The Routledge Atlas of American History

I picked this thin little hardback book up use online just because I've been busy making my way through Martin Gilbert's other works. While his other works are extensive chronological histories of World Wars, The Twentieth Century, or The Holocuast, this book is simply what the title says. Maps. Maps. Maps. I opened it when it came in the mail and I was mesmerized from the first minute. Gilbert manages to cover all of American history through the use of expertly coded and easy to understand maps. Want to know the general area where Native American tribes lived at the beginning of colonialism? There's a map for that. Do you want to see America's natural resources and where they are the most dense? Map for that. A diagram of the French and Indian war? Map. War of 1812? Map. I learned more in 20 minutes of looking at the maps in this book than I EVER did in 13 years of formal public schooling. For visual learners, I think this is one of the best ways to learn after you've bashed through a narrative or text book version of events. I plan to keep this little battered book safe and sacred so my future children can actually learn something when they do a HIstory report or write a paper. Mr. Gilbert, yet again, manages to psyche me up about history and keep me coming back for more.

I use this book in the Grade 11 U.S. History class that I teach and I must say that it is very useful. Maps cover dozens of topics from the original settlement of North America to the 9/11 tragedy. The maps are in black and white, making them easily used if you need to reproduce them. There is the downside that some of the maps are a little unclear. There are also a couple of maps (#51 and 52) dealing with slavery that show the Indian Territory as a part of Texas. However, for a teacher of High School U.S. History, this is a valuable supplement. This is also recommended for any student of U.S. History (either high school or university) and anyone else who would like to get a spatial view of the currents of U.S. History.