Lost States [Hardcover]

Michael J. Trinklein (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 1, 2010

Everyone knows the fifty nifty united states—but what about the hundreds of other statehood proposals that never came to pass? Lost States is a tribute to such great unrealized dreams as West Florida, Texlahoma, Montezuma, Rough and Ready, and Yazoo. Some of these states came remarkably close to joining the Union. Others never had a chance. Many are still trying. Consider:
 
     •  Frontier legend Daniel Boone once proposed a state of Transylvania in the Appalachian
        wilderness (his plan was resurrected a few years later with the new name of Kentucky).
     •  Residents of bucolic South Jersey wanted to secede from their urban north Jersey
        neighbors and form the fifty-first state.
     •  The Gold Rush territory of Nataqua could have made a fine state—but since no women
         were willing to live there, the settlers gave up and joined California.
 
Each story offers a fascinating glimpse at the nation we might have become—along with plenty of absurd characters, bureaucratic red tape, and political gamesmanship. Accompanying these tales are beautifully rendered maps detailing the proposed state boundaries, plus images of real-life artifacts and ephemera. Welcome to the world of Lost States!

Editorial Reviews

Review

“We all know the 50 states, but how much do you know about the hundreds of statehood proposals that never came to pass? These fascinating maps of states that might have been are from Michael J. Trinklein’s Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It.”—Country Magazine

“Fascinating, funny book.”—New Yorker, Book Bench

“This book is geared to the general reader and has a larger format that encourages perusal. It is recommended for history, geography, and general trivia buffs.”—Library Journal

“Amusing and lavishly illustrated book.”—Christian Science Monitor

“Complete with maps, Lost States is an interesting travel guide to the world of ‘what-if history.’”—McClatchy Newspapers

About the Author

Michael J. Trinklein wrote and produced the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Pioneers of Television (2008), as well as The Gold Rush (1998) and The Oregon Trail (1993). His work has been consistently praised in the national media, including USA Today, Washington Post, Parade, Chicago Tribune, and the New York Times. He lives in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Quirk Books; First Edition edition (February 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594744106
• ISBN-13: 978-1594744105
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 0.8 x 10.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 129 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing May 2, 2010

By Andrew Collins

Format:Hardcover

On the outside, the book looks very interesting. The set-up itself is nice with many full color pictures and maps. Each entry is two pages accompanied with text on one side and a map or other illustration on the other. However, the devil is in the details and they are numerous.

For starters, too many of the entries are completely pointless. Why? For a book called "Lost States," too many examples would never have been considered for statehood nor would ever seriously be considered for statehood. Some examples of this are Rio Rico (Texas), Saipan, Guyana, Boston, Chicago, Sicily, Navassa Island, etc. Most of these are complete jokes because of some complaint over taxes or some nameless politician says something that is never seriously considered.

There are also many amateurish errors. At one point, President William McKinley is referred to as James McKinley. A picture allegedly of Confederate President Davis does not look like him at all (because it is not). The section on Rio Rico completely fails to mention how the Texan town was ceded to Mexico back in the seventies (rather the author implies it is still U.S. territory). He incorrectly says the Northern Mariana Islands were under U.S. control since 1898, when in reality they were not occupied by the U.S. until World War II.

For whatever reason, the author also feels it necessary to criticize George W. Bush and the Iraq War on multiple occasions. The most notable of this is in the section on Iceland. What does Bush and the Iraq War have to do with Iceland's potential statehood? Absolutely nothing. So why mention it there at all?

The book also fails in its omissions. In the section on Cuba, there is no mention of the Ostend Manifesto and the attempts to annex the island in the 1840s and 1850s. There is no section on the proposed Territory of Jefferson (the one that eventually became Colorado).

The author is obviously not a historian or a serious researcher and his writing style shows that.

It might sound like I am just complaining, but I bought this book to learn some new things. How am I supposed to trust information that I am not familiar with when I keep finding error after error on things I already know?

The only sections that are really worth anything are the ones on Deseret, Franklin, and Puerto Rico. The rest is just nonsense.

In conclusion, I do not recommend this book. It is filled with errors, nonsense, and omissions. As another reviewer said, it is "not worth the paper its written on."

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Weak August 26, 2010

By Paul L Swanick

Format:Hardcover

This is a rather lazily written book, the layout and graphics are nice but most of the "states" were never seriously considered and basically are just a bunch of "Hey this one guy made a speech and in it he mentioned a state that doesn't exist!" and somehow he relates every other state to President Bush. Honestly this book is half political diatribe on the evils of voting Republican and half urban myths he found on wikipedia.

43 of 54 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed April 27, 2010

By James D. Crabtree VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was recommended to me, and when I read the description of it I thought "hey, this is a great idea for a book." Unfortunately, this is not the book I had hoped it would be.

The layout and design of the book is great. Too bad it was wasted on this product. First of all, the title is misleading... several of the "lost states" preceded the U.S. and it is highly unlikely that any of these would have ever been seperate entities, much less states. These include New Sweden and Charlotina. Others discussed included territorial oddities which were NEVER seriously considered for statehood (like Howland, "Lost" Dakota and Rio Rico). These entries are just annoying.

When it comes to actual proposed states the book is better but only two pages are dedicated to each. Why not leave out the Howlands and New Swedens and put in more stuff about actual state proposals? And there are historical errors, the most egregious one was the depiction of Major-General Jefferson Davis (USA) on page 21, where the picture is clearly meant to be President Jefferson Davis, CSA. These two men are both Civil War figures but they certainly did not look anything alike. The fact that the man is wearing a Union general's uniform should have been a dead giveaway. This fast-food approach to history (as epitomized on the History Channel) really doesn't do the subject justice.

But the most annoying thing about this book, and the thing that will mark it for obscurity within the next year or so is how it constantly knocks President George W. Bush. I'm sorry... was this book originally titled "Lost States and Why It's George Bush's Fault?"

PLEASE, someone use the preliminary research here to write a decent book on this subject!