An atlas of Victorian mortality /

The preface to this study poses the ultimate evaluative question for an atlas: "Are the maps memorable?" The answer is a resounding yes. They are very striking and serve two purposes. First, decennial data sets of the Registrars general for the 1860-90 period are manipulated to display vividly patterns of death by age groups (infancy, childhood, adulthood, and old age) and then by causes of death, with special chapters devoted to tuberculosis, maternal mortality, and violence. Second, the atlas moves beyond visual exercises to an analysis of issues relating to Europe's "mortality transition" (e.g., the impact of urbanization; the changing nature of diseases such as measles and whooping cough). Apart from the explanatory text that accompanies the 37 brilliant maps, 51 figures, and five tables, four chapters explain the regional units, the classification of causes of death, overall regional patterns of mortality in Victorian England and Wales, and an assessment of the quality of death registration. Two concluding chapters discuss the special issues of gender and death, and places and disease respectively. The study is well served by a comprehensive bibliography and efficient index, and constitutes a fine resource for demographers, historical geographers, medical and economic historians, and epidemiologists. Upper-division undergraduates and above. B. Osborne; Queen's University at Kingston