How to Hide an Empire: A Short History of the Greater United States

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Simmering beneath all these stories is a powerful throughline: As classic colonialism was being fazed out in the 20th century, a new, more covert form of empire-building set in – with the U. It shows the history of empire, but it also shows us that the concept of empire isn’t one that just exists in history – empire is something that continues today. It may be under different guises as it’s no longer just physical – the remaining territories and bases across the world are small enclaves of power – but empire now also spreads through currency, power, language, influence and messaging. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

At time witty, but more often quite strident this book offers a quick trip through the intricacies and ironies of America's policies toward the land and countries it has occupied over the centuries. Its founders had wrested liberty from an oppressive empire—turning subjects into citizens and colonies into states—and were eager to push their republican form of government westward across the continent, from sea to shining sea.Never mind that the map snubs Alaska and Hawaii; what it never even hints at are the many overseas territories that, at their high-water mark (the end of World War II), were home to a staggering 135 million people and constituted a land mass equal to almost one-fifth that of the United States.

The collapse of Spain’s beleaguered empire placed the whole Philippine archipelago in President McKinley’s surprised hands. However, anti-parasites were tested on the people with no oversight, including blatant genocide by physicians, and the medication was created of which all benefited. He devotes a particularly large amount of text to describing, military operations associated with acquiring and maintaining colonies and employing military bases. The teeming meadows were no mirage, but those meadows were the hunting grounds of the Shawnees, whose presence made it difficult for Boone’s party to venture beyond Boonesborough’s defended perimeter. This is a sweeping and scholarly work which sticks to its guns to prove a very poignant fact about the United States: it was created as an empire and continues to operate as such today.Whether or not the US empire proves to be overreach, whether blow back ever becomes so intense that even US citizens start to notice the legacy of their empire, or if peak oil eventually makes pointillist empires no longer viable and therefore forces empire builders back towards territorial expansion are things we will have to watch and see. It is brilliantly conceived, utterly original, and immensely entertaining — simultaneously vivid, sardonic and deadly serious.

In effect,” wrote James Monroe, who drafted the ordinance, it was “a colonial government similar to that which prevail’d in these States previous to the revolution. While I expect most know that Puerto Ricans are US citizens (even if they didn’t before Hurricane Maria) do they know that (or more importantly why) the independence movement activists shot at President Truman and later shot into the House of Representatives wounding 5 congressmen in 1954. S. Army and the Philippine Army of Liberation— ended when Spain surrendered the city to the United States alone.

The spread of American culture, English language, influence and money across the world is undeniable.

And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire," exercising power around the world. While I hoped that it would be interesting enough that I can read it slowly over the course of a week or two, I didn’t expect it to suck me into it so wholly that I managed to complete in just three sittings. But what about the actual territories--the islands, atolls, and archipelagos--this country has governed and inhabited?

As a Canadian I am more aware of the overt imperialism of the British Empire, and the racism in past and present day Canada. In the final chapters Immerwahr asserts that the US ‘put down the imperialist paint roller and picked up the pointillist’s brush’ (344). He details shockingly that many ‘inhabitants of the US Empire have been shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed and tortured’ (19) but due to the well-known logo map skewing public perception, and the focus on the US mainland by US politicians and history-makers what the territories ‘haven’t been, by and large, is seen’ (19). Immerwahr knows that the material he presents is serious, laden with exploitation and violence, but he also knows how to tell a story, highlighting the often absurd space that opened up between expansionist ambitions and ingenuous self-regard . Rather, it reshuffled its imperial portfolio, divesting itself of large colonies and investing in military bases, tiny specks of semi-sovereignty strewn around the globe.