How the States Got Their Shapes (STEIN, Mark)

“Give me the splendid irregularities any day. God bless the panhandles and notches, the West Virginias and Oklahomas. Good old North Dakota could use a knob; Wyoming would look good with a few zigzags. And, yes, we do need Delaware.” — WALL STREET JOURNAL

“If you ever wondered why Delaware owns a small portion of the southwest New Jersey coast, the answer is here!” —LIBRARY JOURNAL

“For anyone who’s been confounded by the largest of all jigsaw puzzles, the one that carved out those fifty weirdly formed states, here is the solution. It's history, it's geography, it’s comedy, it’s indispensable.” —ANDRO LINKLATER, author of The Fabric of America: How Our Borders and Boundaries Shaped the Country and Forged Our National Identity

“A fascinating and wonderfully entertaining account of an often-overlooked oddity of America’s history: how the jigsaw-puzzle layout of the United States emerged. I never thought a book on geography could be funny, but Mark Stein has pulled it off.” —RICHARD ALLEMAN, contributing editor/travel, Vogue

“In this highly informative and engaging book, Mark Stein shows that the perimeters of the fifty states—familiar icons on license plates, tourist brochures, and government letterheads—are not just meaningless shapes. Stein’s carefully researched trove of regional histories embedded in our national map will delight history buffs, map enthusiasts, and anyone intrigued with political landscapes and American geography.” —MARK MONMONIER, author of How to Lie with Maps