What is Reddit's opinion of How the States Got Their Shapes?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

The northeast colonies were drawn mostly according to some natural boundaries, but the lateral borders of southern colonies were simply drawn from the Eastern shore endlessly to the west. In theory, for example, North Carolina stretched all the way to the Pacific at that point.

For most of the large, squared off mid western and mountain states, Congress simply created them and aligned their borders with degrees of latitude and longitude.

there are numerous small examples (the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, for example) that are interesting stories by themselves. Go look for a book called How the State Got their Shapes.

Biggest thing is to keep the regional culture in mind. I would suggest doing some research and reading up on local history in the area you are thinking about building in to get a feel for the kind of people who settled it. Another good source would be How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein. Maybe you could piece together some what-if scenarios from the surrounding states so it's rooted in reality?

You'd probably like this book: How states got their shapes.

Bookon the topic: https://www.amazon.com/How-States-Got-Their-Shapes/dp/0061431397

So cool there was a TV show that ran 2 seasons: https://www.history.com/shows/how-the-states-got-their-shapes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_States_Got_Their_Shapes

https://www.amazon.com/How-States-Got-Their-Shapes/dp/0061431397?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=2945debe-948e-4105-8b3d-a379e9041a31

Exactly what you are looking for!

Books, especially books of short stories, or where each chapter is self-contained, so you can more or less just pick it up and read at random. In the US, a good example would be How The States Got Their Shapes.

Likewise, magazines.

Puzzle books. I love doing word finds and can waste several hours doing those.

Music. Fill up your phone's SD card with tunes, or download as many Spotify playlists as you need.

But mostly lots and lots of video. You can download shows\movies for offline viewing on Netflix and Prime Video, and I'm sure others. There are also the typical pirate sites, and there are YouTube downloaders as well. I've found over the years that it's better to "spread your preferences out" - you might think you wanna binge all four seasons of Stranger Things on your flight... but you might not be in the mood that day. So it's better to download one season (series) of four different shows than four seasons of one show.

Lastly: snacks. Eating just to pass the time isn't the best thing for your waistline, but flying is an exception. If you're prone to motion sickness, Gin Gins ginger candy (or your local equivalent) can really help... but you need to start eating them at least 30 minutes before you get on the plane.

This is a great (and easy) read. Or there is the TV series.

Really interesting how the slavery debate impacted the outline of the states.

Many state boundaries were adjusted from their original territories in order to gain access to navigable rivers that could reach the ocean. A lot of this is covered in this book and its accompanying TV series.

https://www.amazon.com/How-States-Got-Their-Shapes/dp/0061431397

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_States_Got_Their_Shapes

Interesting light read about how the states came to look the way they do.

How the States Got Their Shapes https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061431397/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_G5244ST3E53XWFXBQJWH

I don't know the answer but would bet it is in this book. I has a lot of interesting stories about things like that. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0061431397/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_NbU0FbBFJMY3M

The colonies were basically "here's where this company wants to be, give them that all the way west, since we don't know how far that is." For most of the latter states it was about governance - note that the territories get bigger and bigger as time goes on, because communications and travel technology improved. https://www.amazon.com/How-States-Got-Their-Shapes/dp/0061431397 is a great book on this very topic.

The Book by Mark Stein is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read.

Huh. Very good! Also - if you guys are interested in this /u/tacitus's reply, you might like the book How The States Got Their Shapes I read it a few years ago. Pretty great.

Not entirely on topic, but... after the Revolutionary War, a lot of states voluntarily gave up their westward colonial claims. The colonies of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia once went all the way to the Mississippi River (map). "Georgia" once included almost all of present-day states of Alabama and Mississippi. But people up north (especially abolitionists) became worried that such "mega-states" would one day dominate US politics. Thus, there came a general consensus that "new" states (those founded after 1802, or thereabouts) should all be (roughly) the same size. There are exceptions - Texas, of course, came about through conquest. And local geography came into play several times. Utah has that odd "notch" in its northeast corner because of the Uinta Mountains: it was thought that settlers in the area would be better served by being part of Wyoming, instead of the Utah government figuring out how to build telegraph wires and government buildings on the other side of the mountains.

There's a book (and a documentary TV series based on the book) called <em>How the States Got Their Shapes</em>. I found the book to be tedious and poorly written, which is sad, given how interesting the subject matter actually is. For example, each state is one chapter, and each chapter has sections about their northern, southern, eastern and western borders. He might spend a lot of time talking about how Georgia got its western border with Alabama, for instance. But then, in the chapter on Alabama, he'd almost copy-and-paste the bits from the Georgia chapter to talk about Alabama's eastern border. I mean, I don't know how else you'd actually write something like that, but the way he wrote it isn't it. There normally wasn't even any context, like how Georgia and Alabama might have disagreed on the subject... just copy, paste and condense it down a bit.

Thats the names of the books, How the States Got Their Shapes. I think they even turned it into a tv show on History Channel.

*here ya go