A geographic encyclopedia. Names, descriptions, and characteristics of thousands of places in the world.
How to Lie with Maps
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An instant classic when first published in 1991, How to Lie with Maps revealed how the choices mapmakers make--consciously or unconsciously--mean that every map inevitably presents only one of many possible stories about the places it depicts. The principles Mark Monmonier outlined back then remain true today, despite significant technological changes in the making and use of maps. The introduction and spread of digital maps and mapping software, however, have added new wrinkles to the ever-evolving landscape of modern mapmaking. ​Fully updated for the digital age, this new edition of How to Lie with Maps examines the myriad ways that technology offers new opportunities for cartographic mischief, deception, and propaganda. While retaining the same brevity, range, and humor as its predecessors, this third edition includes significant updates throughout as well as new chapters on image maps, prohibitive cartography, and online maps. It also includes an expanded section of color images and an updated list of sources for further reading.
Beyond the map : unruly enclaves, ghostly places, emerging lands and our search for new utopias
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New islands are under construction or emerging because of climate change. Eccentric enclaves and fantastic utopian experiments are multiplying. Once-secret fantasy gardens are cracking open their doors to outsiders. Our world is becoming stranger by the day--and Alastair Bonnett observes and captures every fascinating change. In Beyond the Map, Bonnett presents stories of the world's most extraordinary spaces--many unmarked on any official map--all of which challenge our assumptions about what we know--or think we know--about our world. As cultural, religious and political boundaries ebb and flow with each passing day, traditional maps unravel and fragment. With the same adventurous spirit he effused in the acclaimed Unruly Places, Bonnett takes us to thirty-nine incredible spots around the globe to explore these changing boundaries and stimulate our geographical imagination. Some are tied to disruptive contemporary political turbulence, such as the rise of ISIL, Russia's incursions into Ukraine and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom. Others explore the secret places not shown on Google Earth or reflect fast-changing landscapes. Beyond the Map journeys out into a world of mysterious, daunting and magical spaces. It is a world of hidden cultures and ghostly memories, of uncountable new islands and curious stabs at paradise. From the phantom tunnels of the Tokyo subway to a stunning movie-set re-creation of 1950s-era Moscow; from the caliphate of the Islamic State to virtual cybertopias--this book serves as an imaginative guide to the farthest fringes of geography.
How the West was drawn : mapping, Indians, and the construction of the Trans-Mississippi West
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How the West Was Drawn explores the geographic and historical experiences of the Pawnees, the Iowas, and the Lakotas during the European and American contest for imperial control of the Great Plains during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. David Bernstein argues that the American West was a collaborative construction between Native peoples and Euro-American empires that developed cartographic processes and culturally specific maps, which in turn reflected encounter and conflict between settler states and indigenous peoples. Bernstein explores the cartographic creation of the Trans-Mississippi West through an interdisciplinary methodology in geography and history. He shows how the Pawnees and the Iowas--wedged between powerful Osages, Sioux, the horse- and captive-rich Comanche Empire, French fur traders, Spanish merchants, and American Indian agents and explorers--devised strategies of survivance and diplomacy to retain autonomy during this era. The Pawnees and the Iowas developed a strategy of cartographic resistance to predations by both Euro-American imperial powers and strong indigenous empires, navigating the volatile and rapidly changing world of the Great Plains by brokering their spatial and territorial knowledge either to stronger indigenous nations or to much weaker and conquerable American and European powers. How the West Was Drawn is a revisionist and interdisciplinary understanding of the global imperial contest for North America's Great Plains that illuminates in fine detail the strategies of survival of the Pawnees, the Iowas, and the Lakotas amid accommodation to predatory Euro-American and Native empires.
Walls: a History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
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In Walls historian David Frye tells the epic story of history's greatest manmade barriers, from ancient times to the present. It is a haunting and frequently eye-opening saga--one that reveals a startling link between what we build and how we live. With Frye as our raconteur-guide, we journey back to a time before barriers of brick and stone even existed--to an era in which nomadic tribes vied for scarce resources, and each man was bred to a life of struggle. Ultimately, those same men would create edifices of mud, brick, and stone, and with them effectively divide humanity: on one side were those the walls protected; on the other, those the walls kept out. The stars of this narrative are the walls themselves--rising up in places as ancient and exotic as Mesopotamia, Babylon, Greece, China, Rome, Mongolia, Afghanistan, the lower Mississippi and even Central America. As we journey across time and place, we discover a hidden, thousand-mile-long wall in Asia's steppes; learn of bizarre Spartan rituals; watch Mongol chieftains lead their miles-long hordes; witness the epic siege of Constantinople; chill at the fate of French explorers; marvel at the folly of the Maginot Line; tense at the gathering crisis in Cold War Berlin; gape at Hollywood's gated royalty; and contemplate the wall mania of our own era. A masterpiece of historical recovery and preeminent storytelling, Walls is alternately evocative, amusing, chilling, and deeply insightful as it gradually reveals the startling ways that barriers have affected our psyches. The questions this book summons are both intriguing and profound: Did walls make civilization possible? And can we live without them?
The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World
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The world's most authoritative atlas, beautifully re-designed and fully updated in a new 15th edition. A unique and timeless gift for all occasions. Our world as it is today in one beautiful volume. Fully updated mapping with over 200,000 place names. New world topics include migration, health and resources. The 15th edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World has been beautifully redesigned. At 45 cm high, this impressive large scale atlas will become a treasured possession. It is a benchmark of cartographic excellence, trusted by governments, media and international organisations as well as being a trusted reference source for households across the country.
Borderland narratives : negotiation and accommodation in North America's contested spaces, 1500-1850
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Broadening the idea of "borderlands" beyond its traditional geographic meaning, this volume features new ways of characterizing the political, cultural, religious, and racial fluidity of early America. It extends the concept to regions not typically seen as borderlands and demonstrates how the term has been used in recent years to describe unstable spaces where people, cultures, and viewpoints collide. The essays include an exploration of the diplomacy and motives that led colonial and Native leaders in the Ohio Valley?including those from the Shawnee and Cherokee?to cooperate and form coalitions; a contextualized look at the relationship between African Americans and Seminole Indians on the Florida borderlands; and an assessment of the role that animal husbandry played in the economies of southeastern Indians. An essay on the experiences of those who disappeared in the early colonial southwest highlights the magnitude of destruction on these emergent borderlands and features a fresh perspective on Cabeza de Vaca. Yet another essay examines the experiences of French missionary priests in the trans-Appalachian West, adding a new layer of understanding to places ordinarily associated with the evangelical Protestant revivals of the Second Great Awakening. Collectively these essays focus on marginalized peoples and reveal how their experiences and decisions lie at the center of the history of borderlands. They also look at the process of cultural mixing and the crossing of religious and racial boundaries. A timely assessment of the dynamic field of borderland studies, Borderland Narratives argues that the interpretive model of borders is essential to understanding the history of colonial North America. A volume in the series Contested Boundaries, edited by Gene Allen SmithContributors: Andrew Frank | A. Glenn Crothers | Rob Harper | Tyler Boulware | Carla Gerona | Rebekah M. K. Mergenthal | Michael Pasquier | Philip Mulder | Julie Winch
Drawing the Line : how Mason and Dixon surveyed the most famous border in America
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The second edition of Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America updates Edwin Danson's definitive history of the creation of the Mason - Dixon Line to reflect new research and archival documents that have come to light in recent years. Features numerous updates and revisions reflecting new information that has come to light on surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon Reveals the true origin of the survey's starting point and the actual location of the surveyors' observatory in Embreeville Offers expanded information on Mason and Dixon's transit of Venus adventures, which would be an important influence on their future work, and on Mason's final years pursuing a share of the fabulous Longitude prize, and his death in Philadelphia Includes a new, more comprehensive appendix describing the surveying methods utilized to establish the Mason-Dixon Line
The geography of names : indigenous to post-foundational
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This book examines geographical names, place-names, and toponymy from philosophical and cultural evolutionary perspectives. Geographical name-tracking-networks (Geo-NTNs) are posited as tools for tracking names through time and across space, and for making sense of how names evolve both temporally and spatially. Examples from North and South American indigenous groups, the Canadian arctic, Wales, England, and the Middle East are brought into a theoretical framework for making sense of aspects of place-naming practices, beliefs, and systems. New geographical tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) are demonstrated to be important in the production and maintenance of robust networks for keeping names and their associated meanings viable in a rapidly changing world where place-naming is being taken up increasingly in social media and other new mapping platforms. The Geography of Names makes the case that geographical names are transmitted memetically (i.e. as cultural units, or memes) through what Saul Kripke called communication chains. Combining insights from Kripke with views of later Wittgenstein on language and names as being inherently spatial, the present work advances theories of both these thinkers into an explicitly geographical inquiry that advances philosophical and practical aspects of naming, language, and mapping.
War Plan Red : America's secret plan to invade Canada and Canada's secret plan to invade the U.S.
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It's known as the world's friendliest border. Five thousand miles of unfenced, unwalled international coexistence and a symbol of neighborly goodwill between two great nations: the United States and Canada. But just how friendly is it really? InWar Plan Red, the secret "cold war" between the United States and Canada is revealed in full and humorous detail. With colorful maps and historical imagery, the breezy text walks the reader through every aspect of the long-simmering rivalry--from the "Pork and Beans War" between Maine and Newfoundland lumberjacks, to the "Pig War" of the San Juan Islands, culminating with excerpts from actual declassified invasion plans the Canadian and U.S. militaries drew up in the 1920s and 1930s. A perfect gift for history buffs (and Canadians and Americans alike),War Plan Red offers up a new wrinkle in the ever-evolving history of North American continental relations.
