Overview

This work provides an account of the mapping of the United States from its colonial origins to 1900. Many of the significant maps and mapmakers are discussed in a chronological narrative that begins with the first European mappings of the New Netherlands (New York State, Massachusetts and Connecticut) in the early 17th century and concludes with the Rand McNally atlases of the 1890s. Maps tell us a great deal about the transformation of America's national identity. Having undertaken extensive research in map collections and with rare archival material in the US and overseas, geographer John Rennie Short provides a description of how maps have both embodied and reflected power, conflict and territorial expansion throughout American history. His illustrated text focuses on maps of colonial claims, surveys of the American West, and national atlases, paying particular attention to how and why certain groups - Native Americans, for example - were included on or excluded from maps.

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9781861890863

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Reviews

"""Short's fascinating and generously illustrated book examines the changing face of maps as 'social constructions' in the new found land over three centuries.""-- ""The Guardian"" ""This is a fascinating book about the mapping (c. 1600-1900) of the land that came to be called the United States of America. . . . The reader is treated to vignettes concerning some early geographers, geologists, ethnologists, cartographers, and others, many of whom were associated with the great surveys of the trans-Mississippi. The whole is admirably illustrated with some 60 map reproductions and other illustrations. References, a select bibliography, and index are of much utility. All collections.""-- ""Choice"" ""This is an important work that students of the history of American cartography will want to own.""-- ""Imago Mundi"""

Short''s fascinating and generously illustrated book examines the changing face of maps as ''social constructions'' in the new found land over three centuries. --The Guardian

Author Information

John Rennie Short teaches in the Department of Geography at Syracuse University in New York. He is the author of many books, including Alternative Geographies (2000).

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