Review by James W. Durney

National Geographic is one of the items that is part of the fabric of our lives. Every one of us, from somewhere, remembers reading them as a child. Pictures of faraway places, animals and people different from us stoked our imaginations while creating a sense of wonder that such things existed. Originally sold only by subscription many homes treasured the magazines carefully preserving them in bookcases. This set provides all the issues from 1888 to 2008, 120 years, in one small box. Each issue is presented page by page, starting at the front cover and proceeding to the back cover. All the maps are here too. The set shows the world as it was and the process of changing into the world of today. This is a living history lesson showing how America changes and adjusts into the modern world.nI am running this on a 64-bit VISTA system with no problems. Print quality is excellent in even the 1888 issues. A page magnifier is available but I have not found it necessary. Photo quality varies over time. The early issues have poor quality photographs because the printing process was not that great. You can view all of the old photos but many are not that clear an image. The interface is not intuitive but it is not impossible to use either. I have several of these collections and cannot comment of how a first time user will find this. There are better interfaces but this is not an impossible one and it is fully supported.nIs it worth it? That depends on you. Can you lose yourself in looking at pictures of Europe in 1925? Would you want to read about the Pacific Northwest in the 1930? Can you spend a couple of hours looking at advertisement of products that no longer exist? When was the last time you bought an icebox or considered buying a Cord? If you can answer yes to these questions, this set will provide all the opportunities to do these things you can wish for.