Creating the American West : boundaries and borderlands
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Boundaries--lines imposed on the landscape--shape our lives, dictating everything from which candidates we vote for to what schools our children attend to the communities with which we identify. In Creating the American West, historian Derek R. Everett examines the function of these internal lines in American history generally and in the West in particular. Drawing lines to create states in the trans-Mississippi West, he points out, imposed a specific form of political organization that made the West truly American. Everett examines how settlers lobbied for boundaries and how politicians imposed them. He examines the origins of boundary-making in the United States from the colonial era through the Louisiana Purchase. Case studies then explore the ethnic, sectional, political, and economic angles of boundaries. Everett first examines the boundaries between Arkansas and its neighboring Native cultures, and the pseudo war between Missouri and Iowa. He then traces the lines splitting the Oregon Country and the states of California and Nevada, and considers the ethnic and political consequences of the boundary between New Mexico and Colorado. He explains the evolution of the line splitting the Dakotas, and concludes with a discussion of ways in which state boundaries can contribute toward new interpretations of borderlands history. A major theme in the history of state boundaries is the question of whether to use geometric or geographic lines--in other words, lines corresponding to parallels and meridians or those fashioned by natural features. With the distribution of western land, Everett shows, geography gave way to geometry and transformed the West. The end of boundary-making in the late nineteenth century is not the end of the story, however. These lines continue to complicate a host of issues including water rights, taxes, political representation, and immigration. Creating the American West shows how the past continues to shape the present.
Interpreting Land Records
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Base retracement on solid research and historically accurate interpretation Interpreting Land Records is the industry's most complete guide to researching and understanding the historical records germane to land surveying. Coverage includes boundary retracement and the primary considerations during new boundary establishment, as well as an introduction to historical records and guidance on effective research and interpretation. This new edition includes a new chapter titled "Researching Land Records," and advice on overcoming common research problems and insight into alternative resources when official records are unavailable. Topical case studies provide helpful, plain-language descriptions of methods, problems, and resolutions, and appendices provide definitions, context, and modern interpretation of historical words and phrases. The text features exhaustive coverage and notes, with hundreds of case law citations annotated with expert insight that gives readers the complete background of the methods and techniques discussed. Boundary retracement entails the recovery of historical documents related to the original boundary, correct interpretation and analysis, and the accurate application of historic survey principles with correlation to conditions on the ground. This builds a legally-sound defense to the location of the boundary, and is crucial element to any project or transaction concerning land. Interpreting Land Records is the pre-eminent reference to help readers: Interpret historical land records, understanding their creation and documentation Become familiar with the various methods of historic surveys Overcome common research issues, including lost or corrupted records Establish boundaries free of vagueness or abstraction, with clear documentation Haphazard retracement leaves a boundary open to dispute and complicates future retracement efforts. Accuracy depends in part on quality research and the accurate interpretation of available documents. Interpreting Land Records provides comprehensive, practical guidance toward retracement based on sound evidence and technique.
North American Borderlands
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Since the early colonial period, historians have been fascinated with North America¿s borderlands ¿ places where people interacted across multiple, independent political and legal systems. Today the scholarship on these regions is more robust and innovative than ever before. North American Borderlands introduces students to exemplary recent scholarship on this vital topic, showcasing work that delves into the complexities of borderland relationships. Essays range from the seventeenth through the late twentieth century, touch on nearly every region of the continent, and represent a variety of historical approaches and preoccupations. Anchored by a substantial introduction that walks students through the terminology and historiography, the collection presents the major debates and questions most prominent in the field today.
Placenames of the Civil War : cities, towns, villages, railroad stations, forts, camps, islands, rivers, creeks, fords and ferries
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Despite the plethora of books about the Civil War, the origins of many of the placenames associated with the conflict remain a mystery. This gazetteer provides information on nearly 1600 sites, including not only locations of battles and skirmishes but also hospitals, prison camps, military academies, factories and navy yards, both North and South. Also listed are islands, rivers, creeks, fords, ferries and railroad stations, as well as many temporary fort and camp names. From Abbeville, Georgia, where Jefferson Davis stopped in May 1865 days before his capture near Irwinville, to Yorktown, Virginia, which was besieged by General George B. McClellan at the start of the Peninsula campaign, entries explain the origin of each placename and its wartime connections. An appendix listing town and city population figures from the 1860 census completes this informative supplement for Civil War scholars and enthusiasts.
How the states got their shapes too : the people behind the borderlines
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Was Roger Williams too pure for the Puritans, and what does that have to do with Rhode Island? Why did Augustine Herman take ten years to complete the map that established Delaware? How did Rocky Mountain rogues help create the state of Colorado? All this and more is explained in Mark Stein's new book. How the States Got Their Shapes Too follows How the States Got Their Shapes looks at American history through the lens of its borders, but, while How The States Got Their Shapes told us why, this book tells us who. This personal element in the boundary stories reveals how we today are like those who came before us, and how we differ, and most significantly: how their collective stories reveal not only an historical arc but, as importantly, the often overlooked human dimension in that arc that leads to the nation we are today. The people featured in How the States Got Their Shapes Too lived from the colonial era right up to the present. They include African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, women, and of course, white men. Some are famous, such as Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and Daniel Webster. Some are not, such as Bernard Berry, Clarina Nichols, and Robert Steele. And some are names many of us know but don't really know exactly what they did, such as Ethan Allen (who never made furniture, though he burned a good deal of it). In addition, How the States Got Their Shapes Too tells of individuals involved in the Almost States of America, places we sought to include but ultimately did not: Canada, the rest of Mexico (we did get half), Cuba, and, still an issue, Puerto Rico. Each chapter is largely driven by voices from the time, in the form of excerpts from congressional debates, newspapers, magazines, personal letters, and diaries. Told in Mark Stein's humorous voice, How the States Got Their Shapes Too is a historical journey unlike any other you've taken. The strangers you meet here had more on their minds than simple state lines, and this book makes for a great new way of seeing and understanding the United States.
Line in the sand : a history of the Western U.S.-Mexico border
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Line in the Sand details the dramatic transformation of the western U.S.-Mexico border from its creation at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 to the emergence of the modern boundary line in the first decades of the twentieth century. In this sweeping narrative, Rachel St. John explores how this boundary changed from a mere line on a map to a clearly marked and heavily regulated divide between the United States and Mexico. Focusing on the desert border to the west of the Rio Grande, this book explains the origins of the modern border and places the line at the center of a transnational history of expanding capitalism and state power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moving across local, regional, and national scales, St. John shows how government officials, Native American raiders, ranchers, railroad builders, miners, investors, immigrants, and smugglers contributed to the rise of state power on the border and developed strategies to navigate the increasingly regulated landscape. Over the border's history, the U.S. and Mexican states gradually developed an expanding array of official laws, ad hoc arrangements, government agents, and physical barriers that did not close the line, but made it a flexible barrier that restricted the movement of some people, goods, and animals without impeding others. By the 1930s, their efforts had created the foundations of the modern border control apparatus. Drawing on extensive research in U.S. and Mexican archives, Line in the Sand weaves together a transnational history of how an undistinguished strip of land became the significant and symbolic space of state power and national definition that we know today.
No dig, no fly, no go : how maps restrict and control
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Some maps help us find our way; others restrict where we go and what we do. These maps control behavior, regulating activities from flying to fishing, prohibiting students from one part of town from being schooled on the other, and banishing certain individuals and industries to the periphery. This restrictive cartography has boomed in recent decades as governments seek regulate activities as diverse as hiking, building a residence, opening a store, locating a chemical plant, or painting your house anything but regulation colors. It is this aspect of mapping--its power to prohibit--that celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier tackles in No Dig, No Fly, No Go. Rooted in ancient Egypt's need to reestablish property boundaries following the annual retreat of the Nile's floodwaters, restrictive mapping has been indispensable in settling the American West, claiming slices of Antarctica, protecting fragile ocean fisheries, and keeping sex offenders away from playgrounds. But it has also been used for opprobrium: during one of the darkest moments in American history, cartographic exclusion orders helped send thousands of Japanese Americans to remote detention camps. Tracing the power of prohibitive mapping at multiple levels--from regional to international--and multiple dimensions--from property to cyberspace--Monmonier demonstrates how much boundaries influence our experience--from homeownership and voting to taxation and airline travel. A worthy successor to his critically acclaimed How to Lie with Maps, the book is replete with all of the hallmarks of a Monmonier classic, including the wry observations and witty humor. In the end, Monmonier looks far beyond the lines on the page to observe that mapped boundaries, however persuasive their appearance, are not always as permanent and impermeable as their cartographic lines might suggest. Written for anyone who votes, owns a home, or aspires to be an informed citizen, No Dig, No Fly. No Go will change the way we look at maps forever.
Subdividing the land : metes and bounds and rectangular survey systems
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Ideally, every tract of land has a description on paper and a physical survey on the ground. When boundary disputes arise, all parties concerned must quickly learn the vocabulary and processes involved with real estate. Written for anyone dealing in real estate transactions, Subdividing the Land: Metes and Bounds and Rectangular Survey Systems provides this background. It defines key legal terms, examines key concepts of Metes and Bounds, the structure of the U.S. Land Survey System and offers many illustrations and tables that clearly explain the concepts. Each state has its own property laws, but the book's material is generic enough to be applicable across the entire United States and even Canada. Taking into account that local laws may be influenced by many factors, the book also covers the roots of English property laws and the effects of French, Spanish, and Mexican legacies. The author discusses topics such as water law, mining claims, and the Metes and Bounds and Torrens system of property registry. He provides a section of basic legal concepts applicable to land transactions and a glossary of special or semi-technical terms. Unlike most other topics related to surveying, there is no math associated with the topics given; yet the subjects can be complex and tricky. Subdividing the Land is a resource of many interrelated topics, and thus presents a knowledge base for land surveyors and the background for handling many types of land transactions conducted by real estate agents, engineers, architects, and lawyers.
