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A History of America in 100 Maps
Throughout its history, America has been defined through maps. Whether made for military strategy or urban reform, to encourage settlement or to investigate disease, maps invest information with meaning by translating it into visual form. They capture what people knew, what they thought they knew, what they hoped for, and what they feared. As such they offer unrivaled windows onto the past.
In this book Susan Schulten uses maps to explore five centuries of American history, from the voyages of European discovery to the digital age. With stunning visual clarity, A History of America in 100 Maps showcases the power of cartography to illuminate and complicate our understanding of the past.
Gathered primarily from the British Library’s incomparable archives and compiled into nine chronological chapters, these one hundred full-color maps range from the iconic to the unfamiliar. Each is discussed in terms of its specific features as well as its larger historical significance in a way that conveys a fresh perspective on the past. Some of these maps were made by established cartographers, while others were made by unknown individuals such as Cherokee tribal leaders, soldiers on the front, and the first generation of girls to be formally educated. Some were tools of statecraft and diplomacy, and others were instruments of social reform or even advertising and entertainment. But when considered together, they demonstrate the many ways that maps both reflect and influence historical change.
Audacious in scope and charming in execution, this collection of one hundred full-color maps offers an imaginative and visually engaging tour of American history that will show readers a new way of navigating their own worlds.
In this book Susan Schulten uses maps to explore five centuries of American history, from the voyages of European discovery to the digital age. With stunning visual clarity, A History of America in 100 Maps showcases the power of cartography to illuminate and complicate our understanding of the past.
Gathered primarily from the British Library’s incomparable archives and compiled into nine chronological chapters, these one hundred full-color maps range from the iconic to the unfamiliar. Each is discussed in terms of its specific features as well as its larger historical significance in a way that conveys a fresh perspective on the past. Some of these maps were made by established cartographers, while others were made by unknown individuals such as Cherokee tribal leaders, soldiers on the front, and the first generation of girls to be formally educated. Some were tools of statecraft and diplomacy, and others were instruments of social reform or even advertising and entertainment. But when considered together, they demonstrate the many ways that maps both reflect and influence historical change.
Audacious in scope and charming in execution, this collection of one hundred full-color maps offers an imaginative and visually engaging tour of American history that will show readers a new way of navigating their own worlds.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2018
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679 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
February 1, 2019
This is a fun and interesting book that provided insights throughout even when I thought I already knew a topic. Put another way, when the U of C press puts a book of maps on the NYT list of 100 best books for the year, that is a good clue on whether it is worth reading.
I like well done map books (10 maps that changed the world, for example). This book reproduces 100 maps to cover the span of US history, provides some broad period grouping, and provides a page or two of content about each map. ...but what an interesting set of maps!
The first sections - up through reconstruction - are the most valuable ones for me. Most of the maps chosen were the actual ones used to guide explorers, set boundaries, structure negotiations, and the like - for example the map the British used in their peace negotiations with the US after the revolution - or the map of the distribution of southern slaves that informed Lincoln prior to the Emancipation Proclamat8on. Get the idea? Really important maps.
What fascinated me was that the maps presented an incomplete and evolving picture of the country, which in turn evolved further beca7se of the history the map was tied to. It is reading about history guided by some of the intellectual artifacts that were directly involved.
The maps after Reconstruction were also good, but I already knew about many of them. A highlight was a series of maps pl9tting the social and demographic characteristics of a given area, whether the African-American area of Philadelphia, the near west side of Chicago, or Chinatown in San Francisco I. 1885. Comparing and contrasting these can fill up a lot of time.
The closer the book gets to the present it is less astonishing, but that is not surprising. This was a fine book and much more than a coffee table volume.
I like well done map books (10 maps that changed the world, for example). This book reproduces 100 maps to cover the span of US history, provides some broad period grouping, and provides a page or two of content about each map. ...but what an interesting set of maps!
