The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History; Volume 4: Global America, 1915–2000

by D. W. Meinig

• ISBN13: 9780300104325
• ISBN10: 0300104324
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2004-10-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This landmark book, the concluding volume of D. W. Meinig's magisterial seriesThe Shaping of America,presents the story of America's interwoven history and geography from 1915 to 2000. The author describes decades of enormous national growth and change in his characteristic engaging style, and through more than seventy original maps he ingeniously depicts diverse twentieth-century trends and developments. The book addresses the expanding nation's progress in terms of the automotive revolution; neotechnic evolution; access to air travel; growth of instantaneous forms of communication, including telephones, television, and the Internet; and such political events as World War II. Meinig relates these developments to social and geographic trends, among them patterns of urban migration, regionalism, metropolitanization, the beginnings of the urban megalopolis, shifts in ethnic and religious populations, and, on a more global scale, transformations in America's connections with Europe, Asia, and Latin America. A masterful synthesis of twentieth-century history and geography, this book offers unprecedented insights into the shaping and reshaping of the United States over the past century.

Author Biography

D. W. Meinig is Maxwell Research Professor of Geography at Syracuse University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
PART ONE TECHNOLOGY: MOBILIZATION AND ACCELERATION
Prologue	3	(1)
Mobilization: The Automotive Revolution	3	(31)
Mobilization: Neotechnic Evolution	34	(27)
Acceleration: On the Surface	61	(26)
Acceleration: In the Air	87	(10)
Acceleration: Invisible and Instantaneous	97	(17)
PART TWO MORPHOLOGY: MIGRATIONS AND FORMATIONS
Prologue	113	(1)
Populations and Policies, 1915--1950s	114	(20)
Regionalism, 1920s--1950	134	(14)
A Reconnaissance of Regions	148	(26)
Midcentury Morphology	174	(19)
Altering the Federation and Internal Empire	193	(32)
Populations and Policies, 1950s--1990s	225	(22)
Some Reconfigurations	247	(30)
Reshaping the Nation	277	(22)
PART THREE MISSION: ASSERTIONS AND IMPOSITIONS
Prologue	299	(1)
Assertions: America and Europe	299	(5)
Impositions: War and Interwar, Europe and Asia	304	(15)
Impositions: Western Hemisphere	319	(17)
Redividing the World	336	(12)
Impositions and Oppositions	348	(23)
America and the World	371	(26)
Sources of Quotations	397	(24)
Bibliography	421	(30)
Index	451