How the States got Their Shapes. Season 1, Disc 1

Locations
Call Number: DVD TV How Season 1, Disc 1
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	DVD TV How Season 1, Disc 1	1-week checkout	On Shelf

Title from set container and disc label.
A river runs through it ; The great plains, trains & automobiles ; Force of nature ; State of rebellion.
Host, Brian Unger.
Why don't people from New England pronounce their 'R's? How come some Pennsylvania Amish use cell phones? How did Northern Californians get so liberal? The clues are right on the map. Brian Unger hits the road, makes irreverent observations about how people think, speak, and act, and discovers their surprising connections to geography. With its crooked lines and odd breaks, the outline of America is a puzzle to be solved.
DVD; Dolby Digital stereo.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Not your average history class submitted by Vienna Carinthia on June 15, 2013, 7:35pm The history of the states is presented in a highly entertaining way. I wanted to learn something about the history of the individual states as I know very little about it. I was expected a somewhat dry "history class", each show dealing with an individual state. However, I was pleasantly surprised that it is in fact arranged by topic. For instance, the first show "A river runs through it" deals with "water" as the main topic describing for instance how maine was shaped by glaciers and that water is an important resource for all states in the US which influenced how the borders between each state were drawn.
The host does a good job in presenting the topic in an entertaining way - I just sometimes wish this DVD had subtitles.

A big disappointment--read the book instead submitted by peteralway on July 7, 2021, 7:55pm This documentary seems to have been created by people who don't care how the states got their shapes for people who don't care how the states got their shapes. It spends more time on regional barbecue, and state and regional stereotypes, than the actual question suggested by the title.

One disappointment: The segment on New Madrid Bend, a freaky little enclave of Kentucky surrounded by Missouri and Tennessee. After some time talking about the New Madrid earthquake, the segment concludes by telling us that this geographical oddity has nothing to do with the earthquake. It doesn't say why the enclave exists.

Certainly digressions about local culture are fine, but only about half of the stories end up explaining a quirk of a border. I found the show frustrating.

The book "How the States got Their Shapes," by Mark Stein, actually tackles the question with historical background that actually have something to do with the question.