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    The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA
    The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA
    The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA

    Written by Doug Mack

    Narrated by Jonathan Yen

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Everyone knows that the USA is made up of fifty states and, uh . . . some other stuff. The territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands are often neglected, but they are filled with American flags and national parks and US post offices and some 4 million people, many of whom are as proudly red-white-and-blue as any Daughter of the American Revolution.

    In The Not-Quite States of America, Doug Mack ventures 31,000 miles across the globe and deep into American history to reveal the fascinating and forgotten story of how these places became part of the United States, what they're like today, and how they helped create the nation as we know it. Along the way, Mack meets members of millennia-old indigenous groups, far-flung US government workers, ardent separatists, and tropical-paradise dropouts and dreamers in a quixotic and winning quest to find America where it is least expected.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateFeb 14, 2017
    ISBN9781681684369
    The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA

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    Reviews for The Not-Quite States of America

    3.5/5

    47 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Quick: name the 4 American territories that aren't Puerto Rico. I'm betting my BookLikes friends are the most likely to know some of them, but probably not all of them. Of the 5 populated territories, I knew of 4, although I couldn't have reeled them off on command; 1 (Northern Mariana Islands) was completely new to me. Now, how many of us could speak knowledgeably about what it means to be a territory of the US? Are they citizens? Can they vote? Do they pay taxes? Does the US Constitution apply to them? Answers: Yes, except American Somoa. Not for president, although they can vote in presidential primaries. No. Yes, but only some of it - the parts that Congress arbitrarily decides to apply. Sounds all kinds of screwed up, doesn't it? What's more screwed up though is that I knew almost none of this, and most Americans don't either. That's what prompted me to buy this book - it's embarrassing not to know this stuff about my own country, especially living overseas and being asked by people: what's the deal with Guam? and having to respond um... it's an island? Doug Mack is a travel writer with a degree in American Studies, and he didn't know either, but he decided to dig into the issues that make the territories not states and try to find out why they've so completely fallen off the radar of almost all Americans, including our politicians (a congressman introduced the American Samoan representative as being from American Samolia - and massacred the man's name). Mack visited each of the 5 territories himself, talking to whomever he could, researching their cultures and searching out the very little written about them over the decades, and speaking to the two (2!) people in the country well versed enough in the legalities to answer constitutional questions. The results are enlightening, horrifying, and eye-opening. Most Americans probably know about Puerto Rico's seesaw to-be-or-not-to-be-a-state, but the other territories are quite happy not being a state. Further, American Samoans - the only territory where the residents are not US citizens (they're residents, but without the green card) - are, for the most part, happy not being citizens. That's not to say there aren't extreme disadvantages and challenges for the territories, but Mack does a brilliant job illustrating just how difficult it is for them to balance being American with preserving their distinctive cultures and identities. Mack also outlines brief histories of each territory, and some of the legal precedence for why they are set up the way they are, and why it's so hard to define their place in the US. Or, you know, remember they exist. This is a huge task and though he does it entertainingly, he does not pretend to do it comprehensively. Every part of this subject is a quagmire of questions that have no easy answers and no good solutions. But Mack's willing to give it a try, and he does it in a very readable, balanced narrative. The talking points are innumerable - MT and I have discussed this book's points until we're both hoarse - and for that alone, the author gets 4.5 stars from me. MT felt like a few questions went unanswered, and he's less than thrilled about my new enthusiasm for an American Samoa holiday (it's a seafood thing), but he's not reviewing this book, I am, and I say if you have any interest in the part of America that isn't often thought of as being part of America, this would definitely be a great place to start.
    • 4/5
      History, geography and travelogue all rolled into one, The Not-Quite States of America is a fun and informative read on the subject of America's territories. Doug Mack travels to each of the five American territories, and gives you a taste of what makes each one unique, and what the territories have in common with each other and with the rest of the US, as he explores the legal and political reality of their their fuzzy quasi-colony status.
    • 3/5
