



How to Hide an Empire
A History of the Greater United States
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4.2 • 159 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Named one of the ten best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune
A Publishers Weekly best book of 2019 | A 2019 NPR Staff Pick
A pathbreaking history of the United States’ overseas possessions and the true meaning of its empire
We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an “empire,” exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories—the islands, atolls, and archipelagos—this country has governed and inhabited?
In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century’s most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress.
In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of colonies. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Immerwahr argues in this substantial work that the U.S. is more than the 50 states its name references, and that, despite its identification with anti-imperialism, for more than two centuries the U.S. has been "a partitioned country, divided into two sections, with different laws applying in each" in short, a kind of empire. The second section is made up of territories, many of which were once called colonies, and which are now barely acknowledged in popular conceptions of the country: first, native lands near the "frontier" of the nascent country; then for a time Hawaii, Alaska, and the Philippines; and to this day places including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. (And, Immerwahr goes on, the U.S. engages in other kinds of empire-building, through, for example, its massive network of overseas military bases and economic globalization.) Present-day residents of territories "have no representation in Congress... cannot vote for president... rights and citizenship remain a gift from Washington," and their status as U.S. citizens is unknown by almost half of the states' population. This insightful, excellent book, with its new perspective on an element of American history that is almost totally excluded from mainstream education and knowledge, should be required reading for those on the mainland.
Customer Reviews
Not your mother’s history book
I enjoyed this book and learned a lot within these pages. It is politically biased which can be annoying , but it’s not so bad to stop reading . The book answers questions I’ve always wondered about and had me researching even more.
This book will have you turning pages !
Metaphorically the best and most interesting book I have ever read. I learned more from this book about US history than in 8 years of civics and history classes. We invented everything (except fertilizer) holy moly wow. You gotta read this.
An uncomfortable but necessary read.
This incredible examination of expansion, contraction, and transition of the contiguous United States from the popular “logo map” to empire, and then to a menagerie of pointillist bases is comprehensive and captivating. Immerwahr highlights and underscores the unpopular, the unknown, and the downright disgusting aspects of American imperial ambition. Shedding lights on the darker parts of our history is critical to repairing relationships and fostering international goodwill, and drives home the adage that those who fail to know their history are doomed to repeat it. This is a must read!