Why read How the States Got Their Shapes?

Book cover of How the States Got Their Shapes

Book 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…

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Why read it?

1 author picked How the States Got Their Shapes as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Joshua Hagen

Author

I found it hard to put down Stein’s engaging account of the borders of the 50 US states, plus the District of Columbia. Stein takes readers across the map, border by border, from Alabama to Wyoming, explaining the macro forces, like wars, treaties, and tensions over slavery, and the idiosyncrasies, like surveying and mapping errors and court decisions, that created the USA’s state borders.

I appreciated how Stein packed a lot of history and geography into essentially a series of short vignettes for each state and its borders. The book covers a lot of ground, but readers don’t need much…

From Joshua's list on maps and cartography.