HOW TO HIDE AN EMPIRE

u003cpu003eu003cbu003eNamed one of the ten best books of the year by the u003ciu003eChicago Tribuneu003c/iu003eu003c/bu003eu003cbru003eu003cbu003eA u003ciu003ePublishers Weekly u003c/iu003ebest book of 2019 A 2019 NPR Staff Picku003c/bu003eu003cbru003eu003cbu003eu003c/bu003eu003cbru003eu003cbu003eA pathbreaking history of the United States’ overseas possessions and the true meaning of its empireu003c/bu003eu003c/pu003eu003cpu003eWe 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?u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eIn u003ciu003eHow to Hide an Empireu003c/iu003e, 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.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eIn 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, u003ciu003eHow to Hide an Empireu003c/iu003e is a major and compulsively readable work of history.u003c/pu003e