Person

Daniel Immerwahr

Bylines

Related Excerpts

How the United States Reinvented Empire

Americans tend to see their country as a nation-state, not an imperial power.
Hawaiian landscape.

The Hawaiians Who Want Their Nation Back

In 1893, a U.S.-backed coup overthrew the Islands’ sovereign government. What does America owe Hawai‘i now?
The stairs leading to the segregated section of a cinema in Belzoni, Mississippi, in 1939.

The Writers Who Went Undercover to Show America Its Ugly Side

In the 1940s, a series of books tried to use the conventions of detective fiction to expose the degree of prejudice in postwar America.
Collage including the Statue of Liberty, Donald Trump, and the U.S. flag.

The Habit America’s Historians Just Can’t Give Up

If fact-checking could fix us, we’d be a utopia by now.
“Dressing for the Carnival” painting, featuring colorfully dressed character Jonkonnu surrounded by Black women and children.

Race, War, and Winslow Homer

The artist’s experiences in the Civil War and after helped him transcend stereotypes in portraying Black experience.
Black and white photo of U.S. soldiers outside Manila during the Philippine-American War.

The Resounding Darkness of America’s Black Sites

It is in the hidden spaces of American empire that the realities of power can truly be seen.
Troops on the Hudson River at the end of World War II

After World War II, Tens of Thousands of U.S. Soldiers Mutinied — and Won

After Japan's surrender, U.S. troops rebelled against a plan to keep them overseas, staging dramatic protests from the Philippines to Guam.
Plane with an eye in it and a bird's silhouette around.

Did Making the Rules of War Better Make the World Worse?

Why efforts to curb the cruelty of military force may have backfired.
The Philippine Scouts, a unit of the American army blamed for mass killings and torture, stand in formation circa 1905.

How the Philippines Were Crucial to the Making of American Empire

The US has long had a brutal, domineering relationship with the Philippines. And crucially, it’s depended on the labor of colonized Filipinos themselves.
American Imperialism

Warfare State

Democrats and Republicans are increasingly united in an anti-China front. But their approaches to U.S. foreign policy diverge.
Political cartoon of Uncle Sam as a teacher of children representing different ethnicities. European immigrants read studiously, new Caribbean and Pacific colonies resist, and Chinese, American Indian and African American children want to learn but are excluded.

The Long Shadow of White Supremacy in U.S. Foreign Policy

How to hide an empire, from the Spanish-American war to CIA-sponsored Latin American coups.