Synopses & Reviews
"Convinces the reader of the importance of geography in establishing the mindset that led to continental expansion. . . . Carries conviction."
Journal of Southern History "A fascinating study of geographic knowledge and representation in early America."
Journal of the Early Republic "A book that contributes very positively to moving the study of maps, mapping and geography beyond the simple antinomies inherent in the study of mapping as a form of oppression."
American Historical Review "[The Geographic Revolution in Early America] is a well-written, engaging discussion of the intersections of geography, ideology, and nation-building in early America. . . . Brückner makes an important contribution to the history of geography and reminds us of the importance of geography for the creation of the nation of the United States of America."
Isis "A work of tremendous subtlety, combining a broad argument of the central role of geographic literacy in early America with a nuanced understanding. An exemplary piece of scholarship. . . . Theoretically informed as well as empirically grounded."
Winterthur Portfolio "Engagingly written and well illustrated, and adds further insight to that range of work on the power of geography, in its various sites, practices, and languages, as a means to national identity. It deserves to be widely read."
Professional Geographer "Well produced. . . . A fine book that makes an important case for the role of geographic literacy in the creation of national identity."
Winterthur Portfolio "Bruckner not only presents new materials, but suggests how people came to read them. One could scarcely ask more from a work of cultural criticism."
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment "A vibrant interdisciplinary account of the contribution of geographical literacy to the development of an Anglo-American cultural identity."
Nancy Ruttenburg, New York University "A cross-disciplinary tour-de-force. Timely, imaginative, and well-written."
David Waldstreicher, Temple University "This is a groundbreaking study of the intertwined relationships between commodity capitalism and the environment, literacy and ideology."
Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University
Review
"This is a groundbreaking study of the intertwined relationships between commodity capitalism and the environment, literacy and ideology."
Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University
Review
"A cross-disciplinary tour-de-force. Timely, imaginative, and well-written."
David Waldstreicher, Temple University
Review
"Well produced. . . . A fine book that makes an important case for the role of geographic literacy in the creation of national identity."
Winterthur Portfolio
Review
"A book that contributes very positively to moving the study of maps, mapping and geography beyond the simple antinomies inherent in the study of mapping as a form of oppression."
American Historical Review
Review
"Bruckner not only presents new materials, but suggests how people came to read them. One could scarcely ask more from a work of cultural criticism."
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment
Review
"Convinces the reader of the importance of geography in establishing the mindset that led to continental expansion. . . . Carries conviction."
Journal of Southern History
Review
"A fascinating study of geographic knowledge and representation in early America."
Journal of the Early Republic
Review
"[
The Geographic Revolution in Early America] is a well-written, engaging discussion of the intersections of geography, ideology, and nation-building in early America. . . . Brückner makes an important contribution to the history of geography and reminds us of the importance of geography for the creation of the nation of the United States of America."
Isis
Review
"A work of tremendous subtlety, combining a broad argument of the central role of geographic literacy in early America with a nuanced understanding. An exemplary piece of scholarship. . . . Theoretically informed as well as empirically grounded."
Winterthur Portfolio
Review
"Engagingly written and well illustrated, and adds further insight to that range of work on the power of geography, in its various sites, practices, and languages, as a means to national identity. It deserves to be widely read."
Professional Geographer
Review
"A vibrant interdisciplinary account of the contribution of geographical literacy to the development of an Anglo-American cultural identity."
Nancy Ruttenburg, New York University
Review
"In this innovative book Susan Schulten makes a compelling case for mapsand#160;as both symbolic and material representations of change in the ways Americansand#160;viewed their nation, its past, and its potential for development. In conjunctionand#160;with its companion website (www.mappingthenation.com), Schulten's bookand#160;reveals the power of maps to shape history, policy, and national identity."
Review
"Susan Schultenand#8217;s Mapping the Nation is physicallyand#160;attractive, based on sound scholarly work yetand#160;accessibly written, and effectively supplemented byand#160;a user-friendly website offering a good selection ofand#160;high-resolution images of historical maps and charts."
Review
"Mapping the Nation is essential reading."
