Infographics as Eye Candy: Review of World War II in Numbers: An Infographic Guide to the Conflict, Its Conduct, and Its Casualties by Peter Doyle (2013)

Abstract

Peter Doyle. World War II in Numbers: An Infographic Guide to the Conflict, Its Conduct, and Its Casualties, illustrated by Lindsey Johns (Buffalo NY: Firefly Books, 2013). 224 pp. ISBN: 177085195X. Doyle’s book contains dozens of graphs of statistical data dealing with World War II. Many of these graphs are visually striking. However, they often violate fundamental graphing principles, in that they distort quantitative relationships, use unidentified scales, and often make it difficult to compare quantities. Graphic software makes it easy to create imaginative images, but these can fail to communicate the very information that is the graph’s purpose.

Keywords

• charts
• graphs
• World War II
• graphic software
• visualization.