Maps on File
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Maps On File[registered], 2009 Edition is a loose-leaf collection of approximately 500 up-to-date maps - plus a comprehensive index - designed explicitly for photocopying by students, teachers, or anyone who needs a clear, completely current map of any area of the world. The maps cover every country, every U.S. state and Canadian province, all oceans and continents, as well as important economic and political issues in the news.
American boundaries : the nation, the states, the rectangular survey
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For anyone who has looked at a map of the United States and wondered how Texas and Oklahoma got their Panhandles, or flown over the American heartland and marveled at the vast grid spreading out in all directions below, American Boundaries will yield a welcome treasure trove of insight. The first book to chart the country's growth using the boundary as a political and cultural focus, Bill Hubbard's masterly narrative begins by explaining how the original thirteen colonies organized their borders and decided that unsettled lands should be held in trust for the common benefit of the people. Hubbard goes on to show--with the help of photographs, diagrams, and hundreds of maps--how the notion evolved that unsettled land should be divided into rectangles and sold to individual farmers, and how this rectangular survey spread outward from its origins in Ohio, with surveyors drawing straight lines across the face of the continent. Mapping how each state came to have its current shape, and how the nation itself formed within its present borders, American Boundaries will provide historians, geographers, and general readers alike with the fascinating story behind those fifty distinctive jigsaw-puzzle pieces that together form the United States.
Meigs Line: Rangers Rediscover a Two-century-old Disputed Boundary Between the U.S. and Cherokee Nation
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Rich with ranger lore, wilderness savvy and tracking expertise, Meigs Linefollows Dwight McCarter and Joe Kelley, two retired rangers, on their search for Meigs Line, a survey line that resolved for years prior survey controversies between the Cherokee and American nations in 1802. Using an antique compass, cameras, old maps and a copy of what survives of Meigs' journal, they found very clear, preserved evidence of the survey--albeit only on the mountain tops--and a story to tell about a period in history when two nations worked together to resolve a dispute over territory.
How the States Got Their Shapes
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Why does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake? We are so familiar with the map of the United States that our state borders seem as much a part of nature as mountains and rivers. Even the oddities--the entire state of Maryland(!)--have become so engrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence. But that's where the real mystery begins. Every edge of the familiar wooden jigsaw pieces of our childhood represents a revealing moment of history and of, well, humans drawing lines in the sand. How the States Got Their Shapes is the first book to tackle why our state lines are where they are. Here are the stories behind the stories, right down to the tiny northward jog at the eastern end of Tennessee and the teeny-tiny (and little known) parts of Delaware that are not attached to Delaware but to New Jersey. How the States Got Their Shapes examines: Why West Virginia has a finger creeping up the side of Pennsylvania Why Michigan has an upper peninsula that isn't attached to Michigan Why some Hawaiian islands are not Hawaii Why Texas and California are so outsized, especially when so many Midwestern states are nearly identical in size Packed with fun oddities and trivia, this entertaining guide also reveals the major fault lines of American history, from ideological intrigues and religious intolerance to major territorial acquisitions. Adding the fresh lens of local geographic disputes, military skirmishes, and land grabs, Mark Stein shows how the seemingly haphazard puzzle pieces of our nation fit together perfectly.
Names on the land : a historical account of place-naming in the United States
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George R. Stewart's classic study of place-naming in the United States was written during World War II as a tribute to the varied heritage of the nation's peoples. More than half a century later, Names on the Land remains the authoritative source on its subject, while Stewart's intimate knowledge of America and love of anecdote make his book a unique and delightful window on American history and social life. Names on the Land is a fascinating and fantastically detailed panorama of language in action. Stewart opens with the first European names in what would later be the United States--Ponce de León's flowery Florída, Cortés's semi-mythical isle of California, and the red Rio Colorado--before going on to explore New England, New Amsterdam, and New Sweden, the French and the Russian legacies, and the unlikely contributions of everybody from border ruffians to Boston Brahmins. These lively pages examine where and why Indian names were likely to be retained; nineteenth-century fads that gave rise to dozens of Troys and Athens and to suburban Parksides, Brookmonts, and Woodcrest Manors; and deep and enduring mysteries such as why "Arkansas" is Arkansaw, except of course when it isn't. Names on the Land will engage anyone who has ever wondered at the curious names scattered across the American map. Stewart's answer is always a story--one of the countless stories that lie behind the rich and strange diversity of the USA.
Arc of the Medicine Line : mapping the world's longest undefended border across the western plains
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Today the borderland between Canada and the United States is a wide, empty sweep of wheat fields and pasture, measured by a grid of gravel roads that sees little traffic and few people who do not make their lives there. It has been much this way for more than a century now, but there was a moment when the great silence shrouding this place was broken, and that moment changed it forever. Arc of the Medicine Line is a compelling narrative of that moment--the completion of the official border between the United States and Canada in 1874. In late July of 1874, the Sweetgrass Hills sheltered the greatest accumulation of scientists, teamsters, scouts, cooks, and soldiers to be seen in this part of the world before the coming of the railways. The men of the boundary commissions--American, British, and Canadian--established an astronomical station and the last of their supply depots as they prepared to draw the Medicine Line across the final hundred of the nearly nine hundred miles between Manitoba's Lake of the Woods and the Continental Divide. In the brief weeks the surveyors and soldiers spent in Milk River country, they witnessed, and played a singular part in, the beginning of the end for the open West. That hot, dry summer of 1874 marked the outside world's final assault on this last frontier.
The imaginary line : a history of the United States and Mexican boundary survey, 1848-1857
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The line dividing the United States and Mexico is invisible, "imaginary," drawn through shifting sands and changeable rivers. The economic, social, and political issues surrounding this line, however, are all too real, and the line snakes its way through a history of conflict, through questions of definition, maps and claims of ownership, and personal and political gerrymandering. In The Imaginary Line: A History of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, 1848-1857, Joseph Richard Werne sets out to explore this border and the men who drew it. Using a variety of sources, including manuscripts, government documents, contemporary accounts, and memoirs, he creates a map of his own, one that charts the intersection of individual lives, politics, and geography. Werne proposes to revise the common view of the U.S.-Mexican Boundary Survey Commission as directed and funded almost entirely by the United States; the recent release of documents and archived files from the Mexican Boundary Commission allows further study of the Mexican commission's role and demands recognition of the equal Mexican contribution to the commission's immense task. The diverse group of military and civilian surveyors, engineers, and politicians that composed the Joint Commission had to reconcile disparate personal interests and backgrounds, as well as different maps and equipment. Their efforts were of "epic quality" and represent the coinciding cooperation and conflict that describes border relations today. Werne's study describes their lives and work, their survival of the hostile environment, and their struggles with inadequate funding and government corruption, tying their stories into the approaching civil war in the United States, the rapidly lengthening transcontinental railroad, and political instability in Mexico.
From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow : how maps name, claim, and inflame
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Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Mollys Nipple, Utah. Outhouse Draw, Nevada. In the early twentieth century, it was common for towns and geographical features to have salacious, bawdy, and even derogatory names. In the age before political correctness, mapmakers readily accepted any local preference for place names, prizing accurate representation over standards of decorum. Thus, summits such as Squaw Tit--which towered above valleys in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and California--found their way into the cartographic annals. Later, when sanctions prohibited local use of racially, ethnically, and scatalogically offensive toponyms, town names like Jap Valley, California, were erased from the national and cultural map forever. From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow probes this little-known chapter in American cartographic history by considering the intersecting efforts to computerize mapmaking, standardize geographic names, and respond to public concern over ethnically offensive appellations. Interweaving cartographic history with tales of politics and power, celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier locates his story within the past and present struggles of mapmakers to create an orderly process for naming that avoids confusion, preserves history, and serves different political aims. Anchored by a diverse selection of naming controversies--in the United States, Canada, Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, and Antarctica; on the ocean floor and the surface of the moon; and in other parts of our solar system--From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow richly reveals the map's role as a mediated portrait of the cultural landscape. And unlike other books that consider place names, this is the first to reflect on both the real cartographic and political imbroglios they engender. From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow is Mark Monmonier at his finest: a learned analysis of a timely and controversial subject rendered accessible--and even entertaining--to the general reader.
The Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names
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Place-names are continually changing, especially during periods of political upheaval. This brand new dictionary gives the history, meanings, and origin of an enormous range of country, region, island, city, and town names from across the world, with details of former names as well as the name in the local language. It also includes key historical facts associated with many place names. Containing 10,000 entries, this is a unique and fascinating guide for geographers, travellers, and all with an interest in current world affairs.
Placenames of the world : origins and meanings of the names for 6,600 countries, cities, territories, natural features, and historic sites
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A placename is often much more than just a label. A name may bespeak the history of a nation, the culture of a people, or the hopes of an individual. Such connections are revealed in this extensive alphabetical reference to placenames of the world, which offers an in-depth look at the origins of each. First published in 1997, the work in this new edition contains over 7,000 entries, including 1,000 new placenames from previously under-represented areas such as China and Japan. Entries cover natural features such as mountains, rivers and lakes as well as manmade entities such as cities and countries. Each entry includes the name of the feature; a brief description and its geographical location; and the origin of the name with relevant historical, biographical and topographical details. Appendices give the meanings of common elements of non-English placenames (e.g., Abu, as in Abu Dhabi, means father of); major placenames in European languages (e.g., Pays-Bas and Paesi Bassi are the French and Italian names, respectively, for what English speakers call the Netherlands); and transcribed Chinese-language equivalents for the names of the world's countries and capitals.
