I picked this thin little hardback book up use online just because I've been busy making my way through Martin Gilbert's other works. While his other works are extensive chronological histories of World Wars, The Twentieth Century, or The Holocuast, this book is simply what the title says. Maps. Maps. Maps.

I opened it when it came in the mail and I was mesmerized from the first minute. Gilbert manages to cover all of American history through the use of expertly coded and easy to understand maps. Want to know the general area where Native American tribes lived at the beginning of colonialism? There's a map for that. Do you want to see America's natural resources and where they are the most dense? Map for that. A diagram of the French and Indian war? Map. War of 1812? Map. I learned more in 20 minutes of looking at the maps in this book than I EVER did in 13 years of formal public schooling.

I plan to keep this little battered book safe and sacred so my future children can actually learn something when they do a HIstory report or write a paper. Mr. Gilbert, yet again, manages to psyche me up about history and keep me coming back for more. ( )