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How the States Got Their Shapes

Many of the books reviewed in geography journals are aimed solely at academics, which may be a function of how much geographical writing is done by academic geographers. However, there is certainly a market for writing about geographic topics aimed at the general public, and this is where How the States Got Their Shapes squarely falls. Author Mark Stein clarifies the reasons why the secondary political units of the United States have the borders they presently possess. In reflecting about how he learned the states in a seventh grade geography class, Stein (2008, xiii) posits that, “Far more knowledge results from exploring why a set of conditions exists than from simply accepting those conditions and committing them to memory. Asking why a state has the borders it does unlocks a history of human struggles . . .” The book begins with a chapter called “Don’t Skip This,” an overview of the principles underlying U.S. state boundary determinations. This chapter explains the premise of equality in the sizes of western states and discusses the origin of borders relevant to dozens of states (e.g., the 49th parallel). Each state entry has a full view map of its current borders with a few major cities shown. Entries for each state and the District of Columbia begin with a series of questions about why that state’s borders are located in the positions where they are today. The author then reviews the origin and location of each segment of that state’s boundaries. Almost 180 focus maps show the mentioned sections of state lines related to the physical features and latitude/longitude lines that so often served to inspire those borders. The book uses cross referencing among state entries to avoid repeating details and maps of bordering states. The bibliography is organized by state, so it is easy to find sources specific to individual states. Finally, the index includes the ability to look up numbered parallels and meridians that figured prominently in boundary determinations. While reading this book, anyone familiar with U.S. history and geography will find several well-known examples of sources for establishing boundaries such as English royal land grants and treaties with France, Spain, and Mexico that transferred huge territorial areas to the United States. Congressional maneuvering between proand antislavery partisans was also an important factor in the boundaries that separate states. In addition to the factors that established current and historic state boundaries, the book also considers alternate geographies, with maps that show proposed borders that were never established as legal divisions of the United States. For example, proslavery settlers in Kansas claimed parts of present day Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado for their future state while Mormons sought the proposed state of Deseret. Numerous states also experienced changes to their borders while they were still territories and in some cases even after statehood was granted. Generally, these changes were done voluntarily and motivated by selfish purposes, either to guarantee the ability to enforce the law in all parts of their state (e.g., Massachusetts), or to avoid political rivals from emerging in another part of the state and potentially dominating the state’s government (e.g., Washington state). A few of the entries mention the origin of a state’s name, which is a nice additional feature. Stein is successful in providing a concise, easily understood, and interesting account of state boundary making. My criticisms of this book are few. First, the book is better reading as individual entries than as a single volume because of repeated material. Second, throughout the book, the author uses the term “England” for any mention of a territorial decision that originated in today’s United Kingdom. Because England and Scotland merged in 1707, any reference to England after that year would more accurately be to Britain. Third, the entry for New Jersey would benefit from a map showing the early colonies of East Jersey and West Jersey, for the sake of the full historical evolution of that state’s territorial extent. Such a map is found in Klett (2014). Fourth, one obvious factual error slipped through the editing process, the claim (p. 233) that the Columbia River flows into the Pacific Ocean at Portland, Oregon. The frequent revisions to territorial boundaries and names in the western half of the country mean that a time series of maps showing the states and territory boundaries for the entire country would have made an interesting supplement. However, that might have entailed a much larger book. This well-written book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the historical geography of the United States. Secondary-level teachers of history and geography can draw from its contents to illustrate key ideas in both disciplines, particularly the need to think both spatially and chronologically to understand social change. Teachers of United States history could profitably use the book as part of a Manifest Destiny unit on territorial expansion in the 1800s. This book could also be used to teach political geography, especially as part of the College Board’s Advanced Placement Human Geography course. Since political geography can be conceptualized as the geography of power, analyzing the sizes and shapes of U.S. states raises