The first sections - up through reconstruction - are the most valuable ones for me. Most of the maps chosen were the actual ones used to guide explorers, set boundaries, structure negotiations, and the like - for example the map the British used in their peace negotiations with the US after the revolution - or the map of the distribution of southern slaves that informed Lincoln prior to the Emancipation Proclamat8on. Get the idea? Really important maps.
What fascinated me was that the maps presented an incomplete and evolving picture of the country, which in turn evolved further beca7se of the history the map was tied to. It is reading about history guided by some of the intellectual artifacts that were directly involved.
The maps after Reconstruction were also good, but I already knew about many of them. A highlight was a series of maps pl9tting the social and demographic characteristics of a given area, whether the African-American area of Philadelphia, the near west side of Chicago, or Chinatown in San Francisco I. 1885. Comparing and contrasting these can fill up a lot of time.
The closer the book gets to the present it is less astonishing, but that is not surprising. This was a fine book and much more than a coffee table volume.
April 4, 2019
**Disclaimer**
I am a sucker for maps. There is rarely a map I've encountered that I do not love. I can pour over them for hours and did so at my first job out of college. I still have a paper map of my city in my car that I use often.
This is a beautiful book. It includes an amazing collection with wonderful essays about each map. These essays only increase the useless vat of knowledge stored in my cranium.
If anyone is looking for a gift idea (for me) look no further!
I am a sucker for maps. There is rarely a map I've encountered that I do not love. I can pour over them for hours and did so at my first job out of college. I still have a paper map of my city in my car that I use often.
This is a beautiful book. It includes an amazing collection with wonderful essays about each map. These essays only increase the useless vat of knowledge stored in my cranium.
If anyone is looking for a gift idea (for me) look no further!
February 9, 2021
A more accurate title for this book would be "Remarks mostly on episodes in American history, with illustrations, most of which include maps." We begin, naturally enough, with the gradual discovery of the New World and some early attempts at mapping it. The main focus then turns to the United States, though there are several diversions; one of them, about a Czechoslovakian Jew's escape from Auschwitz, has virtually nothing to do with America. I love maps and would have been interested to read more about the mapping of America, but on that subject this book falls short.
November 1, 2025
An interesting view of the growth of the United States through maps. It broadened my understanding.
April 24, 2019
Outstanding! An excellent choice for anyone interested at all in maps or history or people or America ...
November 6, 2018
I'm neither a cartographer nor a historian, but I do like maps. I also enjoy reading historical vignettes. I thoroughly enjoyed Susan Schulten's A History of America in 100 Maps. Schulten's selection of maps ranges from a pre-Columbian view of the world to an auto-correcting GPS view needed for self-driving cars. Each map was made for a different reason and came with a different story. Schulten's text explains how things included and omitted were a reflection of the map-maker's knowledge, goals and perspectives. The resulting combination of maps and text presents a fascinating view of American history.
November 9, 2019
I love the idea of this book with the various maps and the short essays discussing each choice in great detail. However, as much as I hate giving this one star, I feel that I have to because of the layout. I tried to spend a lot of time really examining each of the maps, not just skimming past them. Because of the layout, so many of the maps cover two pages or parts of two pages which means that a great deal of the map disappears into the hinge and cannot be seen by the reader unless the book was disassembled. This book screams for a lay flat binding.
June 20, 2019
The maps themselves were neat, but the write ups that went along with them didn't seem to have been edited. East and west seemed to have been confused multiple times (pg 230). Also, since when was Andrew Jackson president before John Quincy Adams (pg 130)?
July 17, 2019
This was a cool book, I'm glad I bought it and it's one of my favorite coffee table books. Lots of the maps are really interesting. There's just not much point in actually reading it cover to cover like I did though - the text is mostly an afterthought.
June 25, 2019
The text is kind of dry, but the maps are quite fun/interesting to look at.
June 7, 2019
This is a big coffee table book that I was given for Christmas, and I've been perusing it ever since. I have looked at every map but, to be honest, I have not read all the essays accompanying the maps. They are all written by Susan Schulten, professor of history at the University of Denver. The ones I've read are not stuffy or academic. They are engaging and informative accompaniments to the carefully selected maps, which are engaging and informative, too.
