US Imperialism

Posted on January 10, 2025 by bernardporter2013

Anyone who is alarmed by Trump’s recently-expressed expansionist ambitions – Greenland, Canada, Panama, and even Britain – and is curious about the place of US ‘imperialism’ in modern history, might like to take a look at my Empire and Superempire: Britain, America and the World (Yale University Press, 2006). Its argument is that the United States, despite its anti-colonial pretensions – ‘we don’t do empire’ (Donald Rumsfeld) – has long been ‘imperialistic’ in much the same way as nineteenth-century Britain was, and with similar motivations, methods and results. Most people outside the US, especially on the Left, won’t need to be told this; but it’s important to know, especially just now.

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About bernardporter2013

Retired academic, author, historian.
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1 Response to US Imperialism

  1. AbsentMindedCriticofEmpire's avatar AbsentMindedCriticofEmpire says:
    January 11, 2025 at 11:56 am

    I think for some in the US its War of Independence obscures its later history of continuing its settler colonialist origins. The McNeills’ book on world history portrays its C19 industrialisation and rearmament as “self-strengthening” as though the USA had been at the same risk of being bullied as Qing China.

    It is curious how quiet Trump is about Puerto Rico, despite the fact that its governor Jenniffer González Colón supports him and her party wants the island to become a US state. Perhaps it’s not such a lucrative square on the Monopoly board in his eyes.

    It looks as though Trump is going out to acquire international real estate the same way as in his earlier career, through a mixture of bullying and reckless borrowing. Of course, in his earlier career he didn’t have the US military at his disposal.

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