Review
and#8220;In a work of deep scholarship and insight, Susan Schulten traces the origins of a now-ubiquitous presence in American life: maps with a story to tell. Schulten uncovers not only a fascinating panorama of maps but also a colorful array of characters who taught America to see itself in new ways. Read this book and maps will never look the same.and#8221;
and#160;
Review
and#8220;Susan Schulten has produced an impressive synthesis of some of the most important developments in nineteenth-century American cartography, tracing the ways that maps became tools of social organization, governance, and economics. Engaging and informative,
Mapping the Nation is a novel and persuasive look at American history, visually and cartographically.and#8221;
and#160;
Review
and#8220;In this important study of the way in which nineteenth-century Americans represented their social and natural worlds, Susan Schulten illuminates how weather, disease, slavery, and the aggregate reality of the census could all be represented in visual and spatial terms. This is an important contribution not only to Americaand#8217;s cultural and disciplinary history, but to the history of government and our shared sense of history itself.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A major contribution in the history of Ameriand#173;can cartography, Susan Schultenand#8217;s
Mapping the Nation redefines our understandings about the mapping of the nation during the long nineteenth century. . . . The book is a compelling read, and its strengths are many. . . . [A] gateway for future discussions about how to study and teach American history.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Schulten meticulously builds her central argument that state expansion and consolidation are inseparable from the mapping that calls them into being. Some geographers and historians of cartography have written of this before. But until now, no one has tackled the vital role thematic or statistical cartography played in the economic development of the United States and the expansion, absorption, and segregation of selected peoples. . . . Schulten has the enviable ability to discuss mapping and data classification techniques as well as writing of the lives and sociopolitical contexts of people. That is rare, and the book succeeds because of it.andrdquo;
Synopsis
The rapid rise in popularity of maps and geography handbooks in the 18th century ushered in a new geographic literacy among nonelite Americans. Drawing on historical geography, cartography, literary history, and material culture, Bruckner argues that geographic literacy as it was played out in popular literary genres significantly influenced identity formation in America from the 1680s to the 1820s. Includes readings of work by William Byrd, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Royall Tyler, Charles Brockden Brown, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark.
Synopsis
The rapid rise in popularity of maps and geography handbooks in the eighteenth century ushered in a new geographic literacy among nonelite Americans. In a pathbreaking and richly illustrated examination of this transformation, Martin Bruckner argues that geographic literacy as it was played out in popular literary genres--written, for example, by William Byrd, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Royall Tyler, Charles Brockden Brown, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark--significantly influenced identity formation in America from the 1680s to the 1820s.
Drawing on historical geography, cartography, literary history, and material culture, Bruckner recovers a vibrant culture of geography consisting of property plats and surveying manuals, decorative wall maps and school geographies, the nation's first atlases, and sentimental objects such as needlework samplers. By showing how this geographic revolution affected the production of literature, Bruckner demonstrates that the internalization of geography as a kind of language helped shape the literary construction of the modern American subject. Empirically rich and provocative in its readings, The Geographic Revolution in Early America proposes a new, geographical basis for Anglo-Americans' understanding of their character and its expression in pedagogical and literary terms.
Synopsis
In the nineteenth century, Americans began to use maps in radically new ways. For the first time, medical men mapped diseases to understand and prevent epidemics, natural scientists mapped climate and rainfall to uncover weather patterns, educators mapped the past to foster national loyalty among students, and Northerners mapped slavery to assess the power of the South. After the Civil War, federal agencies embraced statistical and thematic mapping in order to profile the ethnic, racial, economic, moral, and physical attributes of a reunified nation. By the end of the century, Congress had authorized a national archive of maps, an explicit recognition that old maps were not relics to be discarded but unique records of the nationandrsquo;s past.
All of these experiments involved the realization that maps were not just illustrations of data, but visual tools that were uniquely equipped to convey complex ideas and information. In Mapping the Nation, Susan Schulten charts how maps of epidemic disease, slavery, census statistics, the environment, and the past demonstrated the analytical potential of cartography, and in the process transformed the very meaning of a map.
Today, statistical and thematic maps are so ubiquitous that we take for granted that data will be arranged cartographically. Whether for urban planning, public health, marketing, or political strategy, maps have become everyday tools of social organization, governance, and economics. The world we inhabitandmdash;saturated with maps and graphic informationandmdash;grew out of this sea change in spatial thought and representation in the nineteenth century, when Americans learned to see themselves and their nation in new dimensions.
About the Author
Susan Schulten is professor of history at the University of Denver. In 2010 she was named a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction
Part One: Mapping the PastChapter 1: The Graphic Foundations of American History
Chapter 2: Capturing the Past through Maps
Part Two: Mapping the PresentChapter 3: Disease, Expansion, and the Rise of Environmental Mapping
Chapter 4: Slavery and the Origin of Statistical Cartography
Chapter 5: The Cartographic Consolidation of America
ConclusionNotesIndex