---
product_id: 2772394
title: "Drawing the Line : How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America"
brand: "edwin danson"
price: "$92.58"
currency: USD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.us/products/2772394-drawing-the-line-how-mason-and-dixon-surveyed-the-most
store_origin: US
region: United States of America
---

# Drawing the Line : How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America

**Brand:** edwin danson
**Price:** $92.58
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Drawing the Line : How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America by edwin danson
- **How much does it cost?** $92.58 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.us](https://www.desertcart.us/products/2772394-drawing-the-line-how-mason-and-dixon-surveyed-the-most)

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## Description

Drawing the Line : How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A Wonderful Book
  

*by L***R on Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2022*

This is the second time I have purchased this book. This time as a gift for my father-in-law. We both love historical documentary books that give one a real understanding of what went into endeavor that changes the world in some way. This so well researched and written.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Astronomy, trigonometry, and trans-Atlantic politics
  

*by C***H on Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2001*

A few years ago, I was kidding around with a high school senior in our school library in northern Illinois, and I quipped, "Well, as Mason said to Dixon, you've got to draw the line somewhere."  I expected at least a chuckle in return.  The student, academically rated in the top 10% of his class, stared blankly back at me.  "Mason and Dixon?" I asked.  Nothing.  "The Mason-Dixon Line?"  Nada.  "The border between Pennsylvania and Maryland?  The boundary between The North and The South?  The whole premise behind the Civil War?"  Nope.  He had never heard of it.  The Line, I mean; of course, he knew about the Civil War.Maybe I took it for granted, since I grew up in a suburb about 25 miles north of the Line, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  The Line was there, but nobody made a big deal about it.  I don't recall being taught anything about it, myself.  I made a mental note to someday rectify that omission.When Thomas Pynchon's _Mason & Dixon_ was released, I was ready and interested.  Ready and interested, that is, until I spied a copy in a bookstore, randomly opened it, and tried to actually read and understand the words on that single page.  Hmmm.  I returned the book to its display and allowed it to entice another potential buyer.As soon as Danson's book came out, I was ready and interested in the subject matter once again.  And I believe I made the right choice with this one.  There's A LOT of trigonometry and technical information in parts, and all of the math teachers in my past wouldn't be a bit surprised that I sort of skimmed over those paragraphs.  But the extent of the politics and 18th-century science involved is intriguing.  Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon had to contend with scientific authorities and governmental offices on both sides of the Atlantic -- not to mention local hostilities between European settlers and native Indians.  In spite of a variety of challenges, they were ultimately successful in their mission and got little recognition (and even less pay) for their hard work in the colonial wilderness.My favorite passages in _Drawing the Line_ were in the details surrounding the actual surveying of the PA-MD border, which had to be done in four separate phases.  I followed the text along with a road atlas in my lap and could envision some of the familiar terrain.  And I nodded at the descriptions of violent thunderstorms and crippling blizzards.  Been there, done that ... though certainly not while living in a surveyor's tent.Reading this book will help to answer the inevitable teenager lament, "When would ANYONE ever use trigonometry in real life?"  And if you have a hankering to know more about life on the North American East Coast before the Revolution, here's a way to experience it without getting cold and wet.  Or scalped.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Parallax and Tangent Points
  

*by C***R on Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2015*

When Isaac Newton wrote that he was "standing on the shoulders of giants" about100 years before Mason and Dixon made their line, he remarked about a technological revolution that not many authors can conventionally delve into with an interesting and well-paced narrative. Any reader of Danson's work should be struck with the innovation of the surveyors and also the context of mathematical and scientific endeavor prevalent at the time. These are all giants on whose shoulders we stand, without even realizing it, when we access Google Maps, our GPS, or hundreds (thousands?) of other devices of modern convenience. Unfortunately, the majority of our common core objectives steer as far away from innovation and the recognition of these intellectual giants as possible, as if all of our tech today comes from coincidence, magic, or people's ability to just get along.Most notable in the achievement of Mason and Dixon is the astronomy of Mason. As a "competent" mathematician (p 55), he worked with the tools of John Bird and made just as many revisions of measure as he made original measures. These 300 year old people practiced measuring the zenith distance of a star, using softwood levels, and calculating "seven-figure logarithmic tables" (70).  Add to this the scale of the work, not just the precision. And for anybody looking to read about colonial times from a less technical perspective, Danson covers the highly relevant topic of Pontiac's rebellion and the Paxton boys that made venturing too far west a matter of being spied by warring tribe members with hatchets of their own at the ready. The humor of the book comes from the legendary rivalry between Lord Baltimore, I believe the 5th, and the Penns arguing like next-door neighbors over where a stone can be staked.I live on the south of this line. If possible soon, I would rather move to the north. William Styron wrote in "Sophie's Choice" that the South, when his character made it down to Washington DC, is where people hear your last name and ask if you are related to other people nearby who share that name. There's that distinction, plus much more.

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*Product available on Desertcart United States of America*
*Store origin: US*
*Last updated: 2026-02-22*