Mapping America: The Incredible Story and Stunning Hand-Colored Maps and Engravings that Created the United States

As a map lover and history reader, I found this book extremely interesting, entertaining and original. I learned a ton of things I didn't know and enjoyed myself immensely.

I bought this thinking it would just be about maps, well written and has a great deal of history in here about the founding of America.

In this captivating volume, the exploration and birth of America come alive through the lens of hand-colored maps and engravings from various periods. Before the advent of photography and television, these meticulously crafted maps conveyed the thrill of undiscovered lands, the allure of exploration, and the strategic guidance for armies during the Indian Wars and the American Revolution.The book provides context and insight into the historical significance of each map. From Renaissance explorers' exotic maps to the grand maps of the Golden Age, readers are treated to a visual feast. The thrilling battle-maps and charts from this pivotal period are also featured. The book includes paintings by masters of art from that era. These enhance our understanding of how America developed over time.By examining these maps, we gain a deeper understanding of the forces that shaped America—the ambition, struggle, and glory that attended its exploration and formation.In summary, "Mapping America" is a treasure trove for history enthusiasts, art lovers, and anyone curious about the intricate cartography that shaped the nation. It invites us to explore America's past through the eyes of those who mapped its vast landscapes and defined its destiny. A one star hit because some maps are very difficult to see details. Those should have been printed on single page landscape format.

I saw this book while searching for something else. As soon as I saw it, I knew the chances of buying it were strong. After reading the reviews, it was mine! The title of the book and the contents are worlds apart. The book contains photos of maps from the highly detailed to a sparse reference and everything in-between. Some are one-of-a-kind, others are well known. However, instead of being just a historical reference for maps, it is more, a whole lot more. The meat and potatoes is a crash course in the history of the world and the United States, to include the American Revolution. The maps are used to highlight specific battles and important discoveries in history. The maps give you the ability to view the battle space and understand the situational awareness of the conflict. While some of the maps are more topographically accurate, others are just lines containing notes and rough sketches. I’m not a teacher and if I was, this would be the recommended textbook for a history course. An outstanding read!

This book is a most interesting read for world history and especially for American history. If every American student would read this, we would see more American patriots speaking out for their Republic, what it took to earn it, and what it takes to keep it.

What the heck? One moment, Im quietly living my life reading history books and the next moment, this book just comes barging into my narrow universe of experience and completely resets my expectations of what a history book should be. Thanks for creating unrealistic expectations over history book writing standards. Such a narrow topic in an ocean of topical distractions would render most authors incapable of writing only of "mapping America" while still making it engaging. This book is currently my favorite history book on my shelf and that says a lot, as Ive read quite a few before a several since. A huge thank you to the authors for creating this masterpiece and a massive recommendation to anyone remotely interested.

I was expecting more of the maps than the history - but this is a book largely about the American Revolution and the importance of maps. It was fascinating reading so I kept reading! I was interested in maps for their possible ecological notations, but got battles. Which lead to most chapters being about the various armies exploits. As always I leaned quite a bit more about well known battles, tactics, Native American alliances/presence and tidbits of Washington and Franklin (and Greene - the second best general). The early history of map making in Europe was also very interesting.

A brief account of 400 years of colonization. A summary of these years and points out Columbus's weakness while admitting his heroism. We have to admit the "natives" were illiterate cannibals, and Columbus's men treated them harshly. The book does not get into the story of the priests like Bartelemeo de las Casas who developed the concept of "human rights" when they observed the poor treatment of the cannibals. "Human rights" is a concept of Western Civ. Other pc nonsense includes century references of BCE instead of BC/AD.Nonetheless, a vigorous account of exploration. The Chinese did not explore (beyond their neighbors), Africans (obviously) did not explore trans ocean, only the Europeans. Without saying so, the book celebrates European accomplishments.The book is well written but the book production could be better. Lots of maps but many are too small to see the details of the maps. Of course increasing the maps' size would have added to the cost. And the binding is glue not Smythe-sown so the book may not open flat, or for long.Nonetheless, a budget map making project of high interest and medium bookmaking quality. Recommended.