State and National Boundaries of the United States
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With the exception of oceans, boundaries are artificial, man-made divisions of geography that many times make little sense and sometimes no sense at all. For example, why does the northern boundary of Minnesota protrude into Canada? Why does West Virginia have two panhandles? Why do Pennsylvania and Delaware have a common boundary that is a circle segment? Why do the boundaries of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah consist entirely of lines of latitude and longitude? explains why and how state boundaries are placed where they are. It begins with an introduction that provides general information about boundary placement, colonial boundaries, formation of territories, surveying and Supreme Court rulings. The 50 states are divided into ten regions (New England, Mid-Atlantic, Upper South, Lower South, Great Lakes, North Central, South Central, Rocky Mountain, West, and Noncontiguous). The text for each state begins with an overview of that state s boundaries that becomes more specific as its different boundaries are considered.
Native American Placenames of the United States
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The most comprehensive authority on placenames of American Indian origin American Indian words define the North American landscape. This volume combines historical research and linguistic fieldwork with Native speakers from across the United States to present the first comprehensive, up-to-date scholarly dictionary of American placenames derived from Native languages. Accomplished linguist William Bright assembled a team of twelve editorial consultants--experts in Native American languages--and many other contributors to prepare this lexicon of eleven thousand placenames along with their etymologies. Bright's introduction explains his methodology and the contents of each entry. New data from leading scholars makes this volume an invaluable reference for students of American Indian culture, folklore, and local history.
Earliest Tennessee Land Records and Earliest Tennessee Land History
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The State of Tennessee was established, essentially, from land ceded to the federal government by North Carolina. Clouding the various land cession laws that transferred the title of land from North Carolina to the United States south of the River Ohio (a territory) and then to Tennessee was the requirement, however vaguely defined, that North Carolina Revolutionary soldiers' promise of land for military service be honored. Among other things, this requirement resulted in the inclusion of hundreds of footnotes to the Tennessee land laws that spelled out the land transfer process. In the first portion of this book, Mrs. Griffey has sifted through and organized the legal history of the early Tennessee land laws so that genealogists may be able to grasp their substance. Among other things, researchers can now understand when and why the various county land offices were established, the six-step process for obtaining a land grant, the differences between military and other types of land grants, and, of course, how to use early Tennessee land records. The bulk of this volume, however, consists of abstracts of some 16,000 of the earliest Tennessee land records in existence, arranged in a tabular format. For each record we are given the name of the claimant, the file number, the name of the assignee (if any), the county, number of acres, grant number, date, entry number, entry date, land book and page number, and a description of the stream nearest to the grant. A separate listing of assignees, with the corresponding claimant and file numbers follows in a separate table. The volume concludes with a lengthy appendix consisting of maps and a detailed chronology of Tennessee's land statutes.--From publisher description.
Measuring America : how the United States was shaped by the greatest land sale in history
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In 1790, America was in enormous debt, having depleted what little money and supplies the country had during its victorious fight for independence. Before the nation's greatest asset, the land west of the Ohio River, could be sold it had to be measured out and mapped. And before that could be done, a uniform set of measurements had to be chosen for the new republic out of the morass of roughly 100,000 different units that were in use in daily life. Measuring America tells the fascinating story of how we ultimately gained the American Customary System--the last traditional system in the world--and how one man's surveying chain indelibly imprinted its dimensions on the land, on cities, and on our culture from coast to coast.
United States Counties
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This reference work offers a brief profile and history of each of the USA's 3071 counties. It covers each county's name, county seat, population, land area, location and prominent geographical features, name derivation, date of establishment, history, famous residents, and products and industries.
International boundaries : a geopolitical atlas
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A comprehensive worldwide study of borders and border vulnerability, this important resource clearly chronicles and maps territorial boundaries of the world's nations. In the light of resurgent nationalism, the fall of communism, and the lingering legacy of colonialism, territorial boundaries remain a contentious issue for many states. Arranged by country, this timely atlas examines in detail the topography and geography of borders, as well as treaties and other diplomatic maneuverings that have set modern-day territorial boundaries. Featuring measurements of the political, economical, social, and military relationships between states, combined with a measure of geographical accessibility, the atlas also explores the probability of conflict. * Covers all the states in the world and their dependencies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe * Details treaties and other important legal settlements that have set today's borders * 200 b/w maps illustrate international boundaries as well as physical andtopographical features * Each boundary is explained both with descriptive text as well as visually on maps * Provides an assessment of geopolitical vulnerability for each boundary * Features an easy-to-comprehend key to help clarify numerical ratios and geographical terms * Offers accurate and concrete information about the circumstances leading to conflicts currently in the news In a time when over 70 percent of international conflicts are related to boundaries--from local tensions such as those over Abu Musa, to macro-political issues involving trans-boundary flows of drugs, arms, and terrorism--this authoritative reference will prove valuable to students and researchers of international relations, security studies, world history, and geography, as well as to professionals working for international NGOs, embassies, military institutions, and global corporations. Each entry features: * A synopsis of the location of the country, its basic geography, and populationstatistics * Descriptions of land and maritime boundaries and a summary of territorial settlements and treaties between contiguous countries * A geopolitical index, assigned to each country border, considering all aspects of geography-including physical, historical, economic, strategic, and social dimensions--and all levels of political decision-making * A map illustrating the borders as well as topographical features and major cities of the country * A detailed analysis examining national boundary vulnerability, assessing the stability of the country as a whole
Appalachian Trail Names: Origins of Place Names Along the AT
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This concise, alphabetical, backpack-friendly guide explains the origins of some 1100 place names hikers come across as they make their way along the Appalachian Trail. Filled with fascinating facts, surprising stories, and colourful trivia, it also offers insight into the AT's long and legendary history, as well as the history of the wilderness preservation movement, and of the country itself.
Bushmanders & bullwinkles : how politicians manipulate electronic maps and census data to win elections
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For years Mark Monmonier, "a prose stylist of no mean ability or charm" according to the Washington Post, has delighted readers with his insightful understanding of cartography as an art and technology that is both deceptive and revealing. Now he turns his focus to the story of political cartography and the redrawing of congressional districts. His title Bushmanders and Bullwinkles combines gerrymander with the surname of the president who actively tolerated racial gerrymandering and draws attention to the ridiculously shaped congressional districts that evoke the antlers of the moose who shared the cartoon spotlight with Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Written from the perspective of a cartographer rather than a political scientist, Bushmanders and Bullwinkles examines the political tales maps tell when votes and power are at stake. Monmonier shows how redistricting committees carve out favorable election districts for themselves and their allies; how disgruntled politicians use shape to challenge alleged racial gerrymanders; and how geographic information systems can make reapportionment a controversial process with outrageous products. He also explores controversies over the proper roles of natural boundaries, media maps, census enumeration, and ethnic identity. Raising important questions about Supreme Court decisions in regulating redistricting, Monmonier asks if the focus on form rather than function may be little more than a distraction from larger issues like election reform. Characterized by the same wit and clarity as Monmonier's previous books, Bushmanders and Bullwinkles is essential background for understanding what might prove the most contentious political debate of the new decade.
A Good and Wise Measure: the Search for the Canadian-American Boundary, 1783-1842
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In this detailed and fascinating book, Francis Carroll tells the story of the attempts to settle the original boundary between Canada and the United States from the Atlantic coast to the middle of the continent. Established by the Treaty of Paris in 1783, it soon became clear that ambiguities and errors in the treaty brought confusion and rivalry in the boundary borderland from New Brunswick and Maine to the St. Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes and from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods, in the heart of the continent. This borderland, steadily filling with people of competing interests - Loyalists and Yankees, fur traders and soldiers, Europeans and First Nations peoples - became the focus of the major crisis in Anglo-Canadian-American relations for almost sixty years. Drawing on extensive research and utilizing manuscript materials never brought to bear on the subject before, The Search for Boundary is the first work to thoroughly explain the efforts of the several Boundary Commissions and the failed arbitration of the King of Netherlands - all major international attempts to settle the boundary. The book also provides a fresh interpretation of the relevance the turbulent decade of the 1830s had in contributing to the sense of urgency that finally allowed for negotiation of a reasonable compromise settlement of the boundary in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 -- "A good and wise measure," as Lord Ashburton called it. Filled with the politics and intrigues of the time, Carroll brings to life a remarkable time in the diplomatic and political history of both Canada and the United States. Winner of the Dafoe Book Prize, awarded by the J.W. Dafoe Foundation
Tennessee Place-Names
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Tennessee has never had so complete a place-names volume as this. With over 1,900 entries, this volume covers virtually all the cities, towns, villages, hamlets, and communities of Tennessee. Here you can learn when and how towns got their names. Although current names are the primary focus, previous names are also provided and discussed when information is available, and many interesting stories attached to a place have also been included. This is an essential and fascinating reference book for scholars, teachers, students, and any individual interested in the history of Tennessee.
This land is your land : the geographic evolution of the United States
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An illustrated history of the discovery, settlement, and expansion of the United States. The book includes contemporary maps of the first depiction of each new state and modern maps created with the latest technology. It also features the history of place names.
Place Names of the Smokies
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Place Names of the Smokies is one of the most exhaustively researched books ever published on the history of the Great Smoky Mountains. All of the Smokies' most interesting and provocative places are included, and each entry includes location information so readers can pinpoint the sites on park topographic maps.
