![]() ![]() ![]() 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. ![]() Why Texas and California are so outsized, especially when so many Midwestern states are nearly identical in size. ![]() Why some Hawaiian islands are not Hawaii.Why Michigan has an upper peninsula that isn't attached to Michigan.Why West Virginia has a finger creeping up the side of Pennsylvania.How the States Got Their Shapes examines: 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 is the first book to tackle why our state lines are where they are. 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. But that's where the real mystery begins. 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. 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. Why does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake? ![]()
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