D. W. Meinig

This is the third of four volumes in a series acclaimed by both historians and geographers for its breathtaking scope and originality. D. W. Meinig continues his riveting account of America’s interwoven history and geography, describing the expanding country’s development from the mid-nineteenth century to 1915. To accompany his interpretation of America’s geographic evolution, Meinig offers forty superb new maps and forty-five other illustrations. Each original map enhances our historical understanding of the patterns, features, and themes of American history.The book begins with the struggle over where to build the Pacific railway and fix the nation’s first transcontinental axis. Meinig portrays in detail the settlement of the diverse regions of the American West and how these many “Wests” were incorporated into the growing nation. He then examines the South as an imperial province and the dominance of the American Core over an increasingly consolidated nation. In conclusion, the author considers America’s imperial pressures upon Canada and Mexico, the country’s overt expansions in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the Panama Canal as a transcontinental completion.

This study discusses how an immense diversity of ethnic and religious groups became sorted into a set of distinct regional societies in North America

This entirely fresh interpretation of American history by a renowned historical geographer is the first in a projected three-volume series. Meinig here focuses on colonial America, examining how an immense diversity of ethnic and religious groups—Europeans, Africans, American Indians—ultimately created a set of distinct regional societies. Richly illustrated with more then forty specially prepared maps and contemporary illustrations, this volume prompts us to rethink the settling of North America. “A standard work in its field. . . . For readers seeking a bird’s-eye view of early American geography. . . there is no better guide available.”—William Cronon, New York Times Book Review “Simply the best book in the English language by a contemporary geographer I have read over the past forty-odd years, and one of the most important. . . . A magisterial achievement, a grand shaking up and reassembling of fact and ideas.”—Wilbur Zelinsky, Journal of Geography “All historians of the American experience should read and come to terms with this book.”—Malcolm J. Rohrbough, Georgia Historical Quarterly “This book is a masterpiece in the best and old sense of the word.”—Alfred W. Crosby, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Imperial Texas examines the development of Texas as a human region, from the simple outline of the Spanish colony to the complex patterns of the modern state. In this study in cultural geography set into a historical framework, D. W. Meinig discusses the "various peoples of Texas, who they are, where they came from, where they settled, and how they are proportioned one to another from place to place." After examining the historical framework, he then presents detailed analyses of the major regions of modem Texas and an over-all characterization of the state and its people. He concludes that, although Texas has never been the empire that it has sometimes been called, "nevertheless... Texas is something more than just one-fourteenth of the American area, one-twentieth of the American people, and one-fiftieth of the American union."