부산대학교 도서관

The admission of Alaska and Hawaii into the Union in 1959 vastly extended the physical boundaries of the United States, adding considerably to U.S. influence throughout the Pacific. Alaska’s 586,000 square miles of tundra, mountains, and lakes added an extraordinary wilderness to the lower forty-eight states, as well as rich fishing grounds, oil and gas reserves, and a strategic defense perimeter in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Hawaii, a far-flung archipelago of astonishing tropical beauty, added a predominantly Asian American and Polynesian population and culture to the social fabric of the United States’ mainland civilization.