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98th out of 349 books
—
192 voters
Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States
George R. Stewart’s classic study of place-naming in the United States was written during World War II as a tribute to the varied heritage of the nation’s peoples. More than half a century later, Names on the Land remains the authoritative source on its subject, while Stewart’s intimate knowledge of America and love of anecdote make his book a unique and delightful window...more
Paperback, 432 pages
Published
July 1st 2008
by NYRB Classics
(first published 1945)
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Stewart, George R. NAMES ON THE LAND: A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF PLACE-NAMING IN THE UNITED STATES. ((1945; revised in 1958 & 1967; this ed. 2008). ****. Stewart wrote this book while he was serving in the military during WWII. How places got their names had been a life-long interest of his since he was a teenager. It is a book that you can’t read at just a few sittings. You have to keep getting up to tell someone what it was you just learned. This takes time. My wife has resorted to reading he...more
How I wish George R. Stewart was still alive, so that I could actually respond to his request for letters on names of the land. How grateful I am that he found the process of naming so fascinating, and that his passion poured out in every sentence he wrote. A friend of mine recently read Moby Dick, and her review considered -- damn, this guy really likes whales -- and though I don't believe whales topped her list of fascinating obsessions, she appreciated the passion with which Melville spoke of...more
Warning: My favorable rating may be due to my love of the subject matter. Toponyms fascinate me, and American toponyms are mostly recent enough to shed some light on the naming process. In fact, this book is generally about the naming process. It is not a dictionary of toponyms, but instead a guide through American history and how naming evolved from the first exploration of the now contiguous U.S. through the time of publication: post World War II (and pre-Alaska and Hawai'i statehood).
The boo...more
The boo...more
Aug 26, 2011
Spiros
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who has ever wondered about place names, and any one who hasn't
Shelves:
remainders
Finished during World War Two, later amended to include Alaska and Hawai'i, Stewart's magnum opus explores the history and patterns of naming American places. From the "unimaginative" namings of the Spanish explorers (mainly places named for the Saint's Day on which the place was discovered) and English explorers (mainly Royal patrons), to the "romantic" namings based on Indigenous words, however inaccurate in etymology or geography, which gained popularity in the middle of the 19th century, Ste...more
I got this book for Early Reviewers, but it's been very slow reading for me - although that might have to do with its being non-fiction. Since I think it will be awhile before I finish, I'm putting at least a temporary review here. I can say that I have greatly enjoyed what I have read of it so far. It makes history interesting, and it's fascinating to see how some of the names came about in the US. I think this book could be an especially helpful reference to those who like building worlds of t...more
Totally interesting subject matter. Stewart's writing at times feels rambly and repetitive, but then it's peppered throughout with quirky stories of the origin of specific places. It also seems very thorough, with some good comparison of the historical trends in place naming as well as just a chronicling of what the names are and how they came to be.
I appreciate Stewart's contempt for people who replaced solid, if sometimes leaning towards crude, names that reflected the experience of the settle...more
I appreciate Stewart's contempt for people who replaced solid, if sometimes leaning towards crude, names that reflected the experience of the settle...more
Have you heard the story about how chocolate chip cookies were invented? Once upon a time there was a lovely young housewife who was going to have company and wanted to make chocolate cookies for them. Lo and behold when she went to the cupboard she found, to her everlasting shame, that she was all out of cocoa powder. Undeterred she broke up a bar of baking chocolate and stirred the chunks into the cookie dough, assuming that in the oven the chunks would melt and mix into the cookie, making it...more
True to its title,
Names on the Land
looks at how the country, its states, counties, cities, towns, streets, rivers and mountains were named. Stewart approaches the subject chronologically and uses a series of anecdotes to tell the story behind many of the more obvious landmarks in the USA (including “USA” itself). What we find is that many names are an amalgamation of Native American, Spanish, French, English and Dutch words, changed through translation and mis-translation, spelling errors, an...more
A fine tracing of how our nation's landscape was named: natural features, cities, and towns. The author follows the individual strands of explorers and why they named features as they did (reflecting their heritage, religion, country, or for that matter, a whim of the moment.) Then settlers, factions, towns people, the Post Office and finally a Board to settle disputes or "clean up" anomalies - if the locals would allow it.
The book is comprehensive from the opening sentence, "In the beginning,...more
The book is comprehensive from the opening sentence, "In the beginning,...more
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It's a little dry. But in a 1950's tv program kind of way. We're used to whistles and bells in our culture nowadays. I know SEVERAL people who won't attend a movie on the basis of monotony if it doesn't have at least one explosion or murder in it.
This book is not for them. I kept having to remind myself that the book was written 50 years ago. As a textbook. And apparently a very well respected one. George Stewart has a mild humor as he writes. He passes the silly, the overly complicated, and the...more
This book is not for them. I kept having to remind myself that the book was written 50 years ago. As a textbook. And apparently a very well respected one. George Stewart has a mild humor as he writes. He passes the silly, the overly complicated, and the...more
1 like · like · see review
RATED IN CATEGORY "BOOK" : 1 STAR
RATED IN CATEGORY "SLEEP AID" : 5 STARS
I acknowledge that many goodreads reviewers profess to find this book "fascinating". I understand that it is regarded by some as an "American classic". There is something distinctly impressive about George R. Stewart's sheer stamina.
