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|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review:
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great for a road trip! Nov 16, 2009
A few of my friends and I took this on our road trip and it was an awesome travel companion. Every time we crossed a state line, one of us took turns reading out tidbits about the state's formation. Nerdy? Yes. Fun? Also yes.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Recommended despite some flaws Oct 06, 2009
When most people look at a map of the United States, they take its current borders for granted. Most people can identify a state simply by its shape, but will rarely ask why it has said shape. This book answers most questions anyone would probably have about how each state got its shape.
It is interesting to read the stories about how east coast states were drawn by monarchs for whatever reasons they wanted. And when you move westward across the map, about how Congress started to organize land. This book tells the stories about how Congress organized states in a futile attempt to control slavery in order to avert civil war and how those decisions are now permanently embedded in the borders of several states. After Congress gave up controlling slavery in favor of popular sovereignty, you will read about how equality of size or resources formed the shape of western states. This book also answers some questions like why is California and Texas so big? Why do so many states states have little quirks in their borders? Panhandles, West Virginia's finger, Connecticut's notch, and so on. Because of this and more, this book is a true wealth of information that is sure to interest anyone interested in maps, geography, and American history.
However, the book is not without its flaws. As mentioned in several other reviews, the book is arranged alphabetically. That works fine as a reference, but for someone reading it cover-to-cover, it becomes disjointed. Also, the same borders between states are explained in each state's section, so there is some repetition.
There is also a couple of cases factual errors and omissions. From my own research, some dates mentioned in the book are likely incorrect. For example, in the section explaining Nevada's post-statehood border adjustments, it states that one occurred in 1864, but other Internet sources say it occurred in 1866. There are a couple of other mistakes like this.
I can only hope the author will come back to this book, correct these errors, and add some more information for a second edition. This is a great subject for a book and would definitely be five stars if it were not for some errors.
But if you can look beyond some mistakes, this book makes a great starting point to understanding how the borders of the United States were drawn. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to know the why of state borders.
 How the States got their Shapes Oct 06, 2009
I found it very interesting to see how sttes were formed and who made the determinations. Very interesting part of history I did not know.
Interesting book for states I have lived in Sep 30, 2009
The book covers how the states got their state lines. While interesting for states I had lived in I did pass over states I was not interested it. It is a interesting look into the sometimes silly reasons the states are the way they are, Clearly the author did his research.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 HOW THE STATES GOT THEIR NAMES Sep 13, 2009
Quite a disappointment, actually two of them since the book I ordered at the same time, Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States, was disappointing also. Truly a record to get two losers at the same time. I disliked this book so much I stopped reading it. Is too in depth for my liking. I really don't care if a border moved 3 inches because of some arcane happening. Very boring which is a shame since I am normally interested in this subject.
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