Understanding USA

By DANIEL S. LEVY

Sum up America in maps and charts? Wurman wasn't daunted. With the help of 17 other designers, the creator of the innovative Access guides has produced a 324-page graphic snapshot that amounts to a candy-colored encyclopedia. His hefty paperback runs from the efficiently informative (what steps must be taken by a would-be President; how our land is used) to the chilling (Kit Hinrichs' bull's-eye chart with a family laid over it to dramatize the chance of being a casualty of war) to the inspiring (Tom Wood's bar graph of the factors contributing to America's success).

--By Daniel S. Levy