The maps, which appear in chronological order, are sometimes what you might expect: new territories and colonies belonging to various countries staking a claim in what would eventually become the United States, and how Europe saw the New World. But early on we get a map of West Africa showing the origins of the Atlantic slave trade, started by the Portuguese, then dominated by the Dutch, then taken over by the English. African slaves provided the free labor that allowed colonies in both North and South America to prosper. This is a key and tragic element in the history of the Americas.
We see William Penn's 1683 grid map for the layout of Philadelphia; a Native American map on deerskin circa 1721 that is a guide to the trade war in South Carolina between European settlers and 13 Native American tribes with various alliances and trade networks; and James Poupard and Benjamin Franklin's Chart of the Gulf Stream.
My favorite map is "The Geography of Sin," an allegorical map made in 1838 by Reverend John Christian Wiltberger, a member of the Temperance movement. It presents the rewards of abstinence and the dangers of the "Land of Inebriation." The Sea of Temperance is connected to the Sea of Intemperance by the Tee Total Rail Road. The lake has tributaries to Wine Lake in the province of False Security, Beer Lake in the province of False Pleasure, etc. The many details of the map are most illuminating.
There are military maps from the Civil War; a map illustrating the extermination of the American Bison from 1889: an 1885 "official" map of Chinatown in San Francisco marking in different colors Chinese businesses, gambling houses, opium dens, joss houses, Chinese houses of prostitution with Chinese women and Chinese houses of Prostutution with white women, all to focus on "Chinese immorality"; a 1904 nationalities map of Chicago; a 1942 Afro-American travel map (Green Book is mentioned); maps of the Erie Canal (good essay) and the Panama Canal; Disneyland; and the Interstate.
I'm sure I didn't discuss 100 maps. I had to stop myself because because my review is getting way too long. But I'm sure you can sense just how much I like this book and how much I'm learning from it. It will be on my coffee table for some time to come.
The maps, which appear in chronological order, are sometimes what you might expect: new territories and colonies belonging to various countries staking a claim in what would eventually become the United States, and how Europe saw the New World. But early on we get a map of West Africa showing the origins of the Atlantic slave trade, started by the Portuguese, then dominated by the Dutch, then taken over by the English. African slaves provided the free labor that allowed colonies in both North and South America to prosper. This is a key and tragic element in the history of the Americas.
We see William Penn's 1683 grid map for the layout of Philadelphia; a Native American map on deerskin circa 1721 that is a guide to the trade war in South Carolina between European settlers and 13 Native American tribes with various alliances and trade networks; and James Poupard and Benjamin Franklin's Chart of the Gulf Stream.
My favorite map is "The Geography of Sin," an allegorical map made in 1838 by Reverend John Christian Wiltberger, a member of the Temperance movement. It presents the rewards of abstinence and the dangers of the "Land of Inebriation." The Sea of Temperance is connected to the Sea of Intemperance by the Tee Total Rail Road. The lake has tributaries to Wine Lake in the province of False Security, Beer Lake in the province of False Pleasure, etc. The many details of the map are most illuminating.
There are military maps from the Civil War; a map illustrating the extermination of the American Bison from 1889: an 1885 "official" map of Chinatown in San Francisco marking in different colors Chinese businesses, gambling houses, opium dens, joss houses, Chinese houses of prostitution with Chinese women and Chinese houses of Prostutution with white women, all to focus on "Chinese immorality"; a 1904 nationalities map of Chicago; a 1942 Afro-American travel map (Green Book is mentioned); maps of the Erie Canal (good essay) and the Panama Canal; Disneyland; and the Interstate.
I'm sure I didn't discuss 100 maps. I had to stop myself because because my review is getting way too long. But I'm sure you can sense just how much I like this book and how much I'm learning from it. It will be on my coffee table for some time to come.
June 8, 2019
We are such visual creatures. We need to "see" in order to understand. The visual storytelling that these maps that are astutely hand picked by the author explain how some have changed the course of human history.
