Measuring America: How an Untamed Wilderness Shaped the United States and Fulfilled the Promise of Democracy 
asked by nexus on November 14, 2006 7:03 PM
Measuring America is the fascinating, provocative, and eye-opening story of why America has ended up with its unique system of weights and measures—the American Customary System, unlike any other in the world—and how this has profoundly shaped our country and culture. In the process, Measuring America reveals the colossal power contained inside the acres and miles, ounces and pounds, that we use every day without ever realizing their significance.
The most urgent problem facing the newly independent United States was how to pay for the war that won the country its freedom; America’s debt was enormous. Its greatest asset was the land west of the Ohio River, but for this huge territory to be sold, it had first to be surveyed—that is, measured out and mapped. And before that could be done, a uniform set of measurements had to be chosen for the new republic. English, Scottish, German, Dutch, Scandinavian, and other settlers had all brought their own systems with them (more than 100,000 different units are reckoned to have been in daily use), and in his first address to Congress, George Washington put the establishment of a single system of weights and measures immediately after a national defense and a currency as the United States’ most urgent priority.
The debate on this vital measure took place at a critical moment in the history of ideas, when the traditional, subjective view of the world was being increasingly challenged by objective, scientific reasoning. Thomas Jefferson—supported by Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe, even Hamilton—championed the new idea of a scientific 10-based system derived from some universal constant such as time or the size of the earth. Such an alliance should have ensured a decimal America, but ranged against them was the invisible genius of Edmund Gunter, the seventeenth-century English mathematician whose twenty-two-yard surveying chain, introduced in 1607, had revolutionized land ownership in Britain and was still used by every surveyor in America—including Thomas Hutchins and his successors in charge of the land survey on the Ohio frontier.
How we ultimately gained the American Customary System—the last traditional system in the world—and how Gunter’s chain indelibly imprinted its dimensions on the land, on cities, and on our culture from coast to coast is both an exciting human and intellectual drama and one of the great untold stories in American history. At a time when the metric system may finally be unstoppable, Andro Linklater has captured the essential nature of measurement just as the Founding Fathers understood it. Sagely argued and beautifully written, Measuring America offers readers nothing less than the opportunity to see America’s history—and our democracy—in a brilliant new light.
The most urgent problem facing the newly independent United States was how to pay for the war that won the country its freedom; America’s debt was enormous. Its greatest asset was the land west of the Ohio River, but for this huge territory to be sold, it had first to be surveyed—that is, measured out and mapped. And before that could be done, a uniform set of measurements had to be chosen for the new republic. English, Scottish, German, Dutch, Scandinavian, and other settlers had all brought their own systems with them (more than 100,000 different units are reckoned to have been in daily use), and in his first address to Congress, George Washington put the establishment of a single system of weights and measures immediately after a national defense and a currency as the United States’ most urgent priority.
The debate on this vital measure took place at a critical moment in the history of ideas, when the traditional, subjective view of the world was being increasingly challenged by objective, scientific reasoning. Thomas Jefferson—supported by Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe, even Hamilton—championed the new idea of a scientific 10-based system derived from some universal constant such as time or the size of the earth. Such an alliance should have ensured a decimal America, but ranged against them was the invisible genius of Edmund Gunter, the seventeenth-century English mathematician whose twenty-two-yard surveying chain, introduced in 1607, had revolutionized land ownership in Britain and was still used by every surveyor in America—including Thomas Hutchins and his successors in charge of the land survey on the Ohio frontier.
How we ultimately gained the American Customary System—the last traditional system in the world—and how Gunter’s chain indelibly imprinted its dimensions on the land, on cities, and on our culture from coast to coast is both an exciting human and intellectual drama and one of the great untold stories in American history. At a time when the metric system may finally be unstoppable, Andro Linklater has captured the essential nature of measurement just as the Founding Fathers understood it. Sagely argued and beautifully written, Measuring America offers readers nothing less than the opportunity to see America’s history—and our democracy—in a brilliant new light.
Reviews
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Linklater's book is a very easy read but is obviously done, not by a historian, but a journalist interested in history. Many historical inaccuracies appear in the book that would not have appeared if there had been anyone checking for accuracy. Linklater states that there were three original signers of the Declaration of Independence (there were 5), a major mistake that should have been caught. Another is the fact that he doesn't know one Native Indian tribe from the other and misquotes his sources, when he bothers to note them. Writing a book on both history and science requires that the individual writing such a book should at least have someone double checking his or her accuracy. There is no or little documentation of where he gets his sources. His sources are mentioned by page number at the end of the book and you have to guess which quote or information is being referenced. No end notes or footnotes exist. As a historian, I have no idea whether or not the scientific end of this book is just as flawed or not, but does make it slightly suspect.
