The Shaping of America. A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History. Volume 2: Continental America, 1800–1867 by D. W. [Donald] Meinig (review)

Book Reviews 173 Book Reviews D. W. [Donald] Meinig. The Shaping olA111erica. A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years ol History. Volmne 2: Continental America, 1800-1867. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Pp. xix + 636 and illustrations. Scholars of America's past by now will have encountered Donald Meinig's first volume of The Shaping al America series. Published by Yale University Press in 1986, it was widely acclaimed as a masterful and expansive interpretation of America's history. In Volume 2: Continental America, 1800-1867, Meinig extends his 'wide' history approach to the increasing complexity of the nineteenth century. The result is an engaging, visual interpretation of the historical geography of North America in a period of continental realization. For readers unfamiliar with Donald Meinig's work, and specifically his historical geographies of North American regions, it is necessary to anticipate a spatial interpretation guided expertly along new paths past familiar landmarks of American history. He underscores the importance of doubling the national territory with the Louisiana Purchase, and the impact this action had on establishing borders-north and south. He decloaks the process of "shoving the Indians out of the way" (78). He links expansion, "the growth of a continental nation" (221) to the evolving relationship between American society and the space which it occupied. And, among other insights, he conveys how borderlands mediated America's continental presence. Meinig's view of the American past is further revealed in graphic representations to enlarge and punctuate findings. First, he offers an expert selection of facsimiles. Among them are Poinsett's strategic display of defence on the western frontier in 1837, Orasmus Turner's four-stage sequence on pioneer settlement and progress in clearing and developing the land, and a bird's-eye view of Chicago circa 1853. Reproductions are balanced by maps and other illustrations crafted by the author. These range from the bold, uncluttered renditions of Red River and Madawaska borderlands (figure 14), to the provocative, ninety-degree juxtaposition of illustration number 17, 174 Canadian Revzew of American Studies which conveys The View From Washington (looking up and west]; "How much of Mexico should we take?" Other noteworthy examples of Meinig's craft are figures 27 and 29, which trace the northern and southern paths of westward migration to add visual clarification and dispel the sense of an edge to the frontier. The illustration that follows deliniates the spatial aggregation of the federal township-and-range system (figure 29). In two quintessentially Meinigian charts, the author compares "The Classic Turnerian Pattern" (figure 32) with "An Alternative Pattern; [the] American System of Regional Development" (figure 33). These comparative stage representations convey the very core of Meinig's rethinking of American geographical growth. The book is divide into four unequal, and, one may argue, uneven parts. Certainly, "Part One, Extension: The Creation of A Continental Empire", and "Part Two, Expansion: The Growth of A Continental Nation", dominate the volume. After the detailed build-up on territorial accretion and change in "Part One", and the extensive rendering on settlement, industry, and transport in "Part Two", the comparative staccato coverage of the Civil War era is both alarming and unsatisfying ("Part Three"). Perhaps this is by design , for Meinig uses an emphatic, direct approach to accomplish several goals, in addition to differentiating the sudden separation from the foregoing expansion. The author is not enamoured with the characteristic glorification of the Civil War, and he is not convinced by assumptions of American federalism built on notions of patriotism and manifest destiny. Instead, he questions the Union interest in the emancipation of slaves, and explores the containment options sought both in this country, and in British North America and Liberia. "Part Four", briefest of all, places the post civil war federation into the context of a North America extending from Barbados to Panama, and then north to the Arctic. Within this vast territory, the occupied United States was now more prominent than neighbouring Mexico and the newly formed Canadian Confederation (figure 84). Yet the borderland relationships with these and Caribbean neighbours are merely sketched for an era of profound significance in the shaping of all North America. Continental America doubtless could do more to...