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I finished How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States, by Daniel Immerwahl, a couple of days ago. The title describes the book well, and a nontrivial part of what Immerwahl is doing is talking about different meanings of "the United States," past and present. Is it just what's shown on the "logo map," the contiguous 48 states, or are territories, and Alaska and Hawaii pre-statehood, included?
The answers are "sometimes," "depending on for what purpose," and "it depends on who you ask." Those ambiguities have been and still are useful to various politicians and companies, allowing them to get away with things in Puerto Rico that would have been illegal and/or politically difficult in Pennsylvania.
The second half of the book is devoted to what Immerwahl calls the "pointillist empire," the current network of hundreds of foreign bases and small islands used for everything from refueling jets to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. He notes that even people who call the U.S. "imperialist" and mean that as a negative aren't usually thinking about Palau or the Marshall Islands.
Recommended--there was stuff here I didn't know, and other pieces I hadn't put together, but the author doesn't assume much background or previous knowledge.
(I read the first half of this a few months ago, then had to give the ebook back to the library and only got it out again in late May, so this is hazier than it might be.)
The answers are "sometimes," "depending on for what purpose," and "it depends on who you ask." Those ambiguities have been and still are useful to various politicians and companies, allowing them to get away with things in Puerto Rico that would have been illegal and/or politically difficult in Pennsylvania.
The second half of the book is devoted to what Immerwahl calls the "pointillist empire," the current network of hundreds of foreign bases and small islands used for everything from refueling jets to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. He notes that even people who call the U.S. "imperialist" and mean that as a negative aren't usually thinking about Palau or the Marshall Islands.
Recommended--there was stuff here I didn't know, and other pieces I hadn't put together, but the author doesn't assume much background or previous knowledge.
(I read the first half of this a few months ago, then had to give the ebook back to the library and only got it out again in late May, so this is hazier than it might be.)
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