wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this show
How the States Got Their Shapes
photo

By host Tom Ashbrook

Look at a map of the USA, and every state tells a story. Oklahoma’s panhandle tells a tale of slavery. Missouri’s boot-heel hitch into Arkansas is the footprint of a real earthquake and one man’s dream.

Texas and California are huge for a reason. There’s a tale in West Virginia’s unicorn horn.

State boundaries may look like a crazy jigsaw — random, or rigged, or arbitrarily straight and narrow. But there’s a reason every time. And some wild stories out there.

This hour, On Point: We’re having fun with history, and how the states got their shapes.

Guests:

Mark Stein, author of “How the States Got Their Shapes.”

 
Share:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • Live
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
 
Leave a comment

We welcome comments from all of our listeners.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
These comments are moderated by On Point and WBUR.
This site supports Gravatars.

Recent Shows
China’s Factory Girls
Friday, October 10, 2008 Factory Girls

The women behind much of the word economy. We look inside the lives of China’s factory girls.

Comments [6]
 
Week in the News
Friday, October 10, 2008 A board on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows the closing number for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Thursday Oct. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Global financial panic, and the rough road back, in politics and pocketbooks. Our news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Comments [55]
On Point Blog
Holtz-Eakin v. Bush Admin.
By Wen Stephenson

There were several interesting exchanges in Thursday’s first hour between Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Austan Goolsbee, but this one stood out. Holtz-Eakin said that the Treasury plan to take an ownership stake in banks is “very disturbing,” and added: “It’s not the way things should be done in the United States.”
Here’s the transcription of that part [...]

More » | Comments [2]
 
The economic advisers
By Wen Stephenson

A heads-up to listeners — as part of our series on the issues of 2008, we’ll be joined in our first hour tomorrow (Thursday) by the top economic advisers to McCain and Obama. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who served as chief economist on George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2001-02 and as director of the [...]

More » | Comments [5]
 
On the issues
By Wen Stephenson

A note here, and a question or two for listeners, about On Point’s campaign coverage. You may have noticed recent shows with the phrase “Issues ‘08″ in the title. In these final weeks leading up to Election Day, Nov. 4, we’re aiming to produce at least one full hour per week that delves into a [...]

More » | Comments [2]