Maps are the precursor to the explosion of infographics that we see now due to the deluge of data.
As with infographics, maps have the ability to condense complex information into one easy to visualize image.
The perception of America has changed drastically since the 1400s when the continent became aware to mapmakers. These maps are ordered in giving one of the best history lessons I have ever had.
They include:
1) An inadvertant text addition (and eventual removal) by Martin Waldseemullers to his map in 1507 gave the continent it's name (after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci).
2) Delineation of the British and French boundaries near the Mississippi in a map ultimately showcased the British win in the French and Indian War in late 1700s.
3) General Sherman used population census and wheat harvest maps to win the Civil War by recruiting people along his military march and ensuring there was enough food to survive when cut loose from their chain of supply.
4) Suffragetes designed maps of the U.S. states supporting women's right to vote to push for political action. As more states supporting women's vote, the map would be updated showcasing the strength of their movement and ultimately getting it in 1919.
...and even to how maps are used by self-driving cars in our modern day.
Maps are the precursor to the explosion of infographics that we see now due to the deluge of data.
As with infographics, maps have the ability to condense complex information into one easy to visualize image.
The perception of America has changed drastically since the 1400s when the continent became aware to mapmakers. These maps are ordered in giving one of the best history lessons I have ever had.
They include:
1) An inadvertant text addition (and eventual removal) by Martin Waldseemullers to his map in 1507 gave the continent it's name (after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci).
2) Delineation of the British and French boundaries near the Mississippi in a map ultimately showcased the British win in the French and Indian War in late 1700s.
3) General Sherman used population census and wheat harvest maps to win the Civil War by recruiting people along his military march and ensuring there was enough food to survive when cut loose from their chain of supply.
4) Suffragetes designed maps of the U.S. states supporting women's right to vote to push for political action. As more states supporting women's vote, the map would be updated showcasing the strength of their movement and ultimately getting it in 1919.
...and even to how maps are used by self-driving cars in our modern day.
February 3, 2019
Really cool. I got this large format “coffee table” book from the public library. It features beautiful reproductions of 100 different maps, ranging from the 15th century to the modern day, with clearly written historical background on each one.
Many of the maps are fascinating, from early explorers’ maps that show California as an island, with Japan in the center of a very narrow Pacific Ocean, through a heartbreaking 1889 map showing the shrinking range of the American bison over the decades, to a painstaking hand-rendered map created for the aviation industry in 1949, that looks just like a satellite image, years before any satellite existed.
My only wish is that the book were even bigger, or that I had a much better magnifying glass. Some of these maps are very detailed and very large; it’s hard to take it all in.
Many of the maps are fascinating, from early explorers’ maps that show California as an island, with Japan in the center of a very narrow Pacific Ocean, through a heartbreaking 1889 map showing the shrinking range of the American bison over the decades, to a painstaking hand-rendered map created for the aviation industry in 1949, that looks just like a satellite image, years before any satellite existed.
My only wish is that the book were even bigger, or that I had a much better magnifying glass. Some of these maps are very detailed and very large; it’s hard to take it all in.
August 11, 2019
A thought-provoking walk through American history via maps. I enjoyed sitting through them and, when wanting to learn more, reading the accompanying text.
The key learn for me was the concept that maps can show much more than geography, and in fact, can be more powerful that way. These maps show: mindset (New Yorkers inflated sense of self); imperialism (Rand McNally map showing annexation of territories by US), segregation (Philly home map), social networks (Native American deerskin trade); geologic history (Mississippi River location over the eons); Destruction (General Sherman military map of GA showing resources, using geo-based resource data to destroy the South); and disease (spread of AIDS).
A future edition might be better served by removing the chronological classification and instead going for these innovative mappings.
The key learn for me was the concept that maps can show much more than geography, and in fact, can be more powerful that way. These maps show: mindset (New Yorkers inflated sense of self); imperialism (Rand McNally map showing annexation of territories by US), segregation (Philly home map), social networks (Native American deerskin trade); geologic history (Mississippi River location over the eons); Destruction (General Sherman military map of GA showing resources, using geo-based resource data to destroy the South); and disease (spread of AIDS).
