And everywhere he goes in Puerto Rico, he listens in on the lively debate over political status?independence, statehood, or the status quo. In the Northern Mariana Islands, he learns about star-guided seafaring from one of the ancient tradition's last practitioners. He tours Guam with members of a military veterans' motorcycle club, who offer personal stories about the territory's role in World War II and its present-day importance for the American military. He explores Polynesia's outsize influence on American culture, from tiki bars to tattoos, in American Samoa. Virgin Islands, Mack examines the Founding Fathers' arguments over expansion. When Doug Mack realized just how little he knew about the territories, he set off on a globe-hopping quest covering more than 30,000 miles to see them all. How did these territories come to be part of the United States? What are they like? And why aren't they states? post offices, and Little League baseball games. But they're filled with American flags, U.S. Virgin Islands - and their 4 million people are often forgotten, even by most Americans. Scattered shards in the Pacific and the Caribbean, the not-quite states - American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Everyone knows that America is 50 states andÂ…some other stuff.
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