The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History; Volume 2: Continental America, 1800–1867

by D. W. Meinig

• ISBN13: 9780300062908
• ISBN10: 0300062907
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1995-02-22
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Continental America offers a rather different way of looking at a period of enormous expansion, development, and crisis in the career of the United States. Although it stands as a discrete, coherent work, it is best understood as a continuation of the special kind of description and assessment set forth in Atlantic America, 1492-1800, the opening volume of this geographic interpretation.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	x
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
PART ONE EXTENSION: THE CREATION OF A CONTINENTAL EMPIRE
Prologue	3	(1)
Doubling the National Territory: Louisiana	4	(19)
Pressures on the Borders: Southward	23	(18)
Pressures on the Borders: Northward	41	(17)
The Reach Westward: To circa 1830	58	(20)
Shoving the Indians Out of the Way	78	(25)
Assertion and Division: Oregon and the Northern Boundary	103	(25)
Annexation and Conquest: Texas and the Hispanic Borderlands	128	(30)
Spanning a Continent---and Ocean	158	(12)
Empire: The Geopolitical Management of Captive Peoples	170	(27)
Continentalism: Objectives, Modes, Visions	197	(25)
PART TWO EXPANSION: THE GROWTH OF A CONTINENTAL NATION
Prologue	221	(1)
Filling in the Framework: Migration Westward	222	(14)
Occupying New Ground: Colonization, American Style	236	(28)
Planting New Societies: New England Extended	264	(9)
Planting New Societies: Virginia Extended	273	(6)
Planting New Societies: Midlands Extended	279	(6)
Planting New Societies: The Cotton Belt and South Carolina Extended	285	(11)
Color in the Plantings: The Afro-American Presence	296	(15)
Making New Pathways: Waterways, Roads, and Rails	311	(23)
Tying the Parts Together: National Programs	334	(18)
Creating New Centers: Cities and Systems of Cities	352	(22)
Harnessing New Forces: Industries and Industrial Regions	374	(25)
Cementing the Parts Together: An American Nation	399	(19)
Morphology: The Shape of the United States, 1850s	418	(14)
PART THREE TENSION: THE SUNDERING OF A FEDERATION
Prologue	431	(1)
The Shaping of New States	432	(15)
Expanding the Federation	447	(14)
The Idea of Separation	461	(14)
Disintegration	475	(14)
Geopolitical Alternatives	489	(13)
Conquest and Emancipation	502	(14)
Empire, Nation, Federation: Geopolitical Contentions	516	(16)
PART FOUR CONTEXT: THE UNITED STATES IN NORTH AMERICA CIRCA 1867
Prologue	531	(1)
Continental America	532	(1)
The Northern Borderlands	533	(13)
Hispanic Borderlands	546	(4)
The Afro-American Archipelago	550	(5)
A Wider Presence	555	(4)
Sources of Quotations	559	(20)
Bibliography	579	(28)
Index	607