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 is the first book to tackle why our state lines are where they are. Even the oddities-the entire state of Maryland(!)-have become so ingrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence. God bless the panhandles and notches, the West Virginias and Oklahomas.' - Wall Street Journal 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. It was a Mexican state, then an independent republic, and with conflict imminent, was quickly annexed as a state using pre-defined borders.New York Times Bestseller 'Give me the splendid irregularities any day. It was populous and prosperous enough that it didn’t have to go through the territory process it immediately became a state.

There were British in the north, Russians on the coast, and Mexicans in the south. needed California - and fast! - after gold was discovered. Although called Seward’s Folly at the time, it has obviously paid off well with the state’s richness in crude oil, fisheries, tourism and timber. Alaska was a good deal, at $0.02 an acre and created sovereign borders to keep out the Russians and British. Now, in answer to the questions posed above. Each state chapter offers several maps, each annotated to the text description. The text is written for an informed and curious lay reader, and includes descriptions of latitude, longitude, water bodies and other geographic features. The states are listed alphabetically, from Alabama to Wyoming, and each state starts with a set of questions like the ones above. Since all of the state boundaries overlap (obviously), 'Don't Skip This!' provides the broader context of how these boundaries came to be. This chapter lays down the foundation for what is to follow, which is 51 chapters on each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The book starts with a section titled, 'Don't Skip This!' and I agree. The tone is lighthearted but factual, and it makes for a great grab-off-the-shelf-and-read-a-few-chapters addition to any geographer’s bookshelf. Why are Alaska, California and Texas so much larger than the other states? Why are the states in the Northeast so small? What is that panhandle in Oklahoma about? These questions and many more are answered in 'How the States Got Their Shapes' by Mark Stein.

How states got their shapes book