![]() ![]() ![]() The book is not about any particular person, place, or event. ![]() In How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States, Daniel Immerwahr explains how mainlanders forgot to care about Puerto Rico and the other not-quite states our country has controlled since its earliest days. The result is a provocative and absorbing history of the United States - 'not as it appears in its fantasies, but as it actually is.' Read Full Review > How to Hide an Empire nimbly combines breadth and sweep with fine-grained attention to detail. But beyond its collection of anecdotes and arcana, this humane book offers something bigger and more profound. It’s a testament to Immerwahr’s considerable storytelling skills that I found myself riveted by his sections on Hoover’s quest for standardized screw threads, wondering what might happen next. Seen through Immerwahr’s lens, even the most familiar historical events can take on a startling cast. Immerwahr knows that the material he presents is serious, laden with exploitation and violence, but he also knows how to tell a story, highlighting the often absurd space that opened up between expansionist ambitions and ingenuous self-regard. To call this standout book a corrective would make it sound earnest and dutiful, when in fact it is wry, readable and often astonishing. ![]()
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