A Note to Authors and Editors

I've harbored this feeling for a long time when I read history, but the recent reading of Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family by Jo Ella Powell Exley brought it to the forefront again.  This is an excellent read of the pioneering of the Southwest, particularly Texas by following one family from Virginia to the Texas area in the 1830's; and how the capture of one of their children by the Comanche Native Americans would produce one of the greatest War Chiefs of the Southwest, Quanah Parker.

It is well reviewed and well written, with a great deal of first person accounts as to locations of the sites documented.  Now my  peeve,  there are not maps!  Not one drawing, not even one big one showing the general area of discussion.  To me this is unforgivable when writing history, what good is knowing about every individuals movements if you provide no geographical references.  Ms. Powell inserted detailed location descriptions but no illustrations of those places to make them real to the reader or at least me.

Which is why Allen W. Eckerts series on the Bloody Frontier of the French and Indian War remain my most enjoyable reads in my fifty some years.  He documents every location with where that site is today, so if I want to go see where Tecumseh was born I can do so.

So my plea to the writers of history:  Give us maps with your great stories, help the reader to understand the geographical context of the events.