Want to check out the review of “How to Hide an Empire”? Here is a breakdown of everything and also what you can expect when you are there. So, let’s get started.
About ‘How to Hide an Empire’
Daniel Immerwahr’s newly launched book is a fascinating book that addresses the people of the United States and is much like a wake-up call to understand the US better. He argues that we’ve strategically ignored the millions of people living in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The first half of the book dives into the messy and dense history of physical land grabs, while the second shows how the U.S. swapped colonies for a massive network of tiny military bases and global standards. This is not only alarming for a lot of reasons but is also enlightening! It’s written with a lot of wit and humor, adding surprising details, making a heavy topic feel like we’ve been a part of it all along and to understand it better.
About Daniel Immerwahr
Daniel Immerwahr is a historian known for exploring matters of utmost importance and urgency and educating the people in interesting ways. He is currently a professor at Northwestern University, specializing in the history of the United States in a global context. But what makes his work stand out is how personally connected he feels with what he explores and explains. He focuses on the weird, human details that most people would miss out on! We get to learn something new about what we’ve known when we tread with him. This book is another treat from him!
‘How to hide an empire?’ – Review
Daniel Immerwahr’s book is a fresh take and also slightly uncomfortable if you look at what he calls the Greater United States. The core idea is that we usually only look at the map of the mainland, ignoring the millions of people in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and even the Philippines who have lived under U.S. rule without full rights. He tracks this history from the very crude era to the modern era of the pointillist empire, which is made up of hundreds of tiny military bases scattered all across the globe.
Critics have generally been impressed by his ability to make infrastructure and logistics feel much more. The New York Times praised it for being an eye-opening narrative that fills a massive gap in our collective memory and adds to our understanding. While other academic critics have other things to say, one cannot doubt that it is an eye-opener.
