[Sca-cooks] Made in America cast Iron Pans

Sharon Palmer ranvaig at columbus.rr.com
Thu May 3 01:33:43 PDT 2012


>How the States Got Their Shapes
>  by Mark Stein

I noticed another book by the same author:
How the States Got Their Shapes Too: The People Behind the Borderlines
"Was Roger Williams too pure for the Puritans, and what does that 
have to do with Rhode Island?  Why did Augustine Herman take ten 
years to complete the map that established Delaware?  How did Rocky 
Mountain rogues help create the state of Colorado?  All this and more 
is explained in Mark Stein's new book.

How the States Got Their Shapes Too follows How the States Got Their 
Shapes looks at American history through the lens of its borders, 
but, while How The States Got Their Shapes told us why, this book 
tells us who.  This personal element in the boundary stories reveals 
how we today are like those who came before us, and how we differ, 
and most significantly: how their collective stories reveal not only 
an historical arc but, as importantly, the often overlooked human 
dimension in that arc that leads to the nation we are today.
The people featured in How the States Got Their Shapes Too lived from 
the colonial era right up to the present.  They include African 
Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, women, and of course, white 
men.  Some are famous, such as Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, 
and Daniel Webster.  Some are not, such as Bernard Berry, Clarina 
Nichols, and Robert Steele.   And some are names many of us know but 
don't really know exactly what they did, such as Ethan Allen (who 
never made furniture, though he burned a good deal of it).
In addition, How the States Got Their Shapes Too tells of individuals 
involved in the Almost States of America, places we sought to include 
but ultimately did not: Canada, the rest of Mexico (we did get half), 
Cuba, and, still an issue, Puerto Rico. 
Each chapter is largely driven by voices from the time, in the form 
of excerpts from congressional debates, newspapers, magazines, 
personal letters, and diaries. 
Told in Mark Stein's humorous voice, How the States Got Their Shapes 
Too is a historical journey unlike any other you've taken.  The 
strangers you meet here had more on their minds than simple state 
lines, and this book makes for a great new way of seeing and 
understanding the United States."

Ranvaig



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