Mapping the Nation
History and Cartography in Nineteenth-Century America
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards

Chapter 2: Capturing the Past through Maps
Part Two: Mapping the Present
Chapter 4: Slavery and the Origin of Statistical Cartography
Chapter 5: The Cartographic Consolidation of America
Conclusion
“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.”
“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.”
“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 America’s cultural and disciplinary history, but to the history of government and our shared sense of history itself.”
American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch: Carol and Norris Hundley Jr. Award
Won
Geography: Cartography | Cultural and Historical Geography
History: American History
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