76 Book review section – Book review section – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 69 (2020) (1) 73–78. 73–78. DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.69.1.7 Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 69 2020 (1) People are constantly categorising to make it easier to navigate the world. Nevertheless, there are several problems with social categories (Alex Gillespie, A. et al. 2012): rigid boundaries and reifcations can make human-aggregates real and endows with an ability to act for a long time, while they are often just imagined communities. Not only societal but also space division and categorisation is a signifcant characteristic of humanity. The most obvious result of this phenom- enon is the nation-states’ borders clarity visible on the political map of the world. Social scientists have many problems with ossifed borders: thinking in nation- states creates a methodological nationalism (Wimmer, A. and Schiller, G.N. 2002) that can enclose research and shift results in one direction. In addition to that, diferent manners of dividing the globe can create rigid boundaries also. Besides, simplifcations in the division of space construct binary oppositions such as North-South, poor-rich, East-West distinctions. This book critiques these simplifcations, contextualises and modulates the problem of what humanity thinks of development, progression, and well-being. The book’s chapters are organised around the top- ics of geography and development, the global North- South disparities, and the author endeavours to visu- alise global inequalities on world maps. They appear in a total of 121 diferent charts and maps. The volume was published by Routledge in 2020 by Marcin Wojciech Solarz, an associate professor at the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies. Solarz’s major research topics are related to political and development geography, his prior book (New Geographies of the Globalised World) is also discussed global development issues (Solarz, M.W. 2018a). The book’s basic premise is that of all the atempts to divide the world based on development, the so- called Brandt Line (boiled down to the 1980 Brandt Report) remains the most enduring and continues to infuence our thinking about the world. In this book, Solarz does not focus on presenting the Brandt Report; others have already done so (Williams, G. 1980; Wionczek, S.M. 1981), but instead, tries to outline the international context of the Report while also paying atention to political and personal motiva- tions. After depicting the Brandt Line for the reader, he introduces its misleading nature deploying new aspects and indicators. With the help of the new indi- ces, he presents a plethora of maps on many aspects of development utilising the most recent data. The Introduction (The Brandt Line: Political or Developmental Boundary) provides useful ideas on how the Brandt Report has been evolved and has been re- ceived. The Report and the boundary between global South and North named after the German politician, Willy Brandt, was criticised at the time of its creation. Despite this fact, the Brandt Line has become the most typical and well-known representation of the global developmental divide on map. There has been an abundance of reproduction, it was picked up by the media, due to – among other reasons – the fact that maps are highly regarded and seemed neutral while conveyed complex knowledge. It lent trustworthiness and reliability to this division. This special status may have arisen because maps present information clearly and unambiguously. However, Solarz claims that the Brandt Line was much more political than a devel- opmental boundary and he provides arguments for this as well. The ‘northern club’ has the members of NATO (without Turkey), the Warsaw Pact, the Pacifc Security Treaty (ANZUS) and the US-Japan security treaties, while the global South is the rest. But if it is approached from a political-civilisational perspective, it can be noticed that the ‘successful’ European and Anglo-Saxon dominance (plus Japan) is considered to be the opposite of the rest of the world. The author does not forget about the human fac- tor either. He points out that most of the participants in the Brandt Commission came from the political sphere. These people had ethnical, political, philo- sophical, personal, etc. background which afected the Report as well. Solarz, M.W.: The Global North-South Atlas. Mapping Global Change. Routledge, London, 2020. 167 p.