A future edition might be better served by removing the chronological classification and instead going for these innovative mappings.
February 5, 2021
As a geographer, I am always fascinated by maps and as a social studies professor, I enjoy all of the social sciences, however, I found this book somewhat hard to read. I read an earlier book by Susan Schulten on the history of the geography in the American social studies curriculum and found it fascinating. This book seems much more approachable but I found is somewhat hard to both concentrate on the 100 maps that she includes in this collection and her write-ups about each maps. Some of the earlier maps were hard to read and you had to trust her discussions about them. Later, on the maps were more clear but the maps chosen seemed almost too eclectic. I wish that I had liked this book more than I did because it included many elements of ideas and graphics that I really like. It just didn't gel for me.
May 25, 2020
A wonderfully eclectic tour through U.S. history through 100 carefully selected maps. I never really realized how much choice goes into map-making, which is far more than simply reflecting interesting locales and natural features on a two- (sometimes three-) dimensional graphic. Maps were not only guides but also propaganda, marketing materials, and legal or philosophical arguments. The author also does a good job of highlighting maps made by diverse groups who have made up the story of the United States from before its birth, including an intriguing map of commercial relationships by a Native American leader. The book isn't meant to be a comprehensive history of the United States, but rather a brisk stroll through it using these very functional works of art.
January 13, 2019
Susan Schulten authored “A History of America in 100 Maps” for publication by the University of Chicago Press in 2018. This exceptional book traces how geography and mapping define America’s history from 1490 to 2001. The maps she chronicles provide insights into technologies such as self driving vehicles, political relevance of gerrymandering, and the underlying geographic effects of disease as well as contagions. I enjoyed viewing her examples of “flow” maps as they relate to understanding immigration patterns, Supreme Court opinions, and war strategies. (L/P)
July 19, 2019
Like a visit to a really cool, well-curated museum exhibit. Schulten points out that all maps have a political, economic, social or scientific view point. Spans maps from the 15th century created in the age of Columbian exploration to an post 9/11 map of lower Manhattan and the future Deep Maps used by autonomous vehicles. It creates a different overview of U.S history. Highly recommended.
April 2, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It provides an excellent journey through the history of the USA with excellent maps to illustrate along the way. The maps had real variety but covered the breadth of macro and local geographic history. The sections were just the right length. I learned much about US history whilst looking at the maps.
December 21, 2018
I’m not a big history buff. But I’m trying to expand my horizons. The Economist recommended this book and it didn’t disappoint. It’s pretty dry and was a slow read for me but had some really fascinating maps insight. And I learned some stuff!
3.0 stars
3.0 stars
October 2, 2021
This collection of the various maps is both informative and quite entertaining regarding many things not previously aware in the history of America.
Possibly your next coffee table book.
Completely well worth viewing and the five stars that were given.
Possibly your next coffee table book.
Completely well worth viewing and the five stars that were given.
November 7, 2018
This is a really cool book! Guaranteed to appeal to history enthusiasts and cartography buffs alike. An excellent coffee-table book and/or Christmas present.
February 9, 2019
Fascinating look at American history through maps, some well known and some very idiosyncratic. The author tackled many of the challenging aspects of our history through creative looks at maps.
March 20, 2019
Fascinating & informative.
July 26, 2019
It provides some very nice snapshots. My only problem is that some maps are too small to read.
May 11, 2021
Had this sat on my bedside for years and slowly enjoyed a few pages each week. Map porn disguised as a history book, what’s there not to like?!!
April 14, 2022
Best map book I’ve ever read. Also, the worst.
May 3, 2022
My friend had a competition of which country was the best. The Canadian history book only has 10 maps while this immaculate masterpiece portrays 100 unique maps.
January 11, 2024
I would say the cartography (and curation thereof) is better than the writing, but still, all lots of fun for the map/history nerd, like me.
May 3, 2024
the best book
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews