Kenneth C. Martis

Kenneth C. Martis is an American political geographer notable for his mapping and documentation of the electoral history of the United States. He is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geology and Geography at West Virginia University.

Early Life and Education

Martis was born in Toledo, Ohio on December 5, 1945. His four grandparents and father were immigrants from Slovakia. Martis obtained a B.Ed. degree from The University of Toledo in 1968 and a M.A. in geography from San Diego State College (later San Diego State University) in 1970. In 1975 he joined the faculty of West Virginia University and the next year received his Ph.D. in geography from the University of Michigan, studying under political geographer George Kish.

Contributions to Political Geography

Martis is the author and co-author of seven award winning books on the United States Congress and American politics. The first book in his series of historical political atlases, The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts: 1789-1983, was designated a Selected Reference Book by the journal College and Research Libraries and won the American Historical Association's Waldo G. Leland Prize for the best reference book in all fields of history for the period 1981-1986. The Atlas was the first book in American history to map every congressional district for every election and catalog all state redistricting laws. Based on the archival work for this book, Martis and Ruth A. Rowles were awarded the 1984 Organization of American Historian's Charles Thomson Prize for their article "Mapping Congress: Developing a Geographic Understanding of American Political History."

The illustration is an example of the congressional district base maps found in the reference book The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts: 1789-1983. There are ninety-seven national scale district maps, one for each of the first ninety-seven congresses. The Thirty-seventh Congress was primarily elected in 1860 and is the first Congress to convene during the Civil War. The striped areas indicate districts in the eleven seceded states which did not send representatives to the United States Congress. The House certified and seated several “Unionist” members from three seceded states, including five from Virginia, three from western Tennessee and two from southern Louisiana (elected after the New Orleans area was occupied). On the page opposite of each map is an alphabetical list of all who served in the House of Representatives with their proper state and congressional district number/designation (note the two members from Minnesota and three from California are not elected from districts but on a General Ticket, that is, statewide). Insert maps are used to illustrate very small urban districts. Information is found at the bottom of each map giving the session dates, total number of representatives, Speaker, newly admitted states, and map notes indicating vacancies throughout the Congress and any significant state or national boundary changes.

Congressional Districts of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, 1861-1863

In 1989 the second book in his series of political atlases was published, The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress: 1789-1989. The atlas was the first in American history to map all congressional elections for every state and district and identify the political party affiliation of every person elected to Congress from 1788. The Library Journal designated the political party atlas as one of the Best Reference Books of 1989 and College and Research Libraries named it a Selected Reference Book of 1989-90. The Library of Congress selected the political cartography from this work as the centerpiece of its main exhibition on "Tides of Party Politics: Two Centuries of Congressional Elections" celebrating of the 1989 bicentennial of the United States Congress. The data developed for this work is now considered the standard source of political party affiliation of members of Congress by the official Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. In 2013 an article in Real Clear Politics selected the political party atlas as one of the 15 most influential/indispensable books on the subject of American election analysis (ranked #10).

In 1993 his third book on Congress, co-authored with Gregory A. Elmes, The Historical Atlas of State Power in Congress: 1790-1990 was published. This work maps and analyzes every apportionment change for every state for all of United States history. This work won the 1993 Washington Book Publishers award for best book design.

In 1994 The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America: 1861-1865 was published. This book is the first nonmilitary nonbattlefield atlas of the American Civil War. The American Library Association, Choice Magazine, designated this work an Outstanding Academic Book of 1994. In 2002 the Atlas of American Politics: 1960-2000, was published, which Martis co-authored with J. Clark Archer, Stephen J. Lavin, and Fred M. Shelley. This atlas won the American Library Association Outstanding Academic Book Award of 2003. In 2006 he co-authored the Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections: 1788-2004 with the same collaborators; it was the first county four-color atlas of all American presidential elections. In 2006 the Atlas was awarded the Library Journal Best Reference Book prize and the Association of American Publishers Outstanding Single Volume Reference Book in the Humanities & Social Sciences recognition. His most recent book is a 2014 co-edited work titled Atlas of the 2012 Elections. This atlas covers the myriad geographical aspects of the fall 2012 elections on the national, regional, state and county level, and contains nearly 200 maps, graphs and illustrations.

In 2001 he was interviewed for the distinguished "Geographers on Film" series that highlights the career and work of notable American geographers. Kenneth C. Martis is a Professor Emeritus of Geography at West Virginia University and is the first awardee of that institution's highest academic honor, Benedum Distinguished Scholar. He was awarded the 2007 US/West Virginia Professor of the Year Award by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Washington, DC.

For his work on the historical geography of Congress and American politics he has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, Association of American Geographers, Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center, Huntington Library, and the Newberry Library.

Selected Works

External links

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