An Astounding Atlas of Altered States is a tribute to such great unrealized dreams of states that came remarkably close to joining the union while others never had a chance.

Everyone knows the fifty United States--but what about the hundreds of other statehood proposals that never came to pass? An Astounding Atlas of Altered States is a tribute to such great unrealized dreams as West Florida, Hazard, Montezuma, Rough and Ready, and Yazoo. Some of these states came remarkably close to joining the union while others never had a chance. Are you living in an area that fancied itself a completely different state?

Consider some of the following states that just didn't make the cut. Frontier legend Daniel Boone once proposed a state of Transylvania in the Appalachian wilderness (his plan was resurrected a few years later with the new name of Kentucky). Residents of Bucolic South Jersey wanted to secede from their urban north Jersey neighbors and form the fifty-first state. The Gold Rush Territory of Nataqua could have made a fine state-but since no women were willing to live there, settlers gave up and joined California.

Each story offers a fascinating glimpse at the nation The United States might have become--along with plenty of absurd characters, bureaucratic red tape, and political gamesmanship. Accompanying these tales are beautifully rendered maps detailing the proposed state boundaries, plus images of real life artifacts and ephemera. Enjoy exploring this astounding atlas of lost, abandoned, and altered states.

From beautifully engraved sixteenth-century Dutch maps to sinister Nazi maps, this stunning compendium features some of the most famous cartography ever created. Stretching back to when explorers feared dropping off the "edge of the world," these 65 examples include Lewis and Clark's charting of the American West, the British mapping of India and Australia, and maps that divided up continents among conquerors, marked a country's geology, or laid out military campaigns. There are even some "fantasy maps," including one from Lord of the Rings Organized chronologically, the collection shows the evolution of map-making from all corners of the globe.

This book from the Peter Whitfield cartographic series traces the history of humankind's relation to the sea as revealed in ten centuries of maritime maps. Presenting sixty maps reproduced in color over double-page spreads, and commentary describing their special features and their significance in the history of navigation, the book explores ancient navigation; the Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery; the printed sea chart, 1600-1800; and the modern sea chart.

Explores the unusual odyssey of Gilbert Joseph Bland, Jr., an antiques dealer from South Florida, who stole dozens of centuries-old maps from some of the most important research libraries in Canada and the U.S.

After an historical introduction, which includes biographies of the world's most important cartographers and a glossary of terms, four chronological chapters cover the period up to the end of the sixteenth century--the bulk of the book--the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Contains 200 illustrations.

In Runes of the North Sigurd Olson explores his feelings about the haunting appeal of the wilderness. He recounts how the legends of the northern vastness of Canada and Alaska have influenced him.

In the introduction, Olson writes, "My runes have come from the wilderness, for in its solitude, silence, and freedom .... I know there are moments of insight when ancient truths do stand out more vividly, and one senses anew his relationship to the earth and to all life".

Runes of the North explores these values, insights, and truths. Olson weaves the tales and myths with his own stories and experiences as an explorer, writer, grandfather, and biologist. "This inner world has to do with the wilderness from which we came", he writes, "timelessness, cosmic rhythms, and the deep feelings men have for an unchanged environment".

Olson tells of Native American legends and traditions, like dream catchers and wild rice harvests, as well as the pure pleasure of the Finnish sauna. Each story portrays the special magic one finds in the wilderness and is filled with moments, that Olson writes, "are worth waiting for, and when they come in some unheralded instant of knowing, they are of the purest gold".

The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem."

Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land.

Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

How the city was imagined in maps from ancient times to the present day.

The city: a place of hopes and dreams, destruction and conflict, vision and order. The first city atlas, the Civitates Orbis Terrarum, was published by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenburg in 1572. For the first time, one could travel the streets of a city without leaving his or her armchair. Since then, our fascination with foreign cities has not abated. This sumptuous volume looks at the development of the mapping and the representation of cities, revealing how we organize urban space.

From skyline profiles, bird's-eye views, and panoramas to the schematic maps of transport networks and road layouts to help us navigate, and statistical maps that can provide information on human aspirations, cities can reveal themselves in many ways. Focusing on key points in the development of urban representation and including retrofutristic visions of how we would be living today, this enlightening book illustrates some of the oldest, youngest, liveliest, and most contested cities in the world.

Extended captions explain the relevance and elegance of each map, as well as the logic between its purpose and design. For anyone interested in the city in which he or she lives or with the desire to explore the history and culture of a metropolis overseas, this book is an enlightening companion.