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

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The book opens as Immerwahr introduces the concept of the "logo map" of the United States—a familiar representation of the mainland U.S. that excludes the country's imperial possessions. He argues that this conventional map is symbolic and fails to account for the numerous overseas territories and military bases that have significantly influenced America's economic and political power around the world. The chapter showcases the disillusionment of Puerto Rican nationalists. But it also highlights a main source of their disillusionment: Wilson’s hypocritical pursuit of international freedom while failing to aid independence movements across the world. What was this non-state territory? The Constitution was notably close-lipped, discussing the matter only in a single sentence. It granted Congress the power “to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.” Thus the founding document, which went into extravagant detail about amendments, elections, and the division of power, left wide open the question of how much of the land was to be governed. Katherine T. McCaffrey, “Social Struggle against the U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico: Two Movements in History,” Latin American Perspectives 33:1 (2006), 83-101 Christina Duffy Burnett and Burke Marshall, eds., Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution (Duke 2001); Bartholomew Sparrow, The Insular Cases and the Emergence of American Empire (Kansas 2006); and Gerald L. Neuman and Tomiko Brown-Nagin, eds., Reconsidering the Insular Cases: The Past and Future of American Empire (Harvard Law School, 2015).

aPolitical science |0https://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85104440 |xColonialism & Post-Colonialism.There seems to be a strange intergenerational aspect to this issue, in that in these territories and colonies, there’s a firm sense of history and what has been done and when, but in the US you have one generation obscuring events, the next generation seeing the aftermath, and then they become the ones to obscure. What role does that dynamic play in relation to how we understand our relationship with these places and peoples? Immerwahr, Daniel (2019). How to Hide an Empire: Geography and Power in the Greater United States. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-3741-7214-5– via "A poignant story" by Mano Singham at FreethoughtBlogs. There are many histories of American expansionism. How to Hide an Empire renders them all obsolete. It is brilliantly conceived, utterly original, and immensely entertaining — simultaneously vivid, sardonic and deadly serious." —Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Twilight of the American Century

Antonio Sotomayor, The Sovereign Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico (Lincoln: Nebraska, 2016). HTH and the Bernath Lecture thus hide non-incorporation by insufficiently defining it, by grouping incorporated territories, non-incorporated territories and leased military areas together, by including that homogenized group as part of the nation and its history via the “Greater United States” concept, and by almost excluding post-World War Two histories of the remaining non-incorporated territories. The History of American Imperialism, From Bloody Conquest to Bird Poop,” Fresh Air, February 18, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/02/18/694700303/the-history-of-american-imperialism-from-bloody-conquest-to-bird-poop Sam Erman, Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire (Cambridge 2019); Arturo Morales Carrión, Puerto Rico: A Political and Cultural History (Norton 1983). The Cherokees called this journey Nunna daul Isunyi, the "trail where we cried." The Trail of Tears, as it is known in English, was a bitter march, undertaken by some on foot. Starvation, cold, and disease killed thousands. Why it Matters:It’s going to be a time of crisis, and the reason is that climate change is posing serious threats to the US territories.

Oases in the desert often vanish upon inspection, and it didn’t take long for Boone’s followers to reconsider their rapture. 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. Confined to their few rudimentary structures and beset on all sides, many of the town’s residents lost heart and returned home before the year was out. Juan Arellano, a Filipino architect, also designed several prominent buildings and structures in the Philippines. His work highlighted Filipino talents, but it also bowed to the Americans’ neoclassical architectural style that was dominating the country. Arellano's achievements demonstrated the joy of empire for men like Daniel Burnham, where they could carry out their visions without hindrance, while Filipinos were left on the sidelines, paying the cost of their colonizers' projects.

Moreover, Congress’s discretionary authority meant that until territories became states, the federal government held absolute power over them. Initially, territories were to be ruled by an appointed governor and three judges. Even after they gained legislatures, the governor retained the power to veto bills and dissolve the legislature.