Completing the Union: Alaska, Hawai'i, and the Battle for Statehood

by John S. Whitehead

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826336378
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	11/30/2004
Series:	Histories of the American Frontier Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

John S. Whitehead retired from the history department of University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and resides in Athens, Georgia.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	IX
	Acknowledgments	XI
	Introduction: Apathy and Ecstasy	1
Part I	Far-off and Distant Territories: Alaska and Hawai'i on the Eve of World War II	13
Chapter 1	Hawai'i: A Gibraltar Worth Defending?	15
Chapter 2	Alaska: A Land without People	32
	Illustrations	56
Part II	And the War Came: World War II in the Territories, 1941-1945	67
Chapter 3	World War II and the Transformation of Hawai'i	69
Chapter 4	World War II and the Creation of Modern Alaska	98
	Illustrations	130
Part III	And the War Came Again: Statehood and the Cold War in Alaska and Hawai'i, 1946-1956	135
Chapter 5	The Cold War Stymies Hawai'i as the Forty-ninth State, 1946-1950	137
Chapter 6	The Continuing Transformation of Hawai'i, 1950-1956	167
Chapter 7	The Cold War Activates Alaska, 1946-1954	201
Chapter 8	The Alaska Legends: The Constitutional Convention and the Alaska-Tennessee Plan, 1955-1956	237
	Illustrations	263
Part IV	The Needle and the Thread: Alaska and Hawai'i Complete the Union, 1957-1959	271
Chapter 9	We're In: Alaska Takes the Lead as the Forty-ninth State, 1957-1959	273
Chapter 10	The Last Territorial Delegate and the Admission of Hawai'i, 1957-1959	301
	Illustrations	330
	Epilogue: The Legacy of the Fifty-Star Flag	341
	Journey's End: A Personal Note	361
	Notes	366
	A Guide to Sources and Orthography	416
	Index	427
	List of Maps
1	The North Pacific during World War II	XIV
2	The Aleutian Islands in World War II	XV
3	Major Cold War Installations in Alaska	XVI
4	Major Cold War Installations in Hawai'i	XVII

Editorial Reviews

"In his well written book "Completting the Union", retired University of Alaska history professor John S. Whitehead makes a substantial contribution to the understanding the statehood process."

"In his well written book "Completting the Union," retired University of Alaska history professor John S. Whitehead makes a substantial contribution to the understanding the statehood process."

"John S. Whitehead has written a monumental history that traces the separate but interconnected paths that Alaska and Hawai'i took to achieve statehood in 1958 and 1959."

"John Whitehead's "Completing the Union" weaves together the hitories of the 20th century statehood movements in Hawai'i and alaska, connecting them to each other and to the outside world. . . "Completing the Union" is a useful first encounter with those people and with the topic in genereal."

"The territories were always on the fringe of American society until World War II, when they became the front lines of defense. Even so, it took 13 years of lobbying against anti-communist hysteria and cultural blindness to admit the last two states to the union. History professor Whitehead thoroughly covers the political battle at each awkward step."

From the Publisher