53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More historical atlas excellence from Mr. Hayes, October 31, 2007
This review is from: Historical Atlas of California: With Original Maps (Hardcover)
The Historical Atlas of California is truly a drink of ice water in the desert of map history for the golden state. Certainly, nothing existing can compare with the pure visual appeal of this latest addition to Derek Hayes' wonderful historical atlases. This book is a very impressive blend of solid scholarship and impeccable taste in cartographic materials covering the state from the "California as an island" representations to the whimsical joys of Jo Mora's pictorial masterpieces. This work is a much needed historical overview of the geographic representations of the area and a real map page turner featuring beautiful works of art that also happen to be maps. It never skimps on illustration which makes it a genuine coffee table book and the text makes it a worthy addition to any first-class reference collection. The "Historical Atlas of California" not only fills a great void in historical information on mapping in California, it is just plain fun to page through time and time again. As a map librarian for almost twenty years I have seen few atlases as impressive as this one.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended, March 1, 2008
This review is from: Historical Atlas of California: With Original Maps (Hardcover)
I was delighted with the book. It is a treasure trove of information provided you use it properly. I use a magnifying glass to view the maps in close detail to get the most out of the book. If you look closely at the maps you are treated to an "evolution" of the state from the time that it was thought to be an island to the present. By inspecting each map very closely you see places that now don't exist, lakes that have disappeared, and roads that have gone from dirt paths to super highways. If you love history as I do, you'll love this book, I also recommend "the Historical Atlas of the United States" by the same author. Same format, same great look at the nation through time.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cartographical cornucopia, April 13, 2008
This review is from: Historical Atlas of California: With Original Maps (Hardcover)
This chronologically depicts California's discovery, development, and divisions. It follows the guesses of the earliest European explorers (I wonder what a native map would look like, but none's represented) and you see the island gradually become a peninsula or archipelago before assuming over the centuries its coastline. Then, the interior begins to take shape, and cities and farms and railroads fill the spaces. A sort of time-lapse ideologically and practically from the past five centuries.
You better understand the gaps: Virginia is shown a few days from California in one early attempt, while the Gold Rush pioneers used routes that were narrowly drawn and could not be deviated from-- around the rest of the West there might be empty spaces, figuratively or cartographically. San Francisco benefits especially throughout its growth, and a 1906 aerial drawing shows dramatically the fire sweeping some--but not all-- of The City. Hayes informs us in his text how the fatalities had been underreported (under 500) when they may have been three or even six thousand. The speculators and profiteers did not want to ruin their chances of rebuilding and selling to new residents. Such chicanery can also be found in the early Spanish who kept their findings off the maps, or kept the maps secret, to avoid tipping off discoveries to the rival British.
Not only rail and auto and industrial, but oil, military, and unusual maps appear. Those in which the patterns of Los Angeles 125 years ago can be found in the train routes, and how these mirror the freeways today, are instructive. I also learned that a 185-mile interurban line once ran from Chico to the Bay Area, to my great surprise. Among other finds: the color-coded charts directing the Japanese relocations during WWII, Jo Mora's Sierra cartoon (but his Hollywood one's not here), and a 1887 Hollywood real estate map from its first booster who, typically, showed many more mountains than even a pre-smoggy day could be glimpsed from Tinseltown-- let alone the beaches!
The text is informative, but I caught an error: Henry Kaiser's steel mill would have not been built at Fontana "eight miles inland" to avoid Japanese attack. Perhaps Hayes meant "eighty"? I do wish some of the maps were larger; the book's affordable and portable enough, but this invariably cuts down the ability even with magnification to discern the kinds of precision that any lover of maps likely has who'd buy this book.
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