Maps, photographs, illustrations, and text present information about the regions and states of the United States.

"If you want to know where you are or where you are going, you can look at a map. Throughout American history, our nation's leaders and citizens were able to use maps for direction and learning. Sometimes these maps were not very accurate, and we can learn about how Americans viewed their world just by looking at the maps they had available. What would our nation look like without the 11 Confederate states? How can we reach the Pacific if there are...

This volume is a simplified historical atlas that includes maps and charts depicting the evolving geopolitical landscape of the United States from the early 1440s until the latter part of the 2000s, re-telling the story of the U.S. from a geographical perspective. The editors have included historical large format photographs, graphics, and explanatory text or essays to accompany the maps.

"Throughout its history, America has been defined through maps. Whether made for military strategy or urban reform, to encourage settlement or to investigate disease, maps invest information with meaning by translating it into visual form. They capture what people knew, what they thought they knew, what they hoped for, and what they feared. As such they offer unrivaled windows onto the past. In this book Susan Schulten uses maps to explore five centuries...