Short bio: Hi, Reddit. I’m Doug Mack, travel writer and author of two books, most recently The Not-Quite States of America, about the USA’s territories: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands (with guest appearances by the eleven Minor Outlying Islands and three freely associated states). I worked on the book for more than two years, covering 30,000 miles as I visited each territory (plus the Marshall Islands), and spent months researching their histories, their roles in the broader American story, and the complicated legal matters surrounding them (including the newly infamous Jones Act).
My book mixes travelogue, history, and political commentary, and I welcome your questions about everything: Where to eat ice cream in Saint Croix, hiking in American Samoa, why American Samoans aren’t citizens, the Puerto Rican independence movement, beer-drinking pigs, how the “Imperial Moment” formed the basis for the American Century (what the Imperial Moment is …), traditional sea navigation in the Northern Mariana Islands, colonialism, manifest destiny … and so on.
So…Ask me anything. I may not know all the answers—and I’ll be honest when that’s the case—but my book is the most comprehensive examination at the U.S. territories in more than a century, so I like to think I know a pretty solid amount.
See more details at my book website (and the official one with Norton, my publisher). Here’s a video I made about the territories, in which I hand-draw the entire USA while explaining the history of national expansion. You can also always find me on Twitter, @douglasmack.
I’ll start answering questions around 2pm Central today (Friday, September 29), and go for at least two hours. There will be a short break at some while my new refrigerator is being delivered, and if you’d like insightful commentary on that topic, just ask.
Submitted September 29, 2017 at 08:32PM by DougMackAuthor http://ift.tt/2ycxrZI IAmA
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