What I cannot do, based on empirical evidence from extensive trials, is read more than a page of this book without lapsing into prolonged, profound slumber. It may be the most boring book ever w...more
RATED IN CATEGORY "SLEEP AID" : 5 STARS
I acknowledge that many goodreads reviewers profess to find this book "fascinating". I understand that it is regarded by some as an "American classic". There is something distinctly impressive about George R. Stewart's sheer stamina.
What I cannot do, based on empirical evidence from extensive trials, is read more than a page of this book without lapsing into prolonged, profound slumber. It may be the most boring book ever w...more
1 like · like · see review
This book has been around forever (first edition in 1944, revised in '56), but is still a classic and definitely worth a look. It's basically a history of the United States told in chronological order through its place names. Not boring at all -- the author has a very engaging writing style and loves telling the little ancedotes behind some of the names.
Apr 19, 2011
Book Buff
added it
This is a great book, first published around 1950, and recently re-issued. Done with real scholarship, yet interesting due to accurate and appropriate anecdotes. I would recommend it for anyone twelve and up as a good read, or an excellent reference on place names, or as an overview of the settling and history of the U.S.
An amazing account of how place names come to be and how they evolve. There are lots of good stories throughout the book that I found myself saying 'so that's where that comes from'. Fascinating.
Absolutely enchanting. Reads like one giant "just so" story, with magic and myth and the march of time all intertwined. It's really quite amazing to realize that every name, every single little name that you see on any map, has a storied history behind it, in which you can see the progress of America from Native land to empire, colony to republic, from nation to state, and polity to bureaucracy. Adds a whole new dimension to seemingly silly debates over "Squaw Peak" vs. "Piestewa Peak" and the d...more
Absolutely fascinating book about the origins of place names in America. Written in a fascinating, old-school way - the perfect book to enjoy for 10 minutes or for several hours.
Much more than just a "Why do they call it that?" book--this is Stewart's profound meditation on how, and why, humans imbue meaning to nature. Placid, tranquil, poetic writing, too.
This book ought to be read by every person interested in the sweep of America's history. It tells how and why places got named what they're named, in lyrical, vivid prose.
"Once, from eastern ocean to western ocean, the land stretched away without names. Nameless headlands split the surf; nameless lakes reflected nameless mountains; and nameless rivers flowed through nameless valleys into nameless bays.
"Men came at last, tribe following tribe, speaking different languages and thinking different thoughts. According to their ways of speech and thought they gave names, and in their generations laid their bones by the streams and hills they had named. But even when t...more
"Men came at last, tribe following tribe, speaking different languages and thinking different thoughts. According to their ways of speech and thought they gave names, and in their generations laid their bones by the streams and hills they had named. But even when t...more
Aug 26, 2011
Sarah
marked it as to-read
http://derekwatkins.wordpress.com/201...
Since I'm a map nerd, might be worth flipping through.
Since I'm a map nerd, might be worth flipping through.
A really great book shows us how everything is great and worth to die for
This is a great book! It was first published around 1950, and done with real scholarship, yet interesting due to accurate and appropriate anecdones. I would recommend it for anyone twelve and up as a good read, or an excellent reference on place names, or even as an overview of the settling and history of the U.S. I wish I could find more books like this one! And I don't just mean place name books - I mean non-fiction books that have important information to share that are well-researched and an...more
Very interesting read on how US names came about.
Interesting to read a book on American place-naming written when Alaska and Hawaii weren't even states yet, and when there were people still living whose parents remembered the Civil War. The "historical experience" was probably enhanced by the first-edition copy I'd checked out from the library, brittle pages to match that effusive old prose style, reminding me to be patient even when I skipped some of the longer-winded passages.
Fun read - would love to see the same with tons of maps, just beca...more
Fun read - would love to see the same with tons of maps, just beca...more
I think I enjoyed this book so much because Stewart's joy in his subject is infectious. He luxuriates in the arcane details that in the hands of someone less thoroughly enamored of his subject would read as a disjointed ramble across space and time. Stewart manages to cobble together myth, legend, fact and story into a really entertaining (if not exactly page-turning) journey across American history and geography. His wry sense of humor also makes the esoteric subject surprisingly captivating.
I found the subject matter interesting but the style of writing kind of boring. oh well
The subject matter contained in this book could be quite dry. However, Stewart skillfuly narrates the history of name-giving trends in the US in an anecdotal style that is highly readable. Granted I am a huge geography/history aficianado, but I found this to be one of the better non-fiction books that I've read in quite some time. Highly recommended to anyone who has ever been remotely curious as to how a town/river/state was given its name
I LOVE the content of the book. History of names of places in the US. Totally up my alley. Unfortunately I won't finish it because it reads like a text book written for the most boring class in 1957 that you can imagine. SO DRY. Stewart rambles and the book is not well organized. It just all blobs together, so you have to search through the chapters for the meaty facts. Great information, terrible presentation. Too bad.
An amazing scholarly work, and some really great historical tidbits. A little tough to plow through unless you're a die-hard naming geek, though.
A very insightful, well researched and amusing tale of the names and places we take for granted. Naming is an interesting lens to view our country's history and the people and events that have shaped the land and have been shaped by it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that has ever had a curiosity about names as well as the idiosyncratic nooks and crannies of our culture.
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George Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his only science fiction novel Earth Abides (1949), a post-apocalyptic novel, for which he won the first International Fantasy Award in 1951. It was dramatized on radio's Escape and inspired Stephen King's
The Stand
.
His 1941 novel Storm , featuri...more
More about George R. Stewart...
His 1941 novel Storm , featuri...more
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