The Atlas of States: Global Change 1900-2000
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The Atlas of States: Global Change 1900 2000 provides an informative and comprehensively illustrated survey of the independent states of the twentieth century. The period witnessed unprecedented political changes as globalisation and the destructive powers of contending ideologies led to the continual transformation of state patterns in extensive sections of the world. Political leaders sought to harness the forces of nationalism, communism, imperialism, fascism etc., in an attempt to redraw the world map and in the process political structures of considerable antiquity were overthrown and fragmented. This did not preclude the resurrection of states destroyed in earlier eras. Recent turmoil in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has exposed historic peoples seeking to regain their own states, whether sovereign or not. In the course of the twentieth century the number of sovereign independent states almost quadrupled, despite the demise of some and the transitory nature of others. Most new states had pre-independence forebears, whether styled colonies, provinces, kingdoms or states . The pattern of non-independent states is thus significant as providing pointers to possible future independent states and The Atlas of States seeks to address this topic. By means of a series of clear maps and informative text, the author seeks to demonstrate the uncertain and ever-changing world in which we live, providing a comprehensive background from the past century in order to more clearly see the future in the new millennium.
The Columbia Gazetteer of the World
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This gazetteer has been revised and updated to provide a complete A-Z reference source for anyone seeking information about the places of the world. It covers the political world, the physical world and special places such as national parks and monuments. The 165,000 entries are packed with information including: physical geography descriptions; political boundaries; historical, political, cultural and economic descriptions; natural, agricultural and other resources; principal trade, business and industrial activities; highways, railroads, canals and pipelines; points of interest, including cultural, educational, religious and other institutions; population from recent censuses; latitude, longitude and elevation; official local government place names; changed or variant names and spelling; and pronunciations.
Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary
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A comprehensive source of geographical, economic, historical, and political information. Over 54,000 entries and 250 maps. Includes information on continents, countries, regions, cities, historical sites, and natural features. Provides pronunciations and variant spellings.
Drawing the line : tales of maps and cartocontroversy
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Argues that maps can be manipulated to distort the truth, and shows how they have been used for propaganda in international affairs, political districting, and finding toxic dump sites.
The Tennessee Locator
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Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America
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The unrivaled resource covers nearly 1,500,000 populated places, structures, facilities, locales, historic places, and named geographic features in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. territories. It is by far the largest repository of place names ever available in print, at least eight times the coverage of any other reference book.Every entry presents name, type of feature, population and zip code (when a locality), county where located, USGC topographic map name, latitude and longitude coordinates, elevation data (if appropriate), and sources of data.
The shaping of America : a geographical perspective on 500 years of history
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This is the third of four volumes in a series acclaimed by both historians and geographers for its breathtaking scope and originality. D. W. Meinig continues his riveting account of America's interwoven history and geography, describing the expanding country's development from the mid-nineteenth century to 1915. To accompany his interpretation of America's geographic evolution, Meinig offers forty superb new maps and forty-five other illustrations. Each original map enhances our historical understanding of the patterns, features, and themes of American history. The book begins with the struggle over where to build the Pacific railway and fix the nation's first transcontinental axis. Meinig portrays in detail the settlement of the diverse regions of the American West and how these many "Wests" were incorporated into the growing nation. He then examines the South as an imperial province and the dominance of the American Core over an increasingly consolidated nation. In conclusion, the author considers America's imperial pressures upon Canada and Mexico, the country's overt expansions in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the Panama Canal as a transcontinental completion.
Direct-line distances--international edition
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The International Edition gives distances in kilometers between 1001 cities, towns, and islands around the world. The distances were computed mathematically from geographic coordinates using a complex formula from the science of geodesy called the "geodesic," which gives the shortest distance along the surface of the earth between two places and takes the earth's irregular shape into account. The introduction briefly explains the concept of geodesics. Examples are also shown for computing a simpler type of direct-line distance known as the great circle. With a list of the geographic coordinates used in computing the distances and several maps showing the location of places found in the tables.
Direct-line distances--United States edition
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Each volume provides tables of direct-line distances between 1001 cities, towns, and islands throughout the world with direct-line or "geodesic" distance defined as the shortest distance between two points on a spheroid. The U.S. edition includes more U.S. places (312 out of 1001) with distances given in miles. The tables and accompanying maps are easy to read. Useful reference source for determining "air distances" between two points.
The Defence of the Undefended Border : planning for war in North America, 1867-1939
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This book studies the official and unofficial thought in Canada and the United States about the problem of fighting a war in North America, especially from the British withdrawal up to the consummation of alliance in 1939.
Boundaries of the United States and of the Several States and Territories : with miscellaneous geographic information concerning areas, altitudes, and geographic centers
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The original territory of the United States, as defined by the treaties of November 30, 1782, and September 3, 1783, with Great Britain, was bounded on the north by Canada, on the south by the Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by the Mississippi River. It included the Thirteen Original Colonies and the areas claimed by them.
Place names of Tennessee
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PLACE NAMES OF TENNESSEE, 425 p., by Ralph O. Fullerton
(1974). An alphabetical listing of place names in Tennessee by
county and quadrangle.
Making a modern U.S. West : the contested terrain of a region and its borders, 1898-1942
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To many Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the West was simultaneously the greatest symbol of American opportunity, the greatest story of its history, and the imagined blank slate on which the country's future would be written. From the Spanish-American War in 1898 to the Great Depression's end, from the Mississippi to the Pacific, policymakers at various levels and large-scale corporate investors, along with those living in the West and its borderlands, struggled over who would define modernity, who would participate in the modern American West, and who would be excluded. In Making a Modern U.S. West Sarah Deutsch surveys the history of the U.S. West from 1898 to 1940. Centering what is often relegated to the margins in histories of the region--the flows of people, capital, and ideas across borders--Deutsch attends to the region's role in constructing U.S. racial formations and argues that the West as a region was as important as the South in constructing the United States as a "white man's country." While this racial formation was linked to claims of modernity and progress by powerful players, Deutsch shows that visions of what constituted modernity were deeply contested by others. This expansive volume presents the most thorough examination to date of the American West from the late 1890s to the eve of World War II.
Land: How the Hunger for the Ownership Shaped the Modern World
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"In many ways, Land combines bits and pieces of many of Winchester's previous books into a satisfying, globe-trotting whole. . . . Winchester is, once again, a consummate guide."--Boston Globe The author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and The Perfectionists explores the notion of property--bought, earned, or received; in Europe, Africa, North America, or the South Pacific--through human history, how it has shaped us and what it will mean for our future. Land--whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city--is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing--and have done--with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet. Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World examines in depth how we acquire land, how we steward it, how and why we fight over it, and finally, how we can, and on occasion do, come to share it. Ultimately, Winchester confronts the essential question: who actually owns the world's land--and why does it matter?
A line of blood and dirt : creating the Canada-United States border across indigenous lands
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The untold history of the multiracial making of the border between Canada and the United States.Often described as the longest undefended border in the world, the Canada-US border was born in blood, conflict, and uncertainty.At the end of the American Revolution, Britain and the United States imagined a future for each of their nations that stretched across a continent. They signed treaties with one another dividing lands neither country could map, much less control. A century and a half later, Canada and the UnitedStates had largely fulfilled those earlier ambitions. Both countries had built nations that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific and had made an expansive international border that restricted movement.The vision that seemed so clear in the minds of diplomats and politicians never behaved as such on the ground. Both countries built their border across Indigenous lands using hunger, violence, and coercion to displace existing communities and to disrupt their ideas of territory and belonging. Theborder's length undermined each nation's attempts at control. Unable to prevent movement at the border's physical location for over a century, Canada and the United States instead found ways to project fear across international lines. They aimed to stop journeys before they even began.
Women and GIS, Volume 3, Champions of a sustainable world
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Impressive stories of women using geospatial technology to create sustainable solutions for problems the world faces. The third volume in the Women and GIS series shows how 31 diverse women in various STEAM fields discovered their passion, broke down barriers, and used maps, analysis, imagery, and geographic information systems (GIS) to advance their fields and improve the world. Sharing their experiences from childhood and throughout their careers, each woman reveals her journey in an inspiring recollection of the obstacles she has overcome, the knowledge she has gained along the way, and how tenacity and determination have helped her succeed. Each woman shares tips and words of wisdom that she's gained along the way, including: Priscilla Mbama Abasi: "Think big! Think about going to space, think about building things no one has seen before." Arianna Armelli: "If you are like me and crave the freedom to explore a path of the unknown, aka entrepreneurship, a career in STEM will foster the technical foundation to achieve those goals." Gabi Fleury: "The best advice I was given starting out was 'forge your own path.' Conservation isn't a structured, straight-line career, you can get into it in many ways. This is exciting, but it also can be really challenging, because you have to be flexible, innovative, and always on the lookout for the next opportunity." Healy Hamilton: "Success, to me, is a daily feeling that you are living true to your values, that you are meaningfully contributing to the world you want to create." Katharine Hayhoe: "While it's important to have people you respect and trust give you feedback at key points in your career, when it all comes down to it, you have to make the decisions that feel right for you, not the ones that necessarily look best on paper. You're the one who has to live with them." Featuring strong, persevering women from around the globe, the stories found in Women and GIS, Volume 3: Champions of a Sustainable World will inspire readers who are developing their own life stories to strive for success and achieve amazing accomplishments.