      This book is not quite what I wanted, but I'm glad I read it. While I wasn't looking for an academic treatment, this history/travelogue mash-up is just a little too slight to give me all the information I want about the U.S. territories and possessions. It's great that the writer actually visited the places to see how they are faring today, but I think he gives too much weight to his time spent with a few colorful individuals in each place. I'm not a fan of travel writing, but the little bit of history and analysis Mack does manage to throw in makes his tourist profundity tolerable, and the off-beat but fascinating topic earns him some overall bonus points.
    • 4/5
      Journalist Doug Mack visits American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the USVI, and the Northern Mariana Islands, providing brief histories of each as American territory (and American "territorialism" generally) and personal accounts of his visits with a range of different folks in each place. Badly-timed, alas, coming as it did just a few months before the major 2017 hurricanes which dramatically changed both the USVI and Puerto Rico. A good read, often quite amusing indeed.
    • 5/5
      The Not-Quite States of AmericaAuthor: Doug MackPublisher: W. W. Norton and CompanyPublished In: New York, NY; London, EnglandDate: 2017Pgs: 306_________________________________________________ REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS Summary:50 states, et al. American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S.Virgin Islands...4 million people who fly the American flag, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, but, not statehood. History, independence, statehood, the status quo, the nature of empire. _________________________________________________Genre:NonfictionTravelTravel WritingUnited StatesRegionsHistoryWorld Why this book:‘merica._________________________________________________ Least Favorite Character: The racist bastards who flummoxed the normal progression that should have lead to these territories, re: colonies, being states by now. And to the Supreme Court for abetting that racist, imperialist agenda. The Feel:The weight that he feels when he starts rudimenting on the atomic bombs dropped on Japan as he stands alongside the runway on Tinian that the B-29s launched from. Favorite Scene / Quote:When Mack describes the shack on the beach in American Samoa with the outdoor shower and the full, layered Milky Way haloing the sky and the perfect night that it was with he and his wife there, his description only leaves out one thing that in deference to he and his wife wouldn’t do to be described since it isn’t that kind of book. But it’s so custom romance made, that anyone who reads the scene and doesn’t think it has no soul. When the kids in the village on Aunu’u in American Samoa started following Mack and his wife around asking if they knew various people in the village, so, he asked if they knew Prince who was from his village of Minneapolis. Description of the crush of a 4th of July on Guam with so many tourists from so many places that he hit upon a way of IDing them from the locals by the degree of red, white, and blue they were wearing. Reads like a cultural hurricane, force 1776. Guam as gateway to all things American, America on a budget, from China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, etc. Pacing:For a travelogue/documentary style book, the pacing is very good. Word Choice / Usage:The way Mack describes Guamanian barbecue made my mouth water. Hmm Moments:The United States Virgin Islands, the USVI, seem to be searching for an identity or more appropriately living in a vacuum. They have a history, but it is sanitized to Disneyfied levels. Their real history exists far away in archives in Washington DC and Copenhagen, Denmark. WTF Moments:When the modern legal professor tried to explain the incorporated/unincorporated territories’ standing to the author, who didn’t make any bones about them being held at arm’s length and blocked from the path to statehood being at base an exercise in institutionalized racism. She pointed out that you can find it in all the, so-called, Insular Cases. The Cases were legal challenges that were ruled by the Supreme Court, ultimately, and governed the disposition of those territories seized and annexed in the United States’ Imperial Moment. Those territories populated by people, not like those of the English, re: White, United States were owned by, but not part of the United States. The ghost town moments on Saipan and Tinian in the Marianas bring to mind Detroit; abandoned malls: empty hotel: etc. Wisdom:The USVI should be put on the parth to either statehood or independence. The same should happen with all of the inhabited territories. In contrast to the USVI, American Samoa, whose inhabitants want citizenship, but want to maintain their intrinsic cultural and societal identity, are caught in a catch-22. If they adopt the Constitution in totality, some of their cultural and social norms would be considered unconstitutional and ripe for lawsuit and being legislated out of existence. Maybe their solution would be to go the statehood route with the proviso, that upon gaining statehood, they would be, enshrined is the wrong word, encapsulated...incorporated as a reservation in the manner of the First Peoples’ Reservations in Oklahoma. Guam seems way passed ready for statehood. Whatever gets done vis-a-vis statehood, all residents of these territories born there should be given birthright American citizenship. Some of these