Texas Takes Shape is a beautifully illustrated and designed book of the most comprehensive map collection relating to Texas. Texas is unique in the Union in that it retained ownership of its public land, and this book makes clear that the creative and judicious use of that land is, in many ways, the creation story of present-day Texas. - Ron Tyler, University of Texas at Austin, author of Texas Lithographs: A Century of History in Images Texas Takes Shape is an astoundingly beautiful work of visual history. Surveying the Texas past through more than a hundred historical maps, this collection offers readers a remarkable new window into how individuals and empires have imagined, explored, and fought over the lands that became Texas. For anyone interested in understanding how maps have literally shaped the modern landscape of Texas, this is an absolute must-read. - Andrew J. Torget, University of North Texas, author of Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 18001850 Texas Takes Shape is both a guide to the extensive and ever-increasing map collection of the Texas General Land Office and a remarkable study of maps of Texas and the Southwest. This handsome and colorful volume is a pleasure for the eye of the book collector but also a treat for the reader who wants to understand how maps framed understandings of the state and the region over several centuries. - Kenneth Hafertepe, Baylor University, author of The Material Culture of German Texans
