Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (New York Review Books Classics)

I learned so much from this book. When I purchased it, I thought it might be like an annotated dictionary of sorts -- perhaps in alphabetical order, so that I could look up Topeka or New York. But it's not like that at all. The author starts with the blank canvas of the American landscape, before recorded history, and describes how a place becomes a name.The book is arranged chronologically, so the reader moves from pre-history to native Americans to colonists; and from the edges of the country (like Florida, California and New Mexico) to the middle regions; and from colonial governmental debates on names to the Congressional debates on state names in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.The information about the place names comes at the reader not as a dry history lesson, but almost as an epic novel in which the main character is the landscape, and the minor characters are the natives, the immigrants, the politicians, the storytellers. The prose is spare and compelling. The depth of research is mind-boggling.This is a book to be read, re-read and referred to for the rest of your life, especially if you are a traveller or a proud American.

The information on Indian naming traditions on page 10 is true. Apart from the Iroquois and Pueblos, most tribes were newcomers where they lived when they first encountered Europeans.

Excellent historical overview.

Behind every name there's a story and Stewart's tome is a staggering monument of scholarship. One can only imagine the time and resources he put into this book which tells the origin of many of the place names that today are so familiar. And he reveals the naming processes, from adopting Indian appellations to names of explorers, to descriptions of events that took place there, to artificially contrived names, to names that evolved, to names brought from abroad -- in other words, the whole gamut of naming places. Stewart's telling of the story behind so many names adds a new and pleasureable dimension to American history. This is a book you read slowly, savoring the names on the land as they tell their story.

Book you don’t really have to read from start to finish. It’s interesting if you are familiar with different parts of the country. Explains everything about naming places in North America.

So far it is just okay

It is always humbling to discover how limited my education is in key areas, especially geography. Names on a map that I have seen dozens of times, cities and towns I have visited but never given deep thought to, and the evolution of language are all present in this slim volume. I found myself surprised that I had read thirty or forty pages without realizing any passage of time. I lost myself in this book -- like exploring familiar territory for the very first time. An engaging, worthwhile, illuminating book.

Highly readable and appealing, this history is no cutsey look at how places in the US got their names; it's a page-turner of intriguing detail, with appropriate respect for NA Indians. Mr Stewart touches on subjects as varied as the War Between the States, how Oklahoma got its name,the prevalent use of "-burgh' in the eastern sections,and "Noah Webster's spelling book." Find a copy of NAMES ON THE LAND if you have any interest in finding yet another clue as to how the US got to be the way it is today.

Wonderful book, so interesting and so beautifully written.

Not for everyone, but if you think placenames are important to understanding placenames, this is indispensible.