![]() ![]() And since he’s primarily playing straight man, the attempts at humor often seem forced: “ Ethan Allen was not a furniture maker. ![]() Mostly, he gives straightforward recitations of the facts, an approach that can be wearing when you read six or seven chapters in a row and the treaties, charters, compacts and court cases begin to blur. He never quite resolves the issue of tone: How serious or smart-alecky should he be? But while he has again done his homework, consistency is lacking. Now Stein returns with “ How the States Got Their Shapes Too: The People Behind the Borderlines” (the punning subtitle indicates that this is a sequel to the earlier book), in which he tells us more about the personalities who drew the lines. Why, for example, is the Upper Peninsula not part of Wisconsin, to which it is attached, rather than of Michigan, to which it is not? “How the States Got Their Shapes” was informative but also breezy and irreverent, and it became a surprise bestseller. A few years ago, Mark Stein wrote a book on the states’ often goofy borders. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |