The World Encyclopedia of Flags

To begin with, this is not the book to buy if all you want is a guide to the current flags of each country around the world. You will find those flags here (accurate for 1999, when the book was published) but this book contains much more besides. There are many other guides to current flags that are both cheaper and more up to date. One thing you learn about flags is that a new national flag will replace an old one somewhere in the world at reasonably regular intervals, because of political changes. After all, flags are the ultimate political symbol. The 1990's saw many changes. The break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia meant lots of new national flags, but South Africa and many other countries also changed their flags.Besides the flags of all nations, you can learn much from this book about the origin and history of flags and about many other flags in current use - regional, local, state and provincial flags, as well as maritime flags, protest flags (like the Basque separatist flag), organizational flags (like the Red Cross) and commercial flags.Of course, even in a book this size, it is not possible to cover everything comprehensively, but the author manages to make the development of flags seem interesting, explaining how various basic designs evolved and were copied by other countries.I have seen the development of the stars and stripes explained and illustrated in greater depth than it is here, but the description here is a good starting point for anybody not familiar with it.For anybody wanting to explore the history of flags, this is the best book available. Even if you buy this, you may still occasionally want to buy a book devoted to current flags to keep up to date with all the changes.

MUCH BETTER THAN EXPECTED. NOT ONLY ALL THE FLAGS BUT THE HISTORY ECT. & SO MUCH MORE IMFORMATION. WOULD RECOMEND.

It's well illustrated and handsome, but but but.....the text is slightly turgid and I'm not sure whether it's reaching to capture new enthusiasts or inform the merely curious. It's not a page-turner by any stretch but well worth having.

A very good book, but a bit confusing with the order the flags are shown in. It's very good to have the other flags and banners but the World flags I feel would be better explained at the begginning rather than having all the old style flags taking preferance.

Beautiful book, but I have seen a few errors so far. Flags which should have yellow sections are illustrated in orange for Guinea-Bissau and Barbados; One of the Micronesian flags - Yap - has the correct text but the wrong flag.These, and potentially other errors should be corrected.Majority looks like a good reference though.