It is a tribute to the advanced state of local history in these two counties that it is possible to map in this detailed way the wide-ranging achievements of their scholars. The great strength of the organization of the Oxfordshire volume is that it adopts a chronological approach and keeps to it; hence there is a sense of a story unfolding from the Palaeolithic to the present. The Hertfordshire volume is not as well organized. It switches from a chronological approach to a thematic one and then back again. Thus we move from London coal tax markers to Roman buildings. Roman roads are followed thirty pages later by Roman settlements. The area covered by Tiller and Darkes is the old county of Oxfordshire before the boundary changes of 1974. This is a pity, in that it does not bring the story up to date and it fails to take advantage of the fact that the upper Thames Valley on both sides of the river is a unitary region, archaeologically speaking. In addition, there is no map and therefore no study on the boundary of the county; clearly the River Thames was its southern limit, but what determined its convoluted shape northwards? The Chastleton ‘tongue’ which pokes into Warwickshire suggests an early Iron Age estate. The Hertfordshire boundary is the subject of an interesting paper by Tom Williamson. One of the most valuable aspects of the Hertfordshire volume is the essay by Nigel Goose, which is a survey of historical atlases in general: Germany led the way, spurred on by the nationalist imperative.

As far as production goes, the Hertfordshire atlas has the advantage of being in full colour, particularly helpful when mapping the soils and geology. The Oxfordshire volume contents itself with red and black. In addition, the Hertfordshire volume is enriched by thirty illustrations. Both the atlases display at times a lack of integration between text and maps; the maps tend to stand by themselves and are not referred to in a number of the entries. There are exceptions, such as the close connection between map and text of R Peberdy's chapter on late medieval communication in the Oxfordshire volume.

Turning to the content: the eighty-four chapters written by fifty-one authors in the Hertfordshire atlas cover some very unusual themes, including executions, medieval and Tudor graffiti, local volunteers for military service, seventeenth-century transportations and City of London coal tax markers. Perhaps the oddest theme is the map showing large numbers of taxidermists, reflecting the Victorian desire for keeping a reminder of the countryside in the form of a glass case full of stuffed birds.

The Oxfordshire atlas adopts a more sober programme, pursuing its survey of the last 3,000 years of the county's history. In general there is an emphasis on administration rather than on buildings. For instance, there is an excellent map of medieval parishes but none of churches. More could have been done with medieval pottery. There is no indication of distribution patterns of pottery from various kiln sites. The indication of parishes with pottery in their fields simply shows human activity.

Our understanding of Oxford is particularly well served by Alan Crossley's entry in which maps show the decline of the town in the late Middle Ages, a fact taken advantage of by the colleges, which homed in on the deserted sites. Three valuable maps of 1279, 1578 and 1794 show the growth of the city. The mapping of the extent of university and college properties is restricted to the county. Here a map showing the true nation-wide picture would have been useful. Barry Trinder is conscious of this in his treatment of rivers and canals by adding inset maps showing how Oxfordshire linked up to the national network. The same, unfortunately, was not done in the case of railways.

Orchards are not dealt with in the Oxfordshire volume. They were thick on the ground in Hertfordshire from at least the thirteenth century. A dramatic recent decline in British fruit varieties is noted. One interesting comment is on the availability of London's manure, making it less likely that Hertfordshire farmers would want to keep straw on the ground, freeing it up for the county's straw plaiters, thus reducing the likelihood of agrarian unrest.

As one approaches the present day, the Oxfordshire atlas is especially strong, mapping the effects of the two world wars and the cold war on the landscape. The county but not the city was bombed. Legend has it that Hitler was saving Oxford to be his capital city of an invaded Britain. The Oxford City Council is shown unenthusiastically tackling the provision of workers’ housing and urban renewal after the First World War. This strongly contrasts with the splendidly multicoloured master plans of Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead and Welwyn Garden City, perhaps to be explained by Hertfordshire's greater proximity to London.