Customer Reviews

The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Vol. 2: Continental America, 1800-1867 (Paperback)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a really good book. The maps alone are worth it. Meinig represents the underpublicized geographic view of history, giving a different and needed perspective in American studies. All three of his works in this series are excellent. Following on his earlier work in historical geography, Meinig's position shows how regions, rather than political divisions of "states" contribute to our nation's development, as well as showing how the "state" concept applies. This book,focusing on Western expansion, Civil War, sectionalism, etc. further represents the important geographic influences in development of the "United" States of America. This book should be of interest to any general reader wanting a serious and unique view of socio-historical studies.

A little academic. Worth reading for the knowledge of our country. Definitely buy the entire series and read in order. Gives a better sweap of the history of the country.

But, part of the interest in Geography is in seeing the physical ramifications of what is being talked about... more maps, please.

The main reason for the middle ranking is because I felt sometimes as if I was rereading a passage I had just read a couple of pages back. I guess it was written in that old fashioned style of "tell-tell-tell" approach. ["Tell them what you're going to say. Say it. Then remind them what you said. ] BORING.. who has time to read things 3 times these days !?!?!? Maybe a little editing could get the page count from 600 down to 300 and add more maps?!?

I would have given it a higher rank if it gave a summary overview and then wrote the account and ended with a summary - BUT THEY NEED TO BE DIFFERENT WORDS, SENTENCES, and IDEAS..... NOT THE EXACT SAME SENTENCES.