Mapping Nature Across the Americas
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Maps are inherently unnatural. Projecting three-dimensional realities onto two-dimensional surfaces, maps are abstractions that capture someone's idea of what matters within a particular place; they require selections and omissions. It is these very characteristics, however, that give maps their importance in understanding how humans have interacted with the natural world and that give historical maps especially the power to provide rich insights into the relationship between humans and nature over time. That is just what is achieved in Mapping Nature across the Americas. Illustrated throughout, the essays in this book argue for the greater analysis of historical maps in the field of environmental history and for greater attention within the field of the history of cartography to the cultural constructions of nature contained within maps. This volume thus provides the first in-depth and interdisciplinary investigation of the relationship between maps and environmental knowledge in the Americas, from sixteenth-century indigenous cartography in Mexico to the mapping of American forests in the United States during the early conservation years of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Keeping Races in Their Places: the Dividing Lines That Shaped the American City
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"A book perfect for this moment" -Katherine M. O'Regan, Former Assistant Secretary, US Department of Housing and Urban Development More than fifty years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, American cities remain divided along the very same lines that this landmark legislation explicitly outlawed. Keeping Races in Their Places tells the story of these lines--who drew them, why they drew them, where they drew them, and how they continue to circumscribe residents' opportunities to this very day. Weaving together sophisticated statistical analyses of more than a century's worth of data with an engaging, accessible narrative that brings the numbers to life, Keeping Races in Their Places exposes the entrenched effects of redlining on American communities. This one-of-a-kind contribution to the real estate and urban economics literature applies the author's original geographic information systems analyses to historical maps to reveal redlining's causal role in shaping today's cities. Spanning the era from the Great Migration to the Great Recession, Keeping Races in Their Places uncovers the roots of the Black-white wealth gap, the subprime lending crisis, and today's lack of affordable housing in maps created by banks nearly a century ago. Most of all, it offers hope that with the latest scholarly tools we can pinpoint how things went wrong--and what we must do to make them right.
The Original Survey: Recognition and Significance
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The most comprehensive treatment of key elements of original surveys, and the research required to find them, which is an important issue in retracement surveys that has never been fully explored. It will help surveyors become familiar with the proper identification and requirements and find the appropriate evidence using proper procedures. The most comprehensive treatment of key elements of original surveys and the research required to find original surveys, is an important issue in retracement surveys that has never been fully explored. It emphasizes the importance and the necessity of determining the creation of the title and its sources along with its accompanying survey or location. The case studies included in the book discuss the consequences when investigators do not follow complete research procedures, and act upon less information, even though the law requires otherwise. This is a practical guide for surveyors to become familiar with the proper identification and requirements and find the appropriate evidence using the right procedures. This book is intended for the practicing surveyor and will be useful to the legal profession, historical researchers, federal land departments, and others interested in surveys. Features This is the first book that focuses on identifying original surveys, written by one of the top consultants in the United States, who brings real case examples of both successes and failures Explains land separation techniques when more than one has been used previously. Includes numerous case examples providing context for surveyors and attorneys Discusses the relation between title creation and their transfer Addresses federal versus private surveys, their differences, and similarities
Not on the Map : The Peculiar Histories of De Facto States
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This book analyzes how de facto states--including Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Kosovo, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somaliland, and Taiwan--have developed without recognition of sovereignty from the international community.
Women and GIS, Vol. 2, Stars of spatial science
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Foreword by Jane Goodall Thirty inspiring stories of diverse women using geospatial technology to advance science and help resolve important issues facing the world. Like the first volume, Women and GIS, Volume 2: Stars of Spatial Science tells how 30 women in many different STEM fields applied themselves, overcame obstacles, and used maps, analysis, imagery, and geographic information systems (GIS) to contribute to their professions and the world. Sharing the experiences of their childhoods, the misstarts and challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned, each story is a celebration of a woman's unique life path and of the perseverance, dedication, and hard work it takes to achieve success. This book includes multicultural women at various points in their careers such as: Barbara Ryan -- Dedicated to open spatial data for everyone Cecille Blake -- Growing GIS capacity in Jamaica and for North and South American countries Rhiannan Price -- Advocating to make a difference for vulnerable populations Verónica Vélez -- Fighting for social and racial justice in education Tanya Harrison -- Bringing Mars to the masses From planetary scientists to civil engineers, entrepreneurs to urban planners, the strong, passionate women in Women and GIS, Volume 2: Stars of Spatial Science serve as guiding stars to motivate readers who are developing their own life stories and to inspire their potential to meaningful achievements.
Women and GIS : mapping their stories
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Twenty-three stories about how ordinary girls with very different passions have become extraordinary women and made significant contributions to our world Women look to other women as role models and for inspiration. Seeing confidence, leadership and accomplishments in other women helps a young woman envision herself with those qualities. Women and GIS: Mapping Their Stories tells the tales of how 23 women applied themselves and overcame obstacles, using maps, analysis, and geographic information systems (GIS) to contribute to their professions and the world. Sharing the experiences of their childhoods, the misstarts and challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned, each story is a celebration of a woman's unique path and of the perseverance and hard work it takes to achieve success. From oceanographers to activists, archaeologists to entrepreneurs, the women in Women and GIS: Mapping Their Stories can serve as mentors to motivate readers who are developing their own life stories and inspire their potential in a new way.
How the West Was Drawn: Mapping, Indians, and the Construction of the Trans-Mississippi West
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How the West Was Drawn explores the geographic and historical experiences of the Pawnees, the Iowas, and the Lakotas during the European and American contest for imperial control of the Great Plains during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. David Bernstein argues that the American West was a collaborative construction between Native peoples and Euro-American empires that developed cartographic processes and culturally specific maps, which in turn reflected encounter and conflict between settler states and indigenous peoples. Bernstein explores the cartographic creation of the Trans-Mississippi West through an interdisciplinary methodology in geography and history. He shows how the Pawnees and the Iowas--wedged between powerful Osages, Sioux, the horse- and captive-rich Comanche Empire, French fur traders, Spanish merchants, and American Indian agents and explorers--devised strategies of survivance and diplomacy to retain autonomy during this era. The Pawnees and the Iowas developed a strategy of cartographic resistance to predations by both Euro-American imperial powers and strong indigenous empires, navigating the volatile and rapidly changing world of the Great Plains by brokering their spatial and territorial knowledge either to stronger indigenous nations or to much weaker and conquerable American and European powers. How the West Was Drawn is a revisionist and interdisciplinary understanding of the global imperial contest for North America's Great Plains that illuminates in fine detail the strategies of survival of the Pawnees, the Iowas, and the Lakotas amid accommodation to predatory Euro-American and Native empires.
Drawing the Lines : Constraints on Partisan Gerrymandering in U.S. Politics.
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Radical redistricting plans, such as that pushed through by Texas governor Rick Perry in 2003, are frequently used for partisan purposes. Perry's plan sent twenty-one Republicans (and only eleven Democrats) to Congress in the 2004 elections. Such heavy-handed tactics strike many as contrary to basic democratic principles. In Drawing the Lines, Nicholas R. Seabrook uses a combination of political science methods and legal studies insights to investigate the effects of redistricting on U.S. House elections. He concludes that partisan gerrymandering poses far less of a threat to democratic accountability than conventional wisdom would suggest.Building on a large data set of the demographics of redrawn districts and subsequent congressional elections, Seabrook looks less at the who and how of gerrymandering and considers more closely the practical effects of partisan redistricting plans. He finds that the redrawing of districts often results in no detrimental effect for district-level competition. Short-term benefits in terms of capturing seats are sometimes achieved but long-term results are uncertain. By focusing on the end results rather than on the motivations of political actors, Seabrook seeks to recast the political debate about the importance of partisanship. He supports institutionalizing metrics for competitiveness that would prove more threatening to all incumbents no matter their party affiliation.
Surveying Instruments and Technology
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With the advent of GPS/GNSS satellite navigation systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) surveying profession is nowadays facing its transformative stage. Written by a team of surveying experts, Surveyor's Instruments and Technology gives surveying students and practitioners profound understanding of how surveying instruments are designed and operating based on surveying instrument functionality. The book includes the required basic knowledge of accurate measurements of distances and angles from theoretical principles to advanced optical, mechanical, electronic and software components for comparative analysis. Readers are presented with basic elements of UAS systems, practical interpretation techniques, sensor components, and operating platforms. Appropriate for surveying courses at all levels, this guide helps students and practitioners alike to understand what is behind the buttons of surveying instruments of all kinds when considering practical project implementations.
Drawing the Line : How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America
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The second edition of Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America updates Edwin Danson's definitive history of the creation of the Mason - Dixon Line to reflect new research and archival documents that have come to light in recent years. Features numerous updates and revisions reflecting new information that has come to light on surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon Reveals the true origin of the survey's starting point and the actual location of the surveyors' observatory in Embreeville Offers expanded information on Mason and Dixon's transit of Venus adventures, which would be an important influence on their future work, and on Mason's final years pursuing a share of the fabulous Longitude prize, and his death in Philadelphia Includes a new, more comprehensive appendix describing the surveying methods utilized to establish the Mason-Dixon Line
The geography of names : indigenous to post-foundational
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This book examines geographical names, place-names, and toponymy from philosophical and cultural evolutionary perspectives. Geographical name-tracking-networks (Geo-NTNs) are posited as tools for tracking names through time and across space, and for making sense of how names evolve both temporally and spatially. Examples from North and South American indigenous groups, the Canadian arctic, Wales, England, and the Middle East are brought into a theoretical framework for making sense of aspects of place-naming practices, beliefs, and systems. New geographical tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) are demonstrated to be important in the production and maintenance of robust networks for keeping names and their associated meanings viable in a rapidly changing world where place-naming is being taken up increasingly in social media and other new mapping platforms. The Geography of Names makes the case that geographical names are transmitted memetically (i.e. as cultural units, or memes) through what Saul Kripke called communication chains. Combining insights from Kripke with views of later Wittgenstein on language and names as being inherently spatial, the present work advances theories of both these thinkers into an explicitly geographical inquiry that advances philosophical and practical aspects of naming, language, and mapping.
