Completing the union
Subtitle: Alaska, Hawai'i, and the battle for statehood
By: John S. Whitehead.
Series: Histories of the American frontier
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Albuquerque
Language: eng
Number of pages: 438
Subjects: Constitutional history -- Alaska.; Constitutional history -- Hawaii.; Statehood (American politics); Alaska -- Politics and government -- 1867-1959.; Hawaii -- Politics and government -- 1900-1959.
Description: "As late as mid-1941 the two territories of Alaska and Hawai'i were little known by most Americans. Alaska was seen as a frozen wasteland and Hawai'i, an exotic outpost in the mid-Pacific with a multi-racial, particularly Asian, population. The bombing of Pearl Harbor in late 1941 and the capture of two Aleutian Islands in 1942 made the two territories central theaters of World War II. Thousands of Americans came to know Alaska and Hawai'i as never before." "Once the war ended, both territories hoped that statehood would be their reward for such loyal wartime service. Their strategic locations pointed to an increased national involvement in the Pacific and Asia. The 49th and 50th states would eventually be admitted, but it took thirteen years, from 1946 to 1959, to do it. The long delay was caused by many of the events of the Cold War. Both territories became enmeshed in the national politics of anti-communism, radical labor movements, and Arctic policy to resist a Soviet air attack across the polar North. A cadre of statehood supporters emerged to make their case to the nation, including the young Daniel Inouye of Hawai'i and Ted Stevens of Alaska, both of whom would become two of the most powerful senators in Congress."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 366-426) and index.
"The book had its origins in 1981 as an oral history project for the Alaska Statehood Commission"--Acknowledgements.
Table of contents: title: Far-off and distant territories : Alaska and Hawai'i on the eve of World War II; title: Hawai'i : a Gibraltar worth defending?; title: Alaska : a land without people; title: And the war came: World War II in the territories, 1941-1945; title: World War II and the transformation of Hawai'i; title: World War II and the creation of modern Alaska; title: And the war came again : statehood and the cold war in Alaska and Hawai'i, 1946-1956; title: The cold war stymies Hawai'i as the forty-ninth state, 1946-1950; title: The continuing transformation of Hawai'i, 1950-1956; title: The cold war activates Alaska, 1946-1954; title: The Alaska legends : the constitutional convention and the Alaska-Tennessee Plan, 1955-1956; title: The needle and the thread : Alaska and Hawai'i complete the union, 1957-1959; title: We're in : Alaska takes the lead as the forty-ninth state, 1957-1959; title: The last territorial delegate and the admission of Hawai'i, 1957-1959; title: Epilogue : the legacy of the fifty-star flag; title: Journey's end: a personal note.