How the States Got Their Shapes

Great intro to understanding state history. Some of it made sense. Some of it was a little too vague, but overall, it will keep your interest and leave you wanting to dig up more on a bunch of states -- even beyond the ones you've lived in. Great for a quick read of a few pages every night. Also goo......more

This book is divided into 50 short chapters, each detailing how a U.S. state acquired its shape. Easy to understand. This book at first fascinated me. I love history, and I love maps even more. I can just sit and look at a map for hours, running my mind over the lay of the land. So, I was hooked. How......more

A most enjoyable read to try to understand why the 50 states have the boundaries that they have. Author Mark Stein gives us the history behind the drawing of the borders. When you think of it, there are some real oddities--such as the entire state of Maryland (and is the state of Delaware really nec......more

Five-plus stars for a wonderful book on an oddity of United States history; how, and more fascinatingly, why, the jigsaw-puzzle layout of the country came to be. No state, because of the Earth's curvature, is a perfect rectangle, let alone a square; even though some of the larger western states appr......more

The information within the book - and for the most part the style in which it is written - is very good. The primary fault is the organization. There are two introductory sections, one laying out the point of the book and the other giving some important information that will be referenced in almost......more