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The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait for a New Century edited by Douglas M. Orr Jr. and Alfred W. Stuart $45.00 hardcover
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Press Release
For Release On or After March 27, 2000
NEW NORTH CAROLINA ATLAS EXAMINES CHANGING NATURE OF STATEChapel Hill, N.C.--As North Carolina embarks upon the twenty-first century, the state is at a crossroads in its history. The popular image of North Carolina as a largely rural state is no longer valid as, increasingly, resources and population are flowing to the urban crescent that stretches from Charlotte to Raleigh.In an effort to mark the profound significance of this shift, the University of North Carolina Press has just published The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait for a New Century. Nearly twelve years in the making, The North Carolina Atlas, edited by Douglas M. Orr Jr. and Alfred W. Stuart, profiles the challenges and opportunities the state must address early in the new century. Douglas M. Orr Jr. is president of Warren Wilson College in Asheville. Alfred W. Stuart is professor of geography at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Together with James W. Clay, they also edited an earlier atlas for North Carolina in 1975 and an atlas for the South in 1989. The ambitious project represents a collaborative effort between the UNC Press, the atlas's editors and contributors, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte cartography lab. Its state-of-the-art maps and charts are accompanied by a clearly written analysis of patterns and trends, making the book an accessible and important reference for government and business leaders in the state, the media, students, and North Carolina citizens. This timely compendium contains the most up-to-date information available on North Carolina. Including 275 full-color analytic maps and charts and 50 color photographs, The North Carolina Atlas features essays by some of the statešs most well-known figures, including Doris Betts, Ray Gavins, Charles Kuralt, Tom Wicker, Bill Friday, and three of the state's governors. Separate chapters focus on: geography, weather, and vegetation and soils; history; population; urbanization; the economy; agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining; manufacturing; transportation and utilities; trade, finance, and tourism; government and politics; air quality; water resources; crime; public and higher education; health care; cultural arts and historic preservation; and outdoor recreation. The atlas also features a final chapter by co-editors Orr and Stuart, interpreting the information presented throughout and tracing the shifts and patterns that have made North Carolina what it is today. They attempt to forecast where these and other trends are taking us in this new century. Orr and Stuart write that North Carolina shares with many other southern states an agrarian past and similar challenges that face such areas as they develop, including rural poverty, inadequate health care delivery, disparities in public education, and inequality of opportunity for peoples of different backgrounds. "Yet North Carolina is unique in ways that set it apart from its southern setting and present recurring paradoxes," the editors write. Although it is one of the nation's most industrialized states, North Carolina also has one of the nation's largest farm populations. And, although the Research Triangle and Charlotte areas are marked by a general prosperity, that can be juxtaposed with the poverty of many of North Carolina's rural areas. "The state needs to support the metro areas' continued participation in the global, information-processing economy while, at the same time, finding ways to share this new-found prosperity with the parts of the state that are left behind," the editors add. "Given these paradoxes, one challenge is simply that of understanding the state as we enter the new century." The North Carolina Atlas attempts to create such an understanding of the changing state. It tells the story of how this state came to be like it is today and where it is headed in the new century. "We need to have a realistic image of where we are today before we can talk about what we need to do to more forward, and that is what the atlas gives us," David Perry, editor-in-chief at the UNC Press, said about the publication of The North Carolina Atlas. "The North Carolina Atlas will benefit us all," Governor James B. Hunt Jr. wrote in his foreword to the atlas, "by reminding us of our history and inspiring us to look forward as we head into the next century." Return to More about The North Carolina Atlas
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