Flags of the Fifty States and Their Incredible Histories: The Complete Guide to America's Most Powerful Symbols [Hardcover]

Randy Howe (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1585746037 | ISBN-13: 978-1585746033 | Publication Date: November 1, 2002 | Edition: 1st

A beautifully illustrated panorama of the states of the union as seen through their flags.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The concept is a good one. Nice work for the general reader." --The Statesman Journal

"This book includes quick tidbits and facts that makes the history of the nation's flags interesting." --Atlanta Parent

From the Back Cover

Flags of the Fifty States and Their Incredible Histories is an indispensable historical reference and a fascinating, beautiful pictorial guide to the rich history and diversity of our fifty states.The powerful stories behind the creation of our state flags reveal a great deal. The forces that came to bear on what was ultimately chosen to become a territory's emblem provide clear and vivid lessons about the politics, geography, economics, and conflicts of an era--and how they related to the growing United States as well.Flags of the Fifty States and Their Incredible Histories, with beautiful, full-color reproductions of each flag, offers a thorough and eminently readable account of how and why each flag was designed, what the various symbols and figures in the flags mean, and how each flag evolved. This wonderful book is peppered throughout with interesting facts and sidebars, with answers to such questions as why Alaska is represented by the Big Dipper, what significance the diamond has in the flag of Arkansas, how the palmetto tree came to appear on South Carolina's flag, which state features the Union Jack on its flag, and what impact the Civil War had on designs of the state flags of the South.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585746037
• ISBN-13: 978-1585746033
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 7.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,699,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Randy Howe is a special education teacher at The Sound School in New Haven, CT. He is married to Alicia Solis and has a daughter and a son, as well as a cat and a dog, as well as a white picket fence.

Randy has written more than 20 books for Kaplan and Globe Pequot Press (GPP), as well as five "Brainiac" trivia card box sets. Among his best sellers are "Teacher Haiku," "The Quotable Teacher," "Spelling Bee Brainiac," "Nifty 50 States Brainiac," "Flags of the Fifty States," "First Year Teacher," "Globetrotting Brainiac," "Here We Stand," and "A+ Educators." In 2010, Kaplan will publish "One Size Does Not Fit All," a collection of teacher stories about addressing issues of diversity in the classroom. Randy is the editor. Also looking forward, GPP will publish "1001 Smartest Things Teachers Ever Said."

Randy's website is www.randyhowe.net and there is a group called "The Quotable Teacher" on Facebook. Feel free to join by clicking on Like. On Twitter, he tweets as fitzhowe, but admits that tweeting is not yet a strong suit.

In 1989, Randy graduated from Fox Lane High School. In 1993, he received his BA from Hobart College. In 1995, he was awarded a Masters of Professional Studies by Manhattanville College and in 2001 earned his administrative certification from Teachers College, Columbia University. One year later, he began writing a weekly philosophy column for McGraw-Hill's college division. His first book was published in 2002, as well.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Book, December 24, 2002

By 

Dean Thomas (Downey, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flags of the Fifty States and Their Incredible Histories: The Complete Guide to America's Most Powerful Symbols (Hardcover)

I had a real intense read of this book after getting it (thanks to a heads-up from the North American Vexillological Association). There were a couple of small errors I noticed (fault of the illustrator) and a few omissions involving the flag histories of some of the state flags. But despite this, it is pleasing to see that the author has succeeded in putting out a book that endeavours to put the descriptions and histories of the state flags into a format that is easy to follow and enjoyable to read. The few descriptive omissions that I detected are not major ones and his detailed explanation of the new Georgia State flag aptly illustrates the debate between flag simplicity advocates and advocates of political flag symbolism. It is a good book overall.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read for any age group, December 12, 2002

By 

"kgriff1118" (West Hartford, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flags of the Fifty States and Their Incredible Histories: The Complete Guide to America's Most Powerful Symbols (Hardcover)

Randy Howe has written an extremely interesting and compelling book about the flags of the 50 states. It's a great history lesson about the United States and filled with facts that will interest even the most casual history buffs.I couldn't put it down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ENJOYABLE AND INFORMATIVE READ., December 9, 2009

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flags of the Fifty States and Their Incredible Histories: The Complete Guide to America's Most Powerful Symbols (Hardcover)

I happened to grab this little book at the library on a whim as I passed the shelf it was on, on my way out to the check-out desk. While I like flags, am aware of flags and have certainly seen my share, I am not a flag fanatic nor have I ever been particularly interest in the subject. I do however, have a love for trivia and love learning new things. This work by Randy Howe certainly was worth the effort of checking it out and then reading. I found information about our state flags that I never knew existed. Now being a non-expert on the subject (quite the opposite as a matter of fact), I can only comment on the book from the view of a complete neophyte and certainly one who is completely ignorant of any aspect of the study flags and standards...)Vexillology?). I certainly do not have the knowledge of being able to vouch for the accuracy of each flag, nor its history for that matter. Now that being said.....

The book for me was well designed. Each flag of our 50 states is examined and at least two full pages of its history, design, origins, trivial facts and time line are presented along with a full page photograph of each flag in detail.

The book is quite good in that you can find, identify and read of the flags that most interest you, skipping over those that hold little to no fascination or simply not on your radar screen. The text is no nonsense crisp and quite easy to read and understand. There is a refreshing lack of technical terms, or "flag jargon" to annoy the reader who is not into flags as many are. Each offering includes little side boxes filled with trivial non-flag facts about the state along with state nicknames, motto, and date admitted to the union along with controversies, if any.

I suspect that this work would be of great interest to those who are enthusiastic about their flag studies, but it is also of great interest to those, like myself, who are simply interested in a lot of different things and always feels good when he picks up some new knowledge.

This was a fun and informative read. The book is quite professionally done in a physical sense.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks