I never thought a book on geography could be funny, but Mark Stein has pulled it off. ANDRO LINKLATER, author of The Fabric of America: How Our Borders and Boundaries Shaped the Country and Forged Our National Identity If you ever wondered why Delaware owns a small portion of the southwest New Jersey coast, the answer is here! - Library Journal A fascinating and wonderfully entertaining account of an often-overlooked oddity of Americas history: how the jigsaw-puzzle layout of the United States emerged. Its history, its geography, its comedy, its indispensable. Wall Street Journal For anyone whos been confounded by the largest of all jigsaw puzzles, the one that carved out those fifty weirdly formed states, here is the solution. God bless the panhandles and notches, the West Virginias and Oklahomas. Review Quotes Give me the splendid irregularities any day. He has taught at American University and Catholic University. His films include Housesitter, with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. His plays have been performed off-Broadway and at theaters throughout the country. From the Back Cover Mark Stein is a playwright and screenwriter. 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. 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. 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. Even the oddities-the entire state of Maryland(!)-have become so ingrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence. Wall Street Journal 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.
Book Synopsis New York Times Bestseller Give me the splendid irregularities any day. About the Book In a light, accessible style-and packed with fun oddities and trivia-this entertaining guide by playwright and screenwriter Stein deciphers the mysteries of the American map, state by state.
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