especially want in my possession if I were considering moving my family and business to this state.  Highly recommended."
Allan Gathercoal
President & Founder
Flying Doctors, Norcross, GA
In Amazon.com
  "Produced in part for the general reader and handsomely illustrated to that end, this atlas also succeeds in its objective of presenting a critical analysis of the changing spatial order of North Carolina at what is correctly presented as a pivotal period.
  Those who have visited the state will know that it is astonishingly diverse (in part a product of its long east-west axis.)  this emerges very clearly in the excellent maps and first-rate accompanying text.
  This atlas deserves high praise.  American states have often been poorly served by their atlases.  This is one of the best."
Jeremy Black
Professor of History, University of Exeter
The Society of Cartographers Bulletin,
Vol. 34, no. 1
Cambridge University, England
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