Land Tenure, Boundary Surveys, and Cadastral Systems
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Land is important to all aspects of human life and has a key role in the economic well-being of society therefore, land tenure, land ownership, and real property law is a critical part of any developed nation. Together, the processes of how land parcels are held; how they are defined, measured, and described to allow economic transactions; how they are marked to allow their use and defense; and how they are legally protected have allowed for the orderly possession and use of land. In doing so, these processes have also provided the basis for the advanced economy of most developed nations. Very often, these processes--land tenure, boundary surveying, and cadastral systems--are considered separately. They are very much interrelated, and none of these processes may be completely understood without an understanding of the others. Land Tenure, Boundary Surveys, and Cadastral Systems provides an introduction to land tenure, cadastral systems, and boundary surveying, including an understanding of the interrelationship of these areas and their role in land tenure and real property law. This is especially true considering the advent of georeferenced cadastral maps reflecting the location of land parcels relative to many other components of the physical and legal infrastructure. Although intended as a basic text for college-level surveying courses, this book should also be of significant value to cadastral mappers, real property attorneys, land title professionals, and others involved with land transactions. , including an understanding of the interrelationship of these areas and their role in land tenure and real property law. This is especially true considering the advent of georeferenced cadastral maps reflecting the location of land parcels relative to many other components of the physical and legal infrastructure. Although intended as a basic text for college-level surveying courses, this book should also be of significant value to cadastral mappers, real property attorneys, land title professionals, and others involved with land transactions.
Engaging the Line: How the Great War Shaped the Canada-US Border
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For decades, people living in adjacent communities along the Canada-US border enjoyed close social and economic relationships with their neighbours across the line. The introduction of new security measures during the First World War threatened this way of life by restricting the movement of people and goods across the border. Many Canadians resented the new regulations introduced by their provincial and federal governments, deriding them as "outside influences" that created friction where none had existed before. Engaging the Line examines responses to wartime regulations in several border communities, including Windsor, Ontario; Detroit, Michigan; and White Rock, British Columbia. This book brings to life the repercussions for these communities and offers readers a glimpse at the origins of our modern, highly secured border by tracing the shifting relationship between citizens and the state during wartime.
Modernizing American land records : order upon chaos
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Modernizing American Land Records: Order upon Chaos presents a design for a modern American Land Records System (ALRS) that provides material about both the nature and extent of land interests. This book discusses the history of American land concepts, land governance, and land records systems and their use. These institutional aspects are considered along with the nature and extent of location-oriented land data systems such as geographic and land information systems (GIS/LIS). The institutional and technical aspects are brought together in the design of a modern ALRS that is consistent with current attitudes, practices, and technological development.
Interpreting Land Records
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Base retracement on solid research and historically accurate interpretation Interpreting Land Records is the industry's most complete guide to researching and understanding the historical records germane to land surveying. Coverage includes boundary retracement and the primary considerations during new boundary establishment, as well as an introduction to historical records and guidance on effective research and interpretation. This new edition includes a new chapter titled "Researching Land Records," and advice on overcoming common research problems and insight into alternative resources when official records are unavailable. Topical case studies provide helpful, plain-language descriptions of methods, problems, and resolutions, and appendices provide definitions, context, and modern interpretation of historical words and phrases. The text features exhaustive coverage and notes, with hundreds of case law citations annotated with expert insight that gives readers the complete background of the methods and techniques discussed. Boundary retracement entails the recovery of historical documents related to the original boundary, correct interpretation and analysis, and the accurate application of historic survey principles with correlation to conditions on the ground. This builds a legally-sound defense to the location of the boundary, and is crucial element to any project or transaction concerning land. Interpreting Land Records is the pre-eminent reference to help readers: Interpret historical land records, understanding their creation and documentation Become familiar with the various methods of historic surveys Overcome common research issues, including lost or corrupted records Establish boundaries free of vagueness or abstraction, with clear documentation Haphazard retracement leaves a boundary open to dispute and complicates future retracement efforts. Accuracy depends in part on quality research and the accurate interpretation of available documents. Interpreting Land Records provides comprehensive, practical guidance toward retracement based on sound evidence and technique.
United States-Mexican Borderlands: Facing tomorrow's challenges through USGS science
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Along the nearly 3,200 kilometers (almost 2,000 miles) of the United States–Mexican border, in an area known as the Borderlands, we are witnessing the expression of the challenges of the 21st century. This circular identifies several challenge themes and issues associated with life and the environment in the Borderlands, listed below. The challenges are not one-sided; they do not originate in one country only to become problems for the other. The issues and concerns of each challenge theme flow in both directions across the border, and both nations feel their effects throughout the Borderlands and beyond. The clear message is that our two nations, the United States and Mexico, face the issues in these challenge themes together, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) understands it must work with its counterparts, partners, and customers in both countries.
The Cartographic State: Maps, Territory and the Origins of Sovereignty
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Why is today's world map filled with uniform states separated by linear boundaries? The answer to this question is central to our understanding of international politics, but the question is at the same time much more complex and more revealing than we might first think. This book examines the important but overlooked role played by cartography itself in the development of modern states. Drawing upon evidence from the history of cartography, peace treaties and political practices, the book reveals that early modern mapping dramatically altered key ideas and practices among both rulers and subjects, leading to the implementation of linear boundaries between states and centralized territorial rule within them. In his analysis of early modern innovations in the creation, distribution and use of maps, Branch explains how the relationship between mapping and the development of modern territories shapes our understanding of international politics today."
Nation Shapes : the story behind the world's borders
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This book provides a concise and comprehensive description of all of the borders of every country in the contemporary world, including physical boundaries, their historical evolution, and border-related conflicts with other countries.Nation Shapes: The Story behind the World's Borders examines the importance of country boundaries, the disconnects between these borders, related factors such as cultures, religions, and economies, and how conflicts over boundaries between neighboring countries are articulated. The book is organized geographically and by region of the world: the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, East and Southeast Asia, and Australia and Oceania. It provides comprehensive descriptions of the boundaries of each country in the world, the historical evolution of these boundaries, and current and potential future boundary disputes and conflicts. While the work contains an entry for each country, the emphasis is on countries of major importance in the modern global economy.
Brown's Boundary Control and Legal Principles
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The new edition of Brown's Boundary Control and Legal Principles has been updated to reflect ongoing changes in surveying technology and surveying law, notably by adding water boundary expert George Cole as a contributor to revamp information on Riparian and Littorial Boundaries. Additionally, a new appendix has been introduced containing a comprehensive list of surveying books that have been referenced in court cases and legal decisions as persuasive authority over the years. It is indispensable reading for students and practicioners studying for the Fundamentals of Land Surveying licensure exam.
Borders : a very short introduction
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Compelling and accessible, Borders : a Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives. Highlighting the historical development and continued relevance of borders, Alexander Diener and Joshua Hagen offer a powerful counterpoint to the idea of an imminent borderless world, underscoring the impact borders have on a range of issues, such as economic development, inter- and intra-state conflict, global terrorism, migration, nationalism, international law, environmental sustainability, and natural resource management. Diener and Hagen demonstrate how and why borders have been, are currently, and will undoubtedly remain hot topics across the social sciences and in the global headlines for years to come. This compact volume will appeal to a broad, interdisciplinary audience of scholars and students, including geographers, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, international relations and law experts, as well as lay readers interested in understanding current events.
Placenames of the Civil War: Cities, Towns, Villages, Railroad Stations, Forts, Camps, Islands, Rivers, Creeks, Fords and Ferries
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Despite the plethora of books about the Civil War, the origins of many of the placenames associated with the conflict remain a mystery. This gazetteer provides information on nearly 1600 sites, including not only locations of battles and skirmishes but also hospitals, prison camps, military academies, factories and navy yards, both North and South. Also listed are islands, rivers, creeks, fords, ferries and railroad stations, as well as many temporary fort and camp names. From Abbeville, Georgia, where Jefferson Davis stopped in May 1865 days before his capture near Irwinville, to Yorktown, Virginia, which was besieged by General George B. McClellan at the start of the Peninsula campaign, entries explain the origin of each placename and its wartime connections. An appendix listing town and city population figures from the 1860 census completes this informative supplement for Civil War scholars and enthusiasts.
Professional Surveyors and Real Property Descriptions: Composition, Construction, and Comprehension
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The only modern guide to interpreting and writing real property descriptions for surveyors Technical land information is no longer the exclusive domain of professional surveyors. The Internet now houses a multitude of resources that nontechnical professionals--such as attorneys and realtors--access and implement on a daily basis. However, these professionals are trained in aspects of law and commerce that do not provide the proper education and experience to interpret and evaluate their land boundary information discoveries correctly. As a result, their analysis is often erroneous and the data misapplied--ultimately leading to confusion and costly litigation. Professional Surveyors and Real Property Descriptions attempts to bridge the ever-widening gap between the users of land boundary information and the land surveyors who produce it. An expert team of authors integrates the historic and legal background of real property interests with fundamental concepts of the surveying profession in a manner accessible for average readers. These provide the basics for both properly comprehending older descriptions and competently constructing complete and modern real property descriptions that foster better communication. Highlights in this book include: An in-depth exploration of historic descriptions and how to read them Coverage of the widely accepted ALTA/ACSM Land Boundary Survey standards and associated property descriptions A diverse collection of examples and practice scenarios An overview of the latest issues related to the use of GPS and GIS Written in easy-to-understand language, this practical resource assists nontechnical professionals in understanding exactly what a surveyor does and does not do, and serves as a valuable tool for obtaining the most satisfactory, accurate, and complete real property descriptions.
