That’s about the populations of Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island combined. Today, around four million people live in the U.S. I’m talking about its shape-its territories and outposts. “Empire” can be used as a pejorative, but I’m not talking about the country’s character. That’s more than the immigrant or African-American populations at the time. nationals lived outside of the 48 states. What would you tell people who are surprised–or upset, even–to hear the United States described as an empire?įrom day one the United States has included both states and territories, with the territories treated differently. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Immerwahr spoke with Smithsonian about these missing chapters of American history and what the U.S.’s empire looks like today.

He traces the legacy of empire to the U.S.’s founding, explores why the nation avoids this particular part of its past and fills the book with fascinating stories from past and present territories. In his upcoming book How to Hide an Empire, Immerwahr sets out to tell the history of the Greater United States, what lies beyond the mainland. controlled from 1898 to 1946, minus when it was occupied by Japanese forces during World War II. held from 1904 to 1976, and the Philippines, which the U.S. maps to ignore former territories like the Panama Canal Zone, which the U.S. It was also common for earlier iterations of U.S. It also excludes the places that are still territories of the United States-Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, American Samoa and the U.S. It’s not just because the map is missing Alaska and the peppering of the Hawaiian islands. In fact, he pointed out in a recent interview, it’s “only been a correct map of the country for three years of its history.” That’s the “logo map” of the country, writes Northwestern historian Daniel Immerwahr, and it’s not quite right. Picture a map of the United States and what do you see? From the two coasts that frame the mental snapshot up to the friendly mitten of Michigan and down to the staggered edge of Texas, you might be thinking of the contiguous states.

How to hide an empire daniel immerwahr