Customer Reviews

Historical Atlas of California: With Original Maps

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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.

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.

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.

True, the book is impressive, but it is not a historical atlas. It is a collection of original maps organized in chronological (and occasionally topical) order. There are also old aerial drawings and photographs. If you want to see the history of the state through old maps, the book is for you. If you love old maps and are fan of cartography, you will like the book. However, the maps, though colorful and interesting, do not explain much. They would be excellent as an addition, but not the main maps. First, the maps, of course, are made with the knowledge and interest of the people who made them. This would be similar to writing history of California using articles and books written during the times that are being covered. As you can imagine, that would not explain much except what people knew at the time of the writing. Even if we could accept the old maps as showing California at a particular time, the atlas needs more. What is missing is a graphic representation of historical development of the state. For example, the first discoveries, various explorers and their movement, the location of native tribes, their languages, economic development, the oil exploration, transportation routes, and much more.

Hayes' "Historical Atlas of California" is a real treasure.
His book spans 500 years of the history of CA.
It is very readable and a "must have" for any student of historical geography. I strongly recommend it. It is well written and very well illustrated. A real find.
Anybody interested in California's past and future would be well advised to at least peruse this "coffee table" sized book.
It has a wealth of information and lots of rare maps.

This beautiful book contains copies of 476 historic maps dealing with California history from the earliest times to the present. This book is for any historian interested in California history, and any individual interested in maps. These are located in repositories all over the United States, thus we can virtually travel and update our history by reading this wonderful book. I was particularly delighted to find an 1847 rendering of the battle of Los Angeles between the Americans and the Mexicans. Each map is thoroughly cataloged in an appendix along with a fine bibliograhy.

It was great when it was talking about the history of California, from the time of Cortes. It had great explanations about each of its maps, and the maps showed the California culture, with the Spanish maps, and cartoons.

This is a fantastic book! I gave it to my father for Christmas. He loves it. He is also a historian. Highly reccomended.

This book was so much better than expected. A great way to explore California's history with a visual feast of maps. My particular interest was San Francisco, and the book really delivered with a concept map of what SF looked like in 1848. I was so pleased with my purchase and have spent hours pouring over this beautiful book. I would definitely recommend its purchase.