Review #4
REVIEW #4
daniel immerwahr: how to hide an empire (book, 2019)
The birth control pill, chemotherapy, plastic, Godzilla, the Beatles, Little House on the Prairie, Iran-Contra, the transistor radio, the name "America" itself - you can't understand the histories of any of these without understanding territorial empire.
Incredibly informative and eminently readable, Daniel Immerwahr's history of the United States outside the states is a must-read for anyone who wants a quick-and-dirty overview of both U.S. colonialism/imperialism and the current state of foreign affairs. While the book's scope is wide-reaching, it grounds itself in the stories of individuals - both those who sought to expand and resist U.S. expansion and influence over the world.
While I wouldn't call this a comprehensive book by any means, it is probably the most accessible - and in terms of popular history, that counts for a lot. The abundant endnotes, which span over 80 small-print pages on their own, provide enough sources that anyone looking for a deeper look at various points won't have to struggle to find where Immerwahr got his sources.
The fact that the information provided on even the most familiar subjects, such as Pearl Harbor, was sometimes new even to me (someone who has read numerous seemingly more scholarly works about U.S. history) just proves the necessity of Immerwahr's work - to provide a broad history of the parts of the U.S. that are often ignored in our history classes and by our historians. With that in mind, I'd highly recommend this book even to people who think they know about the subject - even if some of the information is old news to you, there are sure to be some segments that are completely new.
