Quick Take
- Narration: Jonathan Yen brings warmth and pacing that suits Mack’s breezy but substantive travelogue register, a natural fit for the material.
- Themes: American imperial legacy, the ambiguous citizenship of four million territorial residents, travel as a form of political education
- Mood: Curious and gently provocative, the kind of journey that makes familiar concepts feel strange in productive ways
- Verdict: A lively, well-reported listen that makes you realize how large a part of the American story you have never thought about.
I came to this one through the back door. I had been reading about Puerto Rico’s political status and kept running into references to the broader question of the US territories, a question I realized I had been vaguely aware of for years without ever actually engaging with. The phrase US territories had always registered to me as a kind of administrative footnote, the way Washington DC’s governance does: technically interesting, practically marginal. Doug Mack’s project is to demonstrate that this assumption is wrong, and he does it by the most reliable method available. He goes there.
American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands: four million people, collectively, living under American flags and using American currency and attending American post offices, but without the full political rights of citizens in the fifty states. Mack covers 31,000 miles to visit all of them, and The Not-Quite States of America is the account of what he found, in the landscape, in the history, and in the people he met along the way.
Our Take on The Not-Quite States of America
Mack is a skilled travel writer, and his strongest quality is the integration of historical context into the narrative of the journey. The territorial status of these islands was not accidental; it emerged from a specific moment at the end of the nineteenth century when the United States was making decisions about empire that it has never quite finished making. Mack traces that history without turning the book into a polemic, which is a real achievement given how charged the material is. He engages with indigenous groups, expat communities, separatist voices, and US government workers, and he gives each perspective enough room to be heard before moving on. One reviewer flags the dual mode, part travelogue, part political analysis, as a weakness, but I found the alternation between registers productive rather than confused.
Why Listen to The Not-Quite States of America
Jonathan Yen’s narration handles the range of tones the book requires, the comic moments, the substantive historical sections, the quieter reflective passages, with consistent ease. The audiobook at just over ten hours is well paced for a travelogue: long enough to develop each territory meaningfully, short enough that the cumulative effect does not dilute into sameness. The production is clean and the listening experience is smooth. This is the kind of audiobook that works well on long drives or extended travel days, which feels thematically appropriate.
What to Watch For in The Not-Quite States of America
Some readers have noted that the Virgin Islands chapter, which opens the book, is the weakest, described by one reviewer as particularly desultory. The consensus is that the book improves as it progresses, and Mack seems to find his footing more fully in the later territories. Listeners should push through the opening section if it feels tentative; the Guam and American Samoa material is where the book hits its stride. The political dimensions of the story have also become, if anything, more urgent in the years since publication: the North Korea tensions around Guam, the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in the Virgin Islands, and the ongoing Puerto Rico statehood debate are all live issues, and the book provides the historical context that makes those headlines legible.
Who Should Listen to The Not-Quite States of America
This audiobook suits listeners who enjoy travel writing that does real intellectual work alongside the adventure, people who want to understand what they are reading about, not just be taken along for the ride. It is also particularly valuable for anyone who has followed recent news about Guam or Puerto Rico without having the historical background to contextualize it. Students of American political history and anyone curious about the mechanics of how the US became and remains an imperial power will find it unusually accessible for what is, at bottom, serious political territory. Travelers planning to visit any of these islands would find it an ideal introduction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the book cover all five US territories in equal depth?
Mack visits American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands, and each gets meaningful coverage. Reviewers note that the Virgin Islands chapter that opens the book is the least fully developed, and the book builds in richness as it progresses. Puerto Rico and American Samoa tend to receive the most detailed treatment.
Is the book politically balanced, or does it advocate for a particular position on territorial status?
Mack engages with the political complexity without taking a hard advocacy position. He gives space to separatists, to those who want statehood, and to those content with the current arrangement. The framing does acknowledge the irony and historical weight of American imperialism, but it is not a polemic.
How current is the information in the book given that it was published in 2017?
The historical content remains fully relevant and the political dynamics Mack describes have largely continued or intensified. The Guam-North Korea tensions, Hurricane Irma in the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico’s statehood votes all occurred after publication, which actually makes the historical context the book provides more useful rather than less. Listeners should expect the contemporary detail to be dated, but the structural analysis holds up well.
Does the audiobook handle the pronunciation of indigenous place names and languages well?
Jonathan Yen navigates the range of languages and place names across five very different cultural contexts with clear care. No listener reviews flag pronunciation issues, which is meaningful for material spanning Chamorro, Samoan, and Spanish-influenced vocabulary.
