About this title: In a light, accessible style--and packed with fun oddities and trivia--this entertaining guide by playwright and screenwriter Stein deciphers the mysteries of the American map, state by state. 180 b&w maps.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Collins
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780061431388ISBN:0061431389
Description: Good in good dust jacket. dusty jacket sleeve, all other pages and text inside is clean and unmark. same day shipping if order before noon. other will ship next day. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 332 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Date Published: 2009-04-01
ISBN-13:9780061431395ISBN:0061431397
Description: Very Good. New York: Smithsonian Books, 2009. First thus. Paperback. 334 pp. Near fine-slight forward lean to spine. Marvelous book! read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Smithsonian Books/ Harper Collins, New York
Date Published: 2008
Description: Very Fine in Very Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. FIRST PRINTING. Hardcover with $22.95 printed on dust jacket flap. Pristine end pages. Pristine text with b&w maps. Clean white edges. Immaculate ivory cover/blue spine. Excellent pictorial jacket in a new mylar cover. "A fascinating and wonderfully entertaining account of an often-overlooked oddity of America's history; how the jigsaw-puzzle layout of the United States emerged..." read more
Edition: Full-size Book Club (BCE)
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780061431388ISBN:0061431389
Description: Good/Good. 978-0061431388 Cover has two small light spots and irregular light fading, narrow wear around spine head, text block very good. Jacket has scant wear at some edges and spine. Thoroughly illustrated with maps. [xv]+332pp including Selected Bibliography and Index. read more
Description: Good. Used copy-Because of our high volume, we can not accurately describe each book, so we list the MINIMUM condition you can expect; most are better than the condition listed. read more
"The opening chapter which said we must read this first was right on the mark. I didn't know that the size of the states had been thought out by Congress from the beginning. Then the small stories of the individual states was very interesting, too. Now we know why California doesn't fit the formula and why it is much bigger."
"I always wondered why the States were shaped the way they were. I knew about the territories and had vague ideas about wars and treaties that made them ours. What I didn't know is that the US wanted to have states be roughly the same degrees in height and width in some regions, and how much planning went into shaping the future USA, when so little was known about those areas. Also some states have little zigs and zags that have to do with things like mountain ranges and the trouble law enforcement would have policing these areas with the limited ability to travel, so small corners of certain states were given to other states. A quick and fascinating read for those of us who love history and those road trips!"
"This was not as good as I had hoped, though it did have some interest. My big problem was the way he arranged his information, which was with the states in alphabetical order and then dealing with each border. The alphabetical order was the big problem--you spent a fair amount of time flipping back and forth between, say, Arizona and Nevada, or Mississippi and Alabama. Or you didn't flip, and so you forgot part of the story. Just a dumb and lazy way to arrange information that could have been really interesting.
Still, I know that Michigan got the UP because they gave Toledo to Ohio (after the two states waged a war over Toledo), so hey. Not all bad."
"Ever wondered why the state you live in is shaped how it is? Well then give this book a read and find out. The author sets out to do exactly what the title promises, painstakingly detailing how every border of every state in the union was defined. Each state has its own chapter, but because of this layout, much of the information on common borders is repeated. Not bad for a quick read or for reference, but reading it straight-through got quite repetitive. There's some fascinating information here, but this would be a much better book if it were set up in a different manner, such as chronologically."
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