However, Linklater gives an excellent representation of the times, the people involved and the places in surveying and laying out the Trans-Appalachian West. His character portraits are interesting to read, giving people like Washington, Jefferson, and less known persons such as Masseneh Cutler and Ferdinand Hassler a human look to the reader. The writing is in narrative format and not difficult. In fact, it's probably the only book that will actually have the non-scientific reader understanding what all the various confusing measurements mean! Linklater is a good author, he just needs to have someone go over his facts a bit more strenously and get a better format for his research and his book.
However, Linklater gives an excellent representation of the times, the people involved and the places in surveying and laying out the Trans-Appalachian West. His character portraits are interesting to read, giving people like Washington, Jefferson, and less known persons such as Masseneh Cutler and Ferdinand Hassler a human look to the reader. The writing is in narrative format and not difficult. In fact, it's probably the only book that will actually have the non-scientific reader understanding what all the various confusing measurements mean! Linklater is a good author, he just needs to have someone go over his facts a bit more strenously and get a better format for his research and his book.
reviewed by scoobie on November 25, 2006 4:50 AM
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This is a phenominal read for any thinking person with a general knowledge of American History and an interest in technology, politics, and science. It is the story of the measurement of the continental US - starting with the application of the instruments and techniques of Europe to the mountains, forests, swamps and plains of the American Repubic - and of the development of American technology and standards to meet the needs - and the story of this land measurement overlaying and contending with the existing land measurement systems of the other colonizers. It is a story of personal heroism of the explorers and surveryors in marking out a continent and transforming the wilderness into cities and farms, the story of greed and claim jumping, the story of how the law learned to cope with all of the issues. Seldom is a book interesting both as to science and technology and history and people at the same time, but this work is fascinating on every page. I've never seen anything like it other than Boorstein's The Discoverers.
reviewed by speaker on November 27, 2006 1:57 AM
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In his book Measuring America, Andro Linklater does a very good job at surveying the history of land surveys in Europe and the United States and the reason why the length 22 yards is so darn important. Starting in England with the end of feudalism and the beginning of private land ownership, Linklater eventually crosses the Atlantic and focuses on surveying and private land ownership in the expanding United States of America. The author shows that the Gunter's chain, a 22 yard surveying instrument, is the only constant measure through hundreds of years of Western Civilization and has left its mark all across America as the basis of our public land surveys. I know this all too well - the high school where I teach sits on a 40 acre square [well, there is the little piece across the street added later for the farm, but the original campus is 40 acres] or 440 yards by 440 yards [20 chains by 20 chains]. This area is also a ý of a ý of a section in the US public land survey and is squared off with sides running exactly north-south and east-west. It makes it easier to teach about maps and directions, but imposing squares on an undulating landscape has always seemed against our better knowledge of ecological principles. I think my biggest gain from reading Measuring America was learning of a reason to feel better about all the squares - Linklater makes the case that the squares are more democratic. I wish Linklater had tied all his important points together more tightly and hence the 4 star rating. Measuring America is quite an education and well worth the read.
reviewed by reader99 on November 29, 2006 4:30 PM
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There are many reasons to like this book. You'll like it if you're an American history buff. Or a world history buff. Or if you loved Dava Sobel's book "Longitude," but also enjoyed Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything." Or if you've wondered why the United States was the first country to propose a metric system of measurement, but will be the last to adopt one, if it ever does. Or if you ever flew across the country and marvelled at the rectangularity of the midwest, and westward. Or if you grew up in the midwest, where a plot of land is described in terms of range, township, section, chains, and links, and then moved to the east, where no such measurements exist. Or if you just want to know even more about Washington, Jefferson, or the Declaration of Independence. My only criticism of the book is that the black-and-white photographs, especially of maps, did not translate well from hardcover to paperback, where they are generally dim and muddy. Also, the book would have benefitted from the inclusion of diagrams illustrating the relationship of units of land division, such as those mentioned above.
reviewed by ibook on November 29, 2006 5:14 PM