The States Of America: The Mid-Atlantic

Volume One: Delaware, Maryland & New Jersey

In One Volume, The Histories of Delaware, Maryland & New Jersey.

Neither fully North nor South, the Mid-Atlantic states have always existed in between—and that's precisely what makes them essential to understanding America.

This first volume explores three small states with outsized influence. Delaware, "The First State," may be tiny, but it became the legal home to more than half of America's corporations and cast the decisive first vote for the Constitution. Maryland, divided by the Chesapeake Bay and nearly torn apart during the Civil War, has reinvented itself repeatedly while grappling with the deepest contradictions of American democracy. New Jersey, too often dismissed as a corridor between greater cities, has been a crucial testing ground for American industry, diversity, and resilience.

What unites these three states is their experience as borderlands—places where competing visions of America have collided and been forced to find accommodation. From their complex colonial origins through the Revolutionary War, from the crisis of slavery to the challenges of post-industrial renewal, Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey have repeatedly stood at the center of the nation's most pressing questions.

Drawing on the latest scholarship while remaining accessible to general readers, The States of America: The Mid-Atlantic reveals how these three states shaped—and continue to shape—the American story. Their histories remind us that the nation's character has been forged not in grand gestures, but in the daily work of negotiation, compromise, and coexistence.