How the States Got Their Shapes

This book was very interesting. I remember asking my mom how states' shapes were formed (I got some blow-off answer, I'm sure). This book also contains lots of maps (thankfully), including some with captions like "Connecticut according to Connecticut" and "Connecticut according to New York." Obviously, they disagreed immensely. From reading this I've realized that states as a whole act strikingly similar to the people in their states. Case and point: California. Congress attempted to keep all incoming states the same relative size but with California they were concerned about it becoming its own nation (due to its size and resources). California didn't feel like going through the standard procedure of becoming a territory first (territories can have their borders changed) so they just applied for statehood. They didn't want their nice resources given to some other state (who cares about Nevada, anyway?). So Congress allowed it to come into the Union despite its smugness. Thus officially beginning California's craziness as a state.