Review by Booklist Review
Most U.S. citizens think of their country as 50 states, period. Yet the U.S. has sprinklings of islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, territories that are under U.S. ownership. Mack (Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day, 2012) visited five major islands: the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. These tiny landmasses played important roles in U.S. history, but he went to find out what function they serve today. Not all islands have equal status, as Mack discovers that some are commonwealths and some are unincorporated territories, and these distinctions affect how island citizens view their relationship with the U.S. To be owned by a country, to have some rights but not others, can create strange (or strained) allegiances. Readers expecting a travelogue will find less of that here; what they will find are in-depth discussions of the history, politics, and sociocultural realities that define each island. One will never think about the United States in quite the same way after this enjoyable read.--Curbow, Joan Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A thoughtful blend of history, insight, and first-person experiences colors this travelogue focused on some of the most overlooked parts of America, the United States territories. Travel writer Mack (Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day) sets out to learn more about these distant neighbors and shares his insights in this entertaining, informative study. He explores each territory with an open mind and an open notebook, hanging out with beer-drinking pigs in Saint Croix and strolling through the world's largest Kmart in Samoa. He also recounts more than a few sobering experiences, such as visiting Samoa's Suicide Cliff, where thousands of Japanese civilians and troops leapt to their death to avoid capture by American troops. Mack's thoughtful assessment of American colonialism, underlined by the question of which cultural aspects of each territory should be retained and which should be assimilated into broader American culture, is the spine of the book. Rather than taking an authoritative approach, Mack lets the residents do just as much of the talking and analyzing, making for a strong book sure to spark thought and inspire further research. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
How did territories as remote as Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico come to be American in the first place? In Mack's (Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day) closely researched account, the answer turns out to be surprisingly simple: the United States just took them. For example, in 1893, American business interests-backed by marines-forced out Hawaii's last ruler, Queen Lili'uokalani; statehood eventually followed, in 1959, and an official congressional apology for the "illegal annexation" in 1993. Imperialist expansion and "manifest destiny" in the 1800s gave way to strategic battlefields in World War II and then a new kind of takeover as America's best-known brands built offshore factories in the 1990s, allowing a "Made in America" label to come from, say, Guam. Today, the island territories are often forgotten, left with an uncertain legal status and worries about rising seas from global warming and only token traditions (a sadly inauthentic "native" dance for tourists on Saipan comes off to Mack like "an elegy for a culture"). Jonathan Yen's breezy story-telling style can be a jarring fit for this troubling history, but it suits the author's intermittently entertaining adventures among the far-flung islanders, who have one overwhelming message to convey: "Don't forget about us." VERDICT Highly recommended for American history buffs. ["An informative romp through the country's lesser-explored areas": LJ 11/1/16 review of the Norton hc.]-Julia Just, New York © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
