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

For a country that has always denied having dreams of empire; the United States owns a lot of overseas territory. America has always prided itself on being a champion of sovereignty and independence. We know it has spread its money; language and culture across the world - but we still think of it as a contained territory; framed by Canada above; Mexico below; and oceans either side. Nothing could be further from the truth.How to Hide an Empire tells the story of the United States outside the United States - from nineteenth-century conquests like Alaska; Hawai`i; the Philippines and Puerto Rico; to the catalogue of islands; archipelagos and military bases dotted around the globe over which the Stars and Stripes flies. Many are thousands of miles from the mainland; all are central to its history.But the populations of these territories; despite being subject to America's government; cannot vote for it; they have often fought America's wars; but they do not enjoy the rights of full citizens. These forgotten episodes cast American history; and its present; in a revealing new light. The birth control pill; chemotherapy; plastic; Godzilla; the Beatles; the name America itself - you can't understand the histories of any of thesewithout understanding territorial empire. Full of surprises; and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalisation mean today; How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.