When
looking at a map of the United States, the boundaries of the states
seem unchanging, some borders obviously follow rivers while others are
straight lines, clearly drawn for expedience.
In a few cases, there are aspects of a state’s shape the do
make you wonder what the surveyors and cartographers were thinking.
Mark Stein not only answers the obvious questions, but also
delves into the less obvious and even mundane answers to explain How
the States Got Their Names.
At
the beginning of the book, Stein offers a chapter which he calls
“Don’t Skip This,” in which he explains some of the basics of
state formation. Throughout the rest of the book, he continuously
refers back to this chapter, so actually reading it is a good idea. In
it, he explains some commonalities between several states and lays the
groundwork for the variety of exceptions which will follow.
Each
of the fifty state chapters begins with a question or series of
questions about the state’s shape to hook the reader in.
Obviously, these questions will all be answered in the
subsequent pages (although in some cases, since the shape of a state
is often dependent on the neighboring states’ claims, Stein directs
the reader to other parts of the book, not just “Don’t Skip
This.”) Stein looks at
the boundaries that form the four cardinal directions, explain the
politics behind the state and why there have been deviations from the
way the state was initially contemplated. His style, when he does
this, is nice
conversational style.
While
the chapters do provide historical and geographical context, often
Stein only touches cursorily on the most interesting aspects behind
the state’s shapes. When
discussing the Toledo War in both the chapters on Ohio and Michigan,
he gives a quick outline of what happened, but doesn’t go into any
real depth on the events. The war is germane to the states’ shapes,
the specifics aren’t. Unfortunately, in many cases, those tangential
facts are as interesting as the ones included.
One
thing that does become clear in Stein’s book is that the boundaries
didn’t just occur, even when they run along a river or mountain
crest. Individuals were involved, such as Sidney Edgerton, who
helped carve a slice of Montana out of Idaho.
Similarly the boundaries aren’t always settled once a state
is formed. Kentucky has
frequently laid claim to all of the Ohio River to the North bank’s
high water mark and land on the opposite side of the river when the
river changes its bed. In some of the early instances of state (or
colony) formation, religion played a large role as well.
Although
there are maps throughout the book, How
the States Got Their Names is best read with a more detailed atlas
to allow the reader to fully visualize the intricacies of geography
that Stein describes and which aren’t completely illustrated by the
book’s own maps.
The short chapters, subject matter, and Stein’s light
style make the book easy to read straight through, although it can
also be dipped into a chapter at a time for some light, but
informative, reading. Stein provides a cogent mix of history,
politics, and geography in explaining why the fifty states that make
up the United States look the way they do, as well as a reminder that
no matter how natural some of the borders appear, they were all laid
out by men who had a motive.