Subdividing the Land : metes and bounds and rectangular survey systems
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Ideally, every tract of land has a description on paper and a physical survey on the ground. When boundary disputes arise, all parties concerned must quickly learn the vocabulary and processes involved with real estate. Written for anyone dealing in real estate transactions, Subdividing the Land: Metes and Bounds and Rectangular Survey Systems provides this background. It defines key legal terms, examines key concepts of Metes and Bounds, the structure of the U.S. Land Survey System and offers many illustrations and tables that clearly explain the concepts. Each state has its own property laws, but the book's material is generic enough to be applicable across the entire United States and even Canada. Taking into account that local laws may be influenced by many factors, the book also covers the roots of English property laws and the effects of French, Spanish, and Mexican legacies. The author discusses topics such as water law, mining claims, and the Metes and Bounds and Torrens system of property registry. He provides a section of basic legal concepts applicable to land transactions and a glossary of special or semi-technical terms. Unlike most other topics related to surveying, there is no math associated with the topics given; yet the subjects can be complex and tricky. Subdividing the Land is a resource of many interrelated topics, and thus presents a knowledge base for land surveyors and the background for handling many types of land transactions conducted by real estate agents, engineers, architects, and lawyers.
American boundaries : the nation, the states, the rectangular survey
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For anyone who has looked at a map of the United States and wondered how Texas and Oklahoma got their Panhandles, or flown over the American heartland and marveled at the vast grid spreading out in all directions below, American Boundaries will yield a welcome treasure trove of insight. The first book to chart the country's growth using the boundary as a political and cultural focus, Bill Hubbard's masterly narrative begins by explaining how the original thirteen colonies organized their borders and decided that unsettled lands should be held in trust for the common benefit of the people. Hubbard goes on to show--with the help of photographs, diagrams, and hundreds of maps--how the notion evolved that unsettled land should be divided into rectangles and sold to individual farmers, and how this rectangular survey spread outward from its origins in Ohio, with surveyors drawing straight lines across the face of the continent. Mapping how each state came to have its current shape, and how the nation itself formed within its present borders, American Boundaries will provide historians, geographers, and general readers alike with the fascinating story behind those fifty distinctive jigsaw-puzzle pieces that together form the United States.
Critical toponymies : the contested politics of place naming
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While place names have long been studied by a few devoted specialists, approaches to them have been traditionally empiricist and uncritical in character. This book brings together recent works that conceptualize the hegemonic and contested practices of geographical naming. The contributors guide the reader into struggles over toponymy in a multitude of national and local contexts across Europe, North America, New Zealand, Asia and Africa. In a ground-breaking and multidisciplinary fashion, this volume illuminates the key role of naming in the colonial silencing of indigenous cultures, canonization of nationalistic ideals into nomenclature of cities and topographic maps, as well as the formation of more or less fluid forms of postcolonial and urban identities.
From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow : how maps name, claim, and inflame
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Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Mollys Nipple, Utah. Outhouse Draw, Nevada. In the early twentieth century, it was common for towns and geographical features to have salacious, bawdy, and even derogatory names. In the age before political correctness, mapmakers readily accepted any local preference for place names, prizing accurate representation over standards of decorum. Thus, summits such as Squaw Tit--which towered above valleys in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and California--found their way into the cartographic annals. Later, when sanctions prohibited local use of racially, ethnically, and scatalogically offensive toponyms, town names like Jap Valley, California, were erased from the national and cultural map forever. From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow probes this little-known chapter in American cartographic history by considering the intersecting efforts to computerize mapmaking, standardize geographic names, and respond to public concern over ethnically offensive appellations. Interweaving cartographic history with tales of politics and power, celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier locates his story within the past and present struggles of mapmakers to create an orderly process for naming that avoids confusion, preserves history, and serves different political aims. Anchored by a diverse selection of naming controversies--in the United States, Canada, Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, and Antarctica; on the ocean floor and the surface of the moon; and in other parts of our solar system--From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow richly reveals the map's role as a mediated portrait of the cultural landscape. And unlike other books that consider place names, this is the first to reflect on both the real cartographic and political imbroglios they engender. From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow is Mark Monmonier at his finest: a learned analysis of a timely and controversial subject rendered accessible--and even entertaining--to the general reader.
The Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names
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Place-names are continually changing, especially during periods of political upheaval. This brand new dictionary gives the history, meanings, and origin of an enormous range of country, region, island, city, and town names from across the world, with details of former names as well as the namein the local language. It also includes key historical facts associated with many place names.Containing 10,000 entries, this is a unique and fascinating guide for geographers, travellers, and all with an interest in current world affairs.
Surveying Our Public Lands
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As the Nation's principle conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has basic responsibilities for water, fish, wildlife, mineral, land, park, and recreational resources. Interior, America's 'Department of Natural Resources, ' works to assure the wisest choice in managing all of our resources so that each will make it's fully contribution to a better United States -- now and in the future.
Tennessee Place-Names
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Tennessee has never had so complete a place-names volume as this. With over 1,900 entries, this volume covers virtually all the cities, towns, villages, hamlets, and communities of Tennessee. Here you can learn when and how towns got their names. Although current names are the primary focus, previous names are also provided and discussed when information is available, and many interesting stories attached to a place have also been included. This is an essential and fascinating reference book for scholars, teachers, students, and any individual interested in the history of Tennessee.
The Penguin Encyclopedia of Places
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This encyclopedia provides answers to thousands of questions, forming a comprehensive guide to the geography and history of over 12,000 places scattered throughout the world. Articles range from detailed accounts of individual countries, to snapshot views of small communities, to descriptions of rivers and mountains, and they contain a wealth of background information - political facts, economic analysis, social and cultural framework.
The Columbia Gazetteer of the World
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This gazetteer has been revised and updated to provide a complete A-Z reference source for anyone seeking information about the places of the world. It covers the political world, the physical world and special places such as national parks and monuments. The 165,000 entries are packed with information including: physical geography descriptions; political boundaries; historical, political, cultural and economic descriptions; natural, agricultural and other resources; principal trade, business and industrial activities; highways, railroads, canals and pipelines; points of interest, including cultural, educational, religious and other institutions; population from recent censuses; latitude, longitude and elevation; official local government place names; changed or variant names and spelling; and pronunciations.
Getty thesaurus of geographic names
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"The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) is a structured vocabulary developed primarily for the field of art history, but with the potential for wide applications in related disciplines such as archeology, history and geography ... The TGN is the only available geographical resource that is both hierarchical and global in scope ... The TGN contains nearly 1 million place names representing approximately 900,000 places"
Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary
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A comprehensive source of geographical, economic, historical, and political information. Over 54,000 entries and 250 maps. Includes information on continents, countries, regions, cities, historical sites, and natural features. Provides pronunciations and variant spellings.
The shaping of America. Vol. 2, Continental America, 1800-1867 : a geographical perspective on 500 years of history
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In this volume, the second in a series, D.W. Meinig provides a fresh interpretation of the American past, bringing his special geographical perspective to the years between 1800 and 1867, the period when the nation experienced a dramatic expansion in territory, population, economy, and political tension that culminated in the Civil War. As in his first volume, Atlantic America, Meinig assesses the characteristics of regions and political territories and the relations among them, examining the dual roles played by geopolitics and ethnoculture in the shaping of the United States.
The shaping of America. Vol. 1, Atlantic America, 1492-1800 : a geographical perspective on 500 years of history
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This entirely fresh interpretation of American history by a renowned historical geographer is the first in a projected three-volume series. Meinig here focuses on colonial America, examining how an immense diversity of ethnic and religious groups--Europeans, Africans, American Indians--ultimately created a set of distinct regional societies. Richly illustrated with more then forty specially prepared maps and contemporary illustrations, this volume prompts us to rethink the settling of North America. "A standard work in its field. . . . For readers seeking a bird's-eye view of early American geography. . . there is no better guide available."--William Cronon, New York Times Book Review "Simply the best book in the English language by a contemporary geographer I have read over the past forty-odd years, and one of the most important. . . . A magisterial achievement, a grand shaking up and reassembling of fact and ideas."--Wilbur Zelinsky, Journal of Geography "All historians of the American experience should read and come to terms with this book."--Malcolm J. Rohrbough, Georgia Historical Quarterly "This book is a masterpiece in the best and old sense of the word."--Alfred W. Crosby, Southwestern Historical Quarterly
History of the Rectangular Survey System
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With its beginning more than two hundred years ago, the United States Rectangular Survey System is typically, and yet somewhat uniquely, a record of the American frontier spirit blended with the concept of government for the people. C. Albert White, U.S. Cadastral Surveyor, presents in this document a meticulous accounting of the vast story of public land surveying and registration. This classic research contribution is a detailed reference which will undoubtedly be well used by historians, land use specialists, surveyors , and attorneys for contemporary d ecis ionmaking , unders tand ing , and judgments. Mr. White began his surveying career with the General Land Office in 1946. Subsequently, as both a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and a private surveyor, he applied his diligent abilities to a wide range of activities including investigation of the durability of bearing trees, training, instrumentation, and refinements as well as performing hundreds of "Ground Pounding" land surveys. Al White represents the U.S. surveyor of the mid-century of 1900's - a bridge and integrator of the wisdom and experience of his predecessors to the expanding uses of latest cost effective technology in cadastral surveying.
The defence of the undefended border : planning for war in North America, 1867-1939
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This book studies the official and unofficial thought in Canada and the United States about the problem of fighting a war in North America, especially from the British withdrawal up to the consummation of alliance in 1939.
Boundaries of the United States and the several States : with miscellaneous geographic information concerning areas, altitudes, and geographic centers
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The original territory of the United States, as defined by the treaties of November 30, 1782, and September 3, 1783, with Great Britain, was bounded on the north by Canada, on the south by the Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by the Mississippi River. It included the Thirteen Original Colonies and the areas claimed by them.
