"What is the history of geography in this country? How have Americans been taught to see the world around them? Susan Schulten addresses these questions by examining how ideas and images shaped popular understandings of world geography from the 1880s to the 1950s, a critical period in history that saw the United States evolve from a relatively isolationist nation to an international, economic superpower. Schulten examines four enduring institutions of learning that produced some of the most influential sources of geographic knowledge in modern history: maps and atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university, and public schools."--BOOK JACKET.