<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: A different view of American History
Review: Finally, a historical atlas with the imagination to look beyond the requisite but unilluminating maps of wars, battles, and westward expansion to the rich territory of social history. Urban sprawl and white flight, ethnic politics, prostitution, the death penalty, segregation, civil rights, and many others all put in an appearance here. Some of the maps, while seemingly provincial in their coverage (WPA projects in Erie, PA, for example) are effectively used to illustrate broader points about the geography of American history. My only complaint is that in quite a few places, some sloppy editing (mistaken keys, mismarked captions, etc.) has marred the otherwise excellent cartography.
Rating:
Summary: A different view of American History
Review: Finally, a historical atlas with the imagination to look beyond the requisite but unilluminating maps of wars, battles, and westward expansion to the rich territory of social history. Urban sprawl and white flight, ethnic politics, prostitution, the death penalty, segregation, civil rights, and many others all put in an appearance here. Some of the maps, while seemingly provincial in their coverage (WPA projects in Erie, PA, for example) are effectively used to illustrate broader points about the geography of American history. My only complaint is that in quite a few places, some sloppy editing (mistaken keys, mismarked captions, etc.) has marred the otherwise excellent cartography.
Rating: 
Summary: Mapping America's Past
Review: Mapping America's Past is an attempt at using maps to portray American social, economic, military, and political development. The maps that are included are excellent, but what was included is somewhat puzzling. The general analysis of wars, expansion, and elections are useful, but maps of political party development in the Cleveland area or prostitution in New York City are not entirely relevant to the general American history student. Similarly, many of the accompanying texts offer little detailed insight into the topics the maps cover.This book should be considered a general resource, but for an in-depth historical atlas, the reader must look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Mapping America's Past
Review: Mapping America's Past is an attempt at using maps to portray American social, economic, military, and political development. The maps that are included are excellent, but what was included is somewhat puzzling. The general analysis of wars, expansion, and elections are useful, but maps of political party development in the Cleveland area or prostitution in New York City are not entirely relevant to the general American history student. Similarly, many of the accompanying texts offer little detailed insight into the topics the maps cover. This book should be considered a general resource, but for an in-depth historical atlas, the reader must look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: The men without a country
Review: Rarely have I seen a better example of intellectual elites' skewing data to advance a political view--in this case, the loathing of America. Everything the authors could get their hands on, from early settlement, to the causes of the Civil War, to the continued exploitation of differences in American society today, is used to give the impression that America was founded upon hate and injustice, and has prospered only by the exaltation of vice and the plunder of the weak. If there is an example of goodness and virtue that resulted from the American experiment in freedom, I can't find it in this book. Pity Carnes, Garraty, and Williams.
Rating:
Summary: The men without a country
Review: Rarely have I seen a better example of intellectual elites' skewing data to advance a political view--in this case, the loathing of America. Everything the authors could get their hands on, from early settlement, to the causes of the Civil War, to the continued exploitation of differences in American society today, is used to give the impression that America was founded upon hate and injustice, and has prospered only by the exaltation of vice and the plunder of the weak. If there is an example of goodness and virtue that resulted from the American experiment in freedom, I can't find it in this book. Pity Carnes, Garraty, and Williams.
<< 1 >>
|
