North America

The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent

By (author) Thomas F. McIlwraith, Edward K. Muller Contributions by Michael P. Conzen, Louis DeVorsey, Carville Earle, Ronald E. Grim, Paul A. Groves, Jeanne Kay Guelke, Cole Harris, Richard Harris, David Hornbeck, John C. Hudson, Anne Kelly Knowles, James T. Lemon, Peirce Lewis, Kenneth C. Martis, David R. Meyer, Robert D. Mitchell, Edward K. Muller, Richard L. Nostrand, Thomas A. Rumney, David Ward, David J. Wishart, Graeme Wynn

Publication date:

01 August 2001

Length of book:

512 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742500198

This classic text retains the superb scholarship of the first edition in a thoroughly revised and accessibly written new edition. With both new and updated essays by distinguished American and Canadian authors, the book provides a comprehensive historical overview of the formation and growth of North American regions from European exploration and colonization to the second half of the twentieth century. Collectively the contributors explore the key themes of acquisition of geographical knowledge, cultural transfer and acculturation, frontier expansion, spatial organization of society, resource exploitation, regional and national integration, and landscape change. With six new chapters, redrawn maps, a new introduction that explores scholarly trends in historical geography since publication of the first edition, and a new final chapter guiding students to the basic sources for historical geographic enquiry, North America will be an indispensable text in historical geography courses.

Part 1 Part I: Introduction
Chapter 2 The North American Past: Retrospect and Prospect
Part 3 Part II: Colonization: 1490s-1770s
Chapter 4 European Encounters: Discovery and Exploration
Chapter 5 The Spanish Borderlands
Chapter 6 France in North America
Chapter 7 The Colonial Origins of Anglo-America
Chapter 8 Colonial America in the Eighteenth Century
Part 9 Part III: Expansion: 1780s-1860s
Chapter 10 The Geographical Dimensions of a New Nation, 1780s-1820s
Chapter 11 Beyond the Appalachians, 1815-1860
Chapter 12 The Northeast and Regional Integration, 1800-1860
Chapter 13 British North America, 1763-1867
Part 14 Part IV: Consolidation: 1860s-1920s
Chapter 15 Settling the Great Plains, 1850-1930
Chapter 16 The Far West, 1840-1920
Chapter 17 Population Growth, Migration and Urbanization, 1860-1920
Chapter 18 The National Integration of Regional Economies, 1860-1920
Chapter 19 The Progress of American Urbanism, 1860-1930
Chapter 20 Realizing the Idea of Canada
Part 21 Part V: Reorganization: 1930s and Onward
Chapter 22 America between the Wars
Chapter 23 The Twentieth Century American City
Chapter 24 The Other America: Changes in Rural America during the Twentieth Century
Chapter 25 Canadian Cities in a North American Context
Part 26 Part VI: Conclusion
Chapter 27 Historical Geography since 1983
Chapters 28 Sources for Recreating the North American Past

Enlightening and frequently eye-opening. . . . This book demonstrates the vital role North American places played in shaping historical forces. Professors may profit significantly by carefully considering the lessons contained within the fine syntheses contained here.