The Axis in Arkansas

This is the third installment of Mid-Afternoon Map, a cartographic perspective on current events, geopolitics, and history from the Caucasus to the Carolinas, for members only. Paying members can look forward to interesting takes on good maps and bad maps, beautiful maps and ugly ones — and bizarre maps whenever possible.

Nothing brings the scale of a European war home to Americans like moving it to the Midwest. That, at least, is the idea behind this week’s maps, which superimpose the fronts of World War I and World War II onto the continental United States. As incredibly literalistic efforts to win sympathy for America’s allies, they seem at once sensible and slightly surreal. Sure, Rochester might be the Leningrad of America, but what the hell is the kaiser after in Dubuque anyways?