Transcontinental America, 1850–1915. Vol. 3 of The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History by Donald W. Meinig (review)

Transcontinental America, 1850-1915. Vol. 3 of The Shaping ofAmerica: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years ofHistory Donald W. Meinig New Haven: Yale University Press Reviewed by E l l io t M c I n t ir e California State University, Northridge B ecause of the Internet, the links between one place and another and the meaning of distance are undergoing profound changes. The implications of these changes are, as yet, unclear to most of us. A current project of mine involves collaboration with colleagues in four countries on three continents, and communication among this group is as fast as with my colleagues on the same hallway. In how many ways will this technological change transform our world? It is too soon to tell, although there is no doubt it will be profound. But this is only the most recent of such transformations. The railroad had a simi­ lar transforming effect on the late nineteenth-century world, and this 208 MCINTIRE: Review of Transcontinental America, 1850-1915 209 third volume of Don Meinig’s acclaimed series on the historical ge­ ography of the United States traces that impact. The growth of the rail network of this country, the spread of settle­ ment, and the development of interconnections between the separate, and often disparate, parts of this country are a theme that runs through this volume. Volume 2 (Continental America) covered the period from 1800 to 1867, examining the changing geography of the U.S. from the earliest days of independence through the Civil War. This volume, commencing with 1850, overlaps with Volume 2 and exam­ ines the sudden spread of effective control of space over the western half of the continent, beginning with the incorporation of California into the United States. The consequences and implications of such a coast-to-coast national unit, made possible by the railroads, provide the framework for this volume. The book is divided into four unequal sections around the themes of articulation, dominion, consolidation, and spheres. The brief first section focuses on the efforts to connect the two coasts by rail, and the implications of this rapid and cheap linking of far-flung regions. The lengthy second section examines the emergence of American wests, with the emphasis on their plurality. It was not one West, but many, each with its own distinctive character. The long third section focuses on creation of a re-United States in the post-Civil War pe­ riod, with critical analysis of why and how the South developed a distinctive, but subordinate, role in American society. Part four, again fairly brief, looks at the spread of American influence beyond our continental borders, with sections on Canada, Mexico, the Pacific, and the Caribbean, as this country, on the eve of the First World War, suddenly found itself a world power, without much sense of what that implied. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a good map worth? Illustration 61, a U.S. map from the Statistical Atlas of the United States (1914), shows the percentage of foreign stock popula­ tion by county for 1910. No text could demonstrate what set the South 210 APCG YEARBOOK • VOLUME 61 • 1999 off as a separate region so effectively as this map. Nearly a hundred illustrations, mostly maps, with a few diagrams and a number of wellchosen historical photographs, provide graphic illustration of many of the points made in the text. The maps created for this volume are a real plus, and the few historic maps from other sources are also easily read, unlike the muddy examples all too commonly found. Many of the maps are on a base of either the Raisz physiographic maps or the USGS National Atlas Map, Major Waterway Systems, both of which provide a clear sense of the relationship between landforms and the features illustrated. A few maps contain symbols not explained in the legend nor in the accompanying text, but the only real error noted was the placement of Seattle in central Washington (p. 298). The text is also remarkably free of typos. An extra zero on page 225 gives Fall River, Massachusetts, a population of a million, but careful attention to detail shows...