territories have been American for over a hundred years. These territories as a percentage of population outserve the states in numbers of members of the military. They deserve citizenship. Reid v Covert, SCOTUS: 1957, Hugo Black, plurality decisionThe concept that the Bill of Rights and other Constitutional protections against arbitrary government are inoperant when they become inconvenient or when expediency dictates otherwise is a very dangerous doctrine and if allowed to flourish would destroy the benefits of a written Constitution and undermine the basis of our government. When Mack started trying to put his thoughts together for his conclusion and hit up on the idea that there were 4 groups that were in all the territories: the Change-Averse-who support the status quo/better off with the United States and partly on their own; the Nationalists-who support independence; the Melting Pot Optimists-for all its flaws, the United States has brought a lot of good things, they are proudly American, And want to become a state; and the Jaded Realists-like it or not, they are depended on the USA and that won’t change if they are an independent nation. Might as well be stuck with them. There’s not stopping cultural change, globalization is the new Americanization. Missed Opportunity:These territories existing in a racist, imperialist limbo, some since 1900 or before, is a travesty on the Constitution’s face. That’s American soil, those are American citizens. They need to either be on the path to statehood and birthright citizenship or on their way to independence. _________________________________________________ Last Page Sound:Very good. I learned things. Fascinating travelogue, history lesson, and civics discussion. Author Assessment:Would definitely read other stuff by this author. Editorial Assessment:Well edited. Well put together. Knee Jerk Reaction:instant classic Disposition of Book:Irving Public LibrarySouth CampusIrving, TX Dewey Decimal System: 909.0971273MAC Would recommend to:genre fans_________________________________________________
    • 3/5
      In The Not-Quite States of America travel writer and American Studies major Doug Mack describes his visits to America's often-forgotten island territories: The U.S Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. He delves into their histories, cultures, and cuisines. He befriends residents of each territory and gets their opinions on their homelands' ambiguous legal statuses and relationships with the U.S. Overall, he finds that despite the "dysfunction" in many areas of island life, the natives remain loyal to their island homes. I found this book to be a slog, and I don't know why. The premise is intriguing, and Mack starts out as a genial travel companion. But by the last chapter I was as eager for the book to end as Mack was to get back to his wife and home at the end of his travels. Readers who appreciate travel writing as a genre may like this book more than I did.
    • 4/5
      A few years ago I challenged myself to read a book for each of the U.S. territories. This book is a great follow-up to that reading tour. Mack focuses on the five inhabited territories: the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. The book is part travelogue and part social and political history of the territories. Mack also looks at the legal status of the territories and their inhabitants. They don't have the full rights the Constitution guarantees to American citizens, but independence would bring a different set of problems. In most of the territories, Mack talked with individuals on both sides of the independence question.I've watched enough football to be aware that there are quite a few Samoan players in both college and professional football, so I wasn't surprised that it came up in Mack's discussion of Samoa. I was reminded of a University of Tennessee game years ago. I don't remember who their opponent was, but I do remember that one of the players on the opposing team was introduced as Samoa Samoa from Samoa!This book deserves to be widely read if for no other reason than to raise awareness of the territories among US citizens. It will also appeal to most armchair travelers. Recommended.This review is based on an electronic advance reader's copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      This combination travelogue and history presents a fascinating look at territories owned by the United States. Mack took trips to the U.S. Virgin Island, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, and Puerto Rico where he commented on the culture and infused it with a bit of the history of the islands. Readers get a sense of what each of these islands are today, but the book is not quite what I expected. Many of these territories are over-commercialized; some are not. I appreciated the historical parts more than the travelogue portions, and I sincerely wish more attention to what the culture was like at the time the territories were acquired so readers could compare it to what the United States was like at that time and then draw present-day comparisons based on a number of factors. Mack points out few Americans really know much if anything about the territories. His book was designed to bridge that gap for himself and somewhat for his readers. While I'm glad I read the book, I am interested in reading other books about these territories which may be more aligned with my own interests. For example, Mack focuses on the economy and on political factors, but rarely addresses religion which is a strong interest of mine. Fortunately Mack includes a brief bibliography of other materials at the end of the book for those who want to delve a bit deeper. An advance review e-galley of this book was received by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.
