ISBN: 0-88739-208-3
292 pp.
Size: 6 x 9
Pub Date: 9/2001
Paperback Original
Price: $16.50
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Lines Shaping America
David E. Swanberg
The geographical development and colonization of America has been examined from several traditional angles. Author David Swanberg employs a more imaginative one: lines. He linked 29 definitions of the word to this country's mountain ranges, westward settlement, river flows, trails, song lyrics, and city skylines. He postulates that much of the history of America can be understood in terms of the development of and conformity to one or more kinds of lines. The more intellectually hidebound might find this crazy viewpoint-like whoever first voiced the opinion that the world was other than flat.
A "fall line" is the line at which streams make a sudden descent over the edge of a plateau. This imaginary line on each river, which usually marks the head of navigation and a source of significant water power, is a natural site for settlement. Falls, or rapids, occur as the waters descend for a zone of erosion-resistant uplands to plains composed of softer, less resistant rock.
Review: "...a convincing job of arguing that the 'lines' of historical, economic, and cultural development are drawn by the geographical movement westward..."
-Professor Thomas Scovel,
San Francisco State University
"This book provides a fresh new slant on the development and progress of our nation."
-Warren H. Buell, retired chief economist, Unocal Co.
Bio: DAVID E. SWANBERG, since his retirement has found pleasure in traveling with his wife, and purpose in iconoclastic theorizing.
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