by Mark Stein
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Product Description
Why does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake? We are so familiar with the map of the United States that our state borders seem as much a part of nature as mountains and rivers. Even the oddities—the entire state of Maryland(!)—have become so engrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence. But that's where the real mystery begins. Every edge of the familiar wooden jigsaw pieces of our childhood represents a revealing moment of history and of, well, humans drawing lines in the sand. How the States Got Their Shapes is the first book to tackle why our state lines are where they are. Here are the stories behind the stories, right down to the tiny northward jog at the eastern end of Tennessee and the teeny-tiny (and little known) parts of Delaware that are not attached to Delaware but to New Jersey. How the States Got Their Shapes examines: - Why West Virginia has a finger creeping up the side of Pennsylvania
- Why Michigan has an upper peninsula that isn't attached to Michigan
- Why some Hawaiian islands are not Hawaii
- Why Texas and California are so outsized, especially when so many Midwestern states are nearly identical in size
Packed with fun oddities and trivia, this entertaining guide also reveals the major fault lines of American history, from ideological intrigues and religious intolerance to major territorial acquisitions. Adding the fresh lens of local geographic disputes, military skirmishes, and land grabs, Mark Stein shows how the seemingly haphazard puzzle pieces of our nation fit together perfectly.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 a fun read, 2008-11-09
This has been a fun book to read.
It an easy read and fun to have on the coffee table for people to leaf through,find a state of choice,and gain a few facts that they did't know before.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Great idea that falls apart in execution, 2008-10-30
Giving this a generous third star because I'm a geography nerd, but it was kind of disappointing. Three reasons:
1) I understand listing the states alphabetically (I chose not to read them that way) as a reference work, but this isn't really being sold/marketed as a reference work, but more of a popular geography. Another reviewer thought it should've been done by region, and I agree.
2) If you're going to do it alphabetically, you need to include all the info for each state. Sure, there's the repetition issue, but there's already a fair amount of repetition anyway (not sure why he went through the trouble of the 'Do Not Skip This' intro section if he was going to tell us over and over and over the same info) -- why not go all the way? Examples: in Georgia, we learn about the Orphan Strip, which was contested by North Carolina and Georgia (and South Carolina made a play for it too) ... so why is the only mention in the Georgia section? If you're not going to include the full discussion, at least reference it. Other idiosyncracies: we learn that the 'boot heel' of Missouri which dips below the 36'30" line designated by Congress was through the actions of someone who stood to gain from it being in Missouri rather than Arkansas, but it's only in the Arkansas section that we learn that the border for the heel was set at the 36' line. Also: in the intro to West Virginia, it's asked why parts of West Virginia aren't in Maryland, but then in the section itself there's not a single mention of Maryland. I think an attempt to spend more time with each state would have eliminated these idiosyncracies, and would have resulted in a deeper understanding of each border decision.
3) I have some concerns about historical accuracy. Ignoring the lack of footnotes or extensive bibliography (which I am disappointed in), there's an assertion (repeated several times) that Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia gave up their western territory claims after the Constitution was signed with the future vision that more slave states could be made to balance the anti-slavery north states (which would grow in the Northwest Territories where slavery was forbidden). This struck me as extremely odd; first, because at that time states like New York and New Jersey still were slave states, and second because it was a good fifty years or so before abolitionism went mainstream (and thirty years before the Missouri Compromise). I did some checking, and I could not find info that corroborated this assertion (if you know of any, please put in the comments). Instead, the reasoning seemed to be a mix of reassuring other states of the original 13 without claims to western land that the new Union wouldn't be dominated by gigantic states such as a joined Virginia/Kentucky, or in exchange for the federal government assuming war debt or providing financial considerations. As someone who reads a lot of history, this forces me to consider that there may be other mistakes (besides the wrong map in Figure 126) and limits my faith in the veracity of the book.
Ultimately, it's a great idea with really faulty execution. I hope someone (and the original author is more than welcome to tackle it) is inspired by this book to write something a little better organized and that goes deeper in discussing the whys of the states' borders.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
How the States Got Their Shapes, 2008-10-03
This is a very interesting book if you are interested in American or Local history. There are good stories behind why states have such different borders. Good for school children, goes beyond what they learn in public school.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A Short History of Every Boundary in the U.S., 2008-09-24
This work has the rare ability to pull you in to the minutiae of boundary agreements, disagreements, and just plain mistakes that characterize the present lines of all 50 states. I did not know that the little jog Virginia takes at the Tennessee border was the result of a mistake by a surveyor, or that Wisconsin and Michigan, to this day, dispute the ownership of a wedge of land tucked away in the north woods of each state. Or that Illinois has a border 60 miles north of Chicago to accomodate canals that were never built, or that Maryland was the result after all the states around it had taken their bite of what its founders thought of as its original grant of land. The author has set out in interesting detail many of the foibles, errors, and, yes, great Congressional foresight, in setting the states up as functioning entities, while at the same time presenting his information in short descriptions. There is copious use of maps for each state that make following along with the development of each boundry an easy task. I reccomend this book for anyone, historian or not.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
how the states got their shapes, 2008-09-16
This is a splendid book shipped promptly and well-packaged. I have bought four copies now. One for me and three for gifts. A good read for young and old.[ASIN:0061431389 How the States Got Their Shapes]]
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