How do I compile R from source on Linux?

Question

I have a linux operating system running on EC2. Unfortunately, it only updates to an old version of R. When I run this code, this is the output.

      #install RStudio-Server 1.0.153 (2017-07-20)
      wget https://download2.rstudio.org/server/centos6/x86_64/rstudio-server-rhel-1.2.1335-x86_64.rpm
      yum install -y --nogpgcheck rstudio-server-rhel-1.2.1335-x86_64.rpm
      rm rstudio-server-rhel-1.2.1335-x86_64.rpm
      #install shiny and shiny-server (2017-08-25)
      R -e "install.packages('shiny', repos='http://cran.rstudio.com/')"
      wget https://download3.rstudio.org/centos6.3/x86_64/shiny-server-1.5.9.923-x86_64.rpm
      yum install -y --nogpgcheck shiny-server-1.5.9.923-x86_64.rpm

sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install R

This is the output.

Loaded plugins: priorities, update-motd, upgrade-helper
amzn-main                                                | 2.1 kB     00:00     
amzn-updates                                             | 2.5 kB     00:00     
Package R-3.4.1-1.52.amzn1.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Nothing to do

I am running this version of Linux