    • 4/5
      Doug Mack's The Not-Quite States of America (subtitled: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA) will be a reminder to some that not all of America's citizens live in one of the country's fifty states. To other, perhaps younger, readers, the book will serve as a startling revelation of that same fact because, once a hot topic in the United States, the several territories and possessions still held by the U.S. seldom enter into the public conversation these days. Simply put, not only are they out of sight, they are out of mind. Doug Mack, a travel writer with a degree in American studies, decided to take a look at these forgotten parts of America, beginning with his stop at the U.S. Virgin Islands where he realized that he "was still in the USA, but far from the states." Later on the same trip, Mack spent time in American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico, in each of which he managed to make friends and contacts while trying to determine how the residents feel about their unusual relationship with the United States. Interestingly, it does not particularly seem to bother anyone Mack speaks with that even those Americans aware of the unique relationship between the territories and the rest of the country have all but forgotten how it all happened, and now see the territories as inconsequential "vestiges from another era." Never mind that places like Puerto Rico provide more military recruits per capita than any of America's actual states.Mack tells us that he has been fascinated by "Americana" since he was a child and his parents read him road-trip books at bedtime - and he is quick to point out no American road-trip book has ever shown any love for the territories. So where did Mack's fascination with (or at least, his awareness of) the territories begin? Believe it or not, it all started with what he calls "The Quarters of Destiny," the commemorative coin set that celebrated the statehood of all fifty of America's states. So why, he wondered, were several more quarters issued after the one celebrating Hawaii becoming a state in 1959, making it the last state to be admitted to the union?Mack takes his readers on a complete tour of the territories: the commonwealth of Puerto Rico (1898); the organized, unincorporated territory of Guan (1898); the organized, unincorporated territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands (1917); the unorganized, unincorporated territory of American Samoa (1900); and the commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (1976). (Each of the official territory status-designation types has specific legal implications when it comes to the rights and responsibilities of those living there.) Along the way, he is befriended by people he meets on the streets, politicians, business owners (including a semi-famous chef), museum curators, and Americans from the mainland now living in one of the territories who are happy to share with him what it took them years to figures out for themselves. The Not-Quite States of America is both informative and fun to read because of the way Mack alternates sections of hard fact with stories about the kind of thing most of us wish would happen to us when traveling somewhere for the first time: invitations to local parties, private tours of residences and museums, invitations to family meals, bar-hopping with the locals, the chance to speak with prominent local politicians, etc. Surprisingly, many territory residents, as it turns out, are content to remain an American afterthought, much preferring the status quo to becoming just another U.S. state. Mack, who does an admirable job of listing the pros and cons of statehood for each of the territories, makes it easy to understand why many living in the territories would prefer independence to statehood. Part travel book, part American history book, part sociology book, The Not-Quite States of America is always intriguing. What happens next for the U.S. territories remains to be seen, but Doug Mack has done his bit to make the rest of us at least a bit more aware that American soil is more widespread than we may have imagined it to be.
    • 4/5
      Author quote from the chapter of Guam: "You cannot write an honest narrative of the United States of America without including the territories as key components. And you cannot write an honest narrative of the territories without feeling acutely uncomfortable about the United States and its continuing struggles to live up to it's own ideals."This is a fascinating travel work about the U.S. territories. It's entertaining and educational, and raises a lot of questions about America's goals around the world. American territories are a small but important part of our history as a country, but can you name all of them? If someone even mentioned their name would you even recognize it as a U.S. possession, and ruled under the U.S. constitution? I know I couldn't, There is rarely news about them, but you as a U.S. citizen can travel there without a passport or re-locate there as if you were moving to another state, if......and that's a big IF. If you are at all interested in world affairs this should be on your reading list.Etitle provided by Netgalley in return for a review.