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A review by clairealex
How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr
challenging
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Immerwahr says his goal is to write the part of US history about colonies that isn't in our history books. And there was very little there that I had heard before. And to what I had heard he added new detail. The first part tells the history of the US acquiring its colonies. The second part tells of changes after the second World War.Before the war, colonies were needed for raw materials. During the war synthetics were developed, making it easier to give up possessing land and governing peoples. The second part deals with more subtle control after the war through establishment of manufacturing standards and language as well as maintaining bases. Still needed were air strips and radio towers, hence bases.
Of particular interest is the treatment of deliberations about where the constitution and laws of the land apply and how much of it does. Saipan in the Northern Marianas illustrates that limbo: workers came almost two thousand miles from China to work in a factory there so that clothing could be made in a sweatshop yet marked "made in USA " because the Northern Marianas is a commonwealth of the US. Lobbyists delayed congressional action to remedy the situation for about ten years. Of Saipan, Immerwahr says, "So, for the purpose of labor law, the Northern Marianas wasn't part of the United States. For the purpose of trade, it was. And for the purpose of lobbying regulations it was a foreign government" (393).
Published in 2019, so written earlier, it doesn't deal with the new raw materials needed for current technology. But then, maybe owning land isn't necessary, maybe the more subtle approach will do.
Of particular interest is the treatment of deliberations about where the constitution and laws of the land apply and how much of it does. Saipan in the Northern Marianas illustrates that limbo: workers came almost two thousand miles from China to work in a factory there so that clothing could be made in a sweatshop yet marked "made in USA " because the Northern Marianas is a commonwealth of the US. Lobbyists delayed congressional action to remedy the situation for about ten years. Of Saipan, Immerwahr says, "So, for the purpose of labor law, the Northern Marianas wasn't part of the United States. For the purpose of trade, it was. And for the purpose of lobbying regulations it was a foreign government" (393).
Published in 2019, so written earlier, it doesn't deal with the new raw materials needed for current technology. But then, maybe owning land isn't necessary, maybe the more subtle approach will do.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War