On 2006-09-05 Mark E. Walker, Bellingham wrote: I´ll chime in with ´catu11us´ on this on most of the points raised in that review, but I have a few additional cautions for would-be buyers of this one.
My own copy was a gift from a sibling who knows I am always happy to receive and read history books (but not historical fiction). Unfortunately the nature of this book is at odds with its title, as the other reviewers have noted, but I´d go further: it´s not a ´historical atlas of the United States,´ it´s a collection of USA-Today-simplified encapsulations of American history, with maps (some of them visually superb). This distinction is important because not only are major aspects of the U.S.´s historical development left out (as shown ably by ´catu11us´), external affairs of contextually passing relevance, such as the U.S.´s controversial activities in Vietnam and Iraq, are not merely addressed but are given full spreads with *maps.*
With some of these, I find myself thinking the National Geographic should change its name to the National Sociopolitical, because it´s not addressing its histories geographically at all and certainly isn´t focusing on the nation in question, except in a rather ´manifest destiny´ sense which I consider abhorrent as well as contrary to impartial documentation of history.
Simplifications of history here often employ the lamentably popular personification style of ´news´ reporting -- more properly described as ´journalism´ -- in which, in this context, quotations from individuals´ letters or diary entries are provided as being summarily representative of all people of that class at that time. This is a useful tool for historians when they back it up with further perspective but should not be abused this way, with complex and still-debatable viewpoints presented as absolutes.
Physically this book is a lavish treat, at least on a superficial level: the leather cover, the gilt edges and cover titling, the luxurious amount of space given to illustrations, the redrawn maps (although the previous criticism of the stylized pastels is just).... But large type masks small basis, and there´s not even a whiff of a bibliography here to substantiate the breezy generalizations these ´historical´ assessments aspire to.
The issue of Slavery, for example, gets addressed but with throwaway lines such as ´Americans joined in the enterprise, trading with African kings for what became more than nine million slaves.´ Which African kings? Where in Africa? Who has established that this even was the case? And does ´Americans´ mean ´ALL Americans´ or just some? Two paragraphs later, the second of those questions is nominally addressed: ´Nearly 40 percent came from Angola, with large numbers coming from the Bights of Benin and Biafra and Gold Coast.´ But that´s the end of the study of that question. That there was slavery within Africa itself, that other countries had slave trades, all of this (and other potentially illuminating perspectives) are dropped as if they didn´t exist. And what´s that tidy percentage assessment based on?
I´m sure that a lot of research and study went into much of this book´s contents; it´s unfortunate that the study isn´t given transparently and with credentials beyond those presumed by the National Geographic Society itself. If you want a detailed Important Points in American History introduction, this is probably very handy, and if you´re just trying to understand how the U.S. has evolved to become the thing it is today this will provide perspective and depth as well as personalized story. For anyone interested in History, however, this is something to refer to with knowing caution: there´s enough detail and illustration to justify tapping it as a resource, but there are also enough warning flags screaming of ´spin´ here that it behooves one to handle it with gloved fingers and a hefty shot of guarded skepticism.
Again, I think the National Geographic Society did itself a disservice by not providing a bibliography for this book; without that, it´s scarcely credible and invites cynical appraisal -- and it *should* do, because at the other end of the spectrum it´s lulling general-public readers into accepting these generalizations as established facts. I appreciate that they have tried to show American history ´warts and all,´ but even that approach is curtailed to such pat simplifications here that one must question not just each conclusion but therefore also the presentation of information purporting to be factual. The National Geographic Society is surely capable of demonstrating its scholarship, but this book makes me wonder about that.. And summed up by saying Historical Maybe, But Not an Atlas. Currently National Geographic Historical Atlas of the United States has an overall rating of 2 over 10.
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National Geographic claimed More often than not, we think of a country´s history as a narrative, a sequential tale of great people and important events. But sometimes it´s more revealing to think of history as a map of the eras, inventions, ideas, and people that have shaped our country for more than five hundred years, from the first visitors to North America´s shores to the first years of the 21st century. Combining the unparalleled cartography and the extraordinary graphic archive of the National Geographic Society, this marvelous volume charts an engrossing web of connections, vividly displayed in a series of concise, self-contained essays and scores of maps that are the heart of a stunning visual chronicle that unfolds our history in a new and fascinating way. Each chapter is introduced by a time line that sets its subjects in context, then dozens of photographs, period maps, and illustrations capture the flavor of life in eras and places as varied as Texas cow towns and Tennessee coal mines, colonial Boston and gold-rush California. Subject maps trace the great rivers and rough trails settlers followed as they fanned out across an unexplored continent, with a lively text that explains who they were and why they headed West, and are accompanied by a sidebar in which Mark Twain reminisces about life as a Mississippi steamboat pilot. We learn how an 1859 gusher at Titusville, Pennsylvania, led to a nationwide search for ´black gold,´ and how John D. Rockefeller channeled it into Standard Oil. We learn how Eli Whitney´s cotton gin, Henry Ford´s Model T, and dozens of other inventions transformed our landscape; and we watch as social movements--labor unions, women´s suffrage, civil rights--Sstruggle to include the disenfranchised in the American Dream. In these pages we find political battles and military campaigns, immigrants and industrialists, ordinary people and Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. Wide-ranging, entertaining, and as expansive as America itself, the Historical Atlas of the United States is an important reference and an indispensable guide to the many intertwined paths that have led to the nation we know.
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