Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States… (2010)

Lots of overlapping information with another state book, How the States Got Their shape but in a more humorous, quippy tone. The maps and graphics were very helpful and interesting. I also have some new historical figures to research.
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I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads program and I'm glad I did! What a fun book! You certainly could read it straight through, but it is a lot more fun to pick it up and read about a few states at a time and really savor the book. This book tells the stories of states that 'might have been'. The first one I read was about the state of Chicago. It came as a big surprise to me as a girl from downstate (anything outside of Chicago!) that in the early 1900's Chicago tried to leave the state of Illinois.....and downstaters STOPPED them! How times change. I don't know anyone from southern IL who doesn't think the state would be improved immediately by kicking Chicago out!

The next biggest surprise is how recent some of these attempts at statehood were. I'd assumed these all took place in the early days of the US, before the 50 stars were established. NOT TRUE! For example, just a few years ago, there was a movement to split a state name 'Acadia' from Maine!

I'm sure there will be other surprises, too. I plan to take my time and enjoy this book! One more fun feature....the book cover unfolds to become a map of America as it would look if some of these attempts had succeeded! ( )

Entertaining book about what could have been. Trinklein's style is engaging and humorous, though some of the entries are rather far fetched. ( )

A fun mixture of history and speculation. It does fill in some history on how we got the states as they are and as they might have been. The maps are a delight. A light read with plenty of amusing tidbits. ( )

Michael Trinklein's very amusing Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and other States that Never Made It (Quirk Books, 2010) profiles a bunch of states that might have been, complete with contextual maps, short explantations, and entertaining tidbits aboout the proposals.

Many of the "lost states" fall into one of several types: territories which the U.S. either controls now or controlled at one time, separatist movements within existing states, different plans for boundaries of existing states (basically different ways to slice up territories), or far-fetched schemes to annex all or parts of other countries (there are entries here for Albania, Great Britain, Guyana, and Taiwan, for example).

While I'm not sure I would have included a few of these, Trinklein makes a good case for each, and I really liked the maps he designed for them (also, the dust jacket unfolds into a poster-sized map, if you're into that sort of thing). The tone is light, and that's perfectly okay.

Quirky, and great fun.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2011/09/book-review-lost-states.html ( )