It's been over half a century since Hawaii joined the United States and the 50th star was added to the flag. And — except for the occasional discussion of Puerto Rican statehood — there hasn't been much serious talk about expanding beyond 50. As for unserious talk, that has never been in short supply. And Michael J. Trinklein has assembled the mostly unserious, but sometimes plausible ideas of expansionists, secessionists, and various other -ists in his book Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It.
The U.S. States that never quite made it
Texlahoma, Transylvania, and a whole bunch of other places you could have lived if things had gone differently.