Early one morning I was watching the History Channel and saw part of a special on how the U.S. states got their shapes. One of the people interviewed was Mark Stein, author of (can you guess?) How the States Got Their Shapes.
I wasn't able to watch much of the special, but I was intrigued so I looked up Stein's book. I enjoyed it, but I advise skimming instead of trying to delve deeply into it.
The states were organized alphabetically. Though the organization was a bit dry, I don't know how you could organize it any better. This makes it a good reference book, but not exactly gripping reading. Since every state is given it's own section, there's obviously a lot of redundancy. Once I'd read how Oregon got it's northern border, I knew how Washington got it's southern border.
I skimmed to get a general sense of the entire book and stopped to read in places where I had greater interest. I also read the whole section on any states that I've lived in or had particular interest in. I especially loved all the diagrams of the states as they are, as they were, and as they might have been.
If you like U.S. History, you'll like looking through this book. It's a fascinating look into how our nation took it's shape--which I know that I have generally taken for granted.
No comments:
Post a Comment