American Empire

(see also Neoliberalism, Guam, Free Trade, Militarization of Foreign Policy, CIA, Militarization of Space, Militarism: US & Europe, Militarism: Poor Countries, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War 1991, Cultural Imperialism, US & Latin America, US & Mexico, US & the Caribbean, US & Central America, AFL-CIO Abroad, William Appleman Williams, Globalization, Anti-Globalization Movement, Anti-War Movements Past, Anti-War Movement Today, Global Trade Unionism & Foreign Policy Reform)

Basics

On the Web: Articles

The Marines' "How To" Book for Empire. William Marina, Common Dreams (4/14/04).

Early Signs of Fascism (interview). Richard Falk, Adbusters (7-8/03).

The Empire Strikes Back: Tribal Rites of America's Military Leaders. Ian Urbina, Village Voice (1/29/03).

The Push for War. Anatol Lieven, London Review of Books (10/3/02). Brilliant critique of the world view & militarist foreign policy of the "think tank" intellectuals surrounding the Bush administration.

Bush Seeks UN Support for "US Does Whatever It Wants" Plan. The Onion (10/2/02). Satirical jab that's way too close for comfort.

The President's Real Goal in Iraq. Jay Bookman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/29/02).

The End of Empire. William Greider, Nation (10/23/02). The US runs vast, chronic trade deficits & is the world's leading debtor nation.. If the world tires of our neoimperial, warlike & unilateralist foreign policy & "pulls the plug on us," domestic chaos will ensue.

U.S. Mideast Power Plays, Raul Mahajan & Robert Jensen, Z Magazine (5/13/02). US support of Israel is about controlling Middle East’s oil resources, not achieving peace

Invasion of Iraq-Coming Soon, Fran Schor, Counterpunch (5/6/02). Troop call ups, weapons production and war games point to invasion schedule of late summer/early fall

Corporate America and the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, Samuel Bahour, Counterpunch (5/1/02). US coporations doing business with Israel violate US law

US Offensive in Latin America: Coups, Retreats, and Radicalization, James Petras, Monthly Review (5/02). US props up decaying client regimes, destabilizes independents, pushes center-left to right, & seeks to destroy or isolate popular movements challenging empire & its clients.

The US Hit List at the United Nations, Ian Williams, Foreign Policy in Focus (4/30/02). US purge of international civil servants with little public discussion/awareness threatens entire post-WWII framework of multilateralism.
Chomsky on the Middle East, Michael Albert, Z Magazine [Alternet] (4/25/02). Current conflict in Middle East, history of US-Israeli relations, and fate of Palestine.

Foreign Affairs: Diplomatic Impunity, George Monbiot, Guardian (4/23/02). America pulls away from rest of world, dragging down treaties as it goes.

America Used Islamists to Arm the Bosnian Muslims, Richard J. Aldrich, Guardian (4/22/02). Dutch inquiry reveals alliance between Pentagon & radical Islamist groups to assist Bosnian Muslims, in violation of UN arms embargo against all former Yugoslavia combatants

Director-General’s Statement at Special Session of Conference of States Parties (4/21/02). José Bustani’s speech upon resigning from OPCW after being forced out by Bush administration.

Tariq Ali on What America Is Sowing Today, Radio Interview with Jack Beatty, On Point, WBUR.org (4/18/02). Discussion of American imperialism, objections from listeners.

Islam is at the heart of this. Hugo Young, Guardian (10/9/01). Examines role of Islamic fundamentalism and US imperialism.

Our Legacy of War. Catherine Lutz, Chronicle of Higher Education(9/28/01). US has promoted war in global South since 1940's; on 9/11 it came home.

America's Unlimited War. Raul Mahajan and Robert Jensen, Common Dreams (9/21/01). Implications of U.S. response to 9/11

They Can't See Why They Are Hated. Seamus Milne, Guardian (9/13/01). Americans must see connection between what US govt has visited upon rest of world and 9/11events

Bush, the CIA and the Roots of Terrorism. Michael Moore, Alternet (9/12/01). Mourn and grieve, but examine US contribution to making world unsafe -- be it lax airport security, or the CIA- trained terrorists who now attack us.

Instances of the Use of US Forces Abroad, 1798-1993. Ellen C. Collier, Congressional Research Service (10/7/93). Lists 234 foreign interventions as of that date.

On the Web: Specialized Sites

Alliance for Responsible Trade. Anti-NAFTA, CAFTA & FTAA.

Council on Foreign Relations.

Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Global Policy Forum.

National Security Archive.

In the Library: Articles

Block, Fred et al. "Empire & domestic reform," Radical History Review 45 (1989):98-123.

Catley, Bob. "Hegemonic America: the arrogance of power," Contemporary Southeast Asia (8/99).

Debray, Régis. "The indispensable nation," Harper's (1/04):15-18. Incisive critical commentary on America's imperial pretension & the impossibility of its success, from Paris Le Figaro (9/5/03).

Dowd, Maureen. "The uneasy conqueror," San Jose Mercury News (5/1/03):9B.

Friedman, Thomas L. "What the world needs now: for globalization to work, America can't be afraid to act like the almighty Superpower that it is," NY Times Magazine (3/28/99).

Ghosh, Amitav. "Imperial temptation," Nation (5/27/02).

__________. "The anglophone empire," New Yorker (4/7/03):46-7.

Henry, Jules. "Capital's last frontier," Nation (4/25/66).

Koschmann, J. Victor. "The nationalism of cultural uniqueness," American Historical Review 102,3 (6/97):758-68.

LaFeber, Walter. "The world and the US," American Historical Review 100,4 (9/95):1015-33.

MacDougall, A. Kent. "Empire: As American as apple pie," Monthly Review 57,1 (5/05):56-59. There's a long history behind Bush policies.

Parenti, Christian. “The world was not enough,” In These Times (8/11/03):31-34.

Prestowitz, Clyde. "The new American empire," San Jose Mercury News (6/15/03): 6P.

Rotter, Andrew J. "Saidism without Said: Orientalism & US diplomatic history," American Historical Review 105,4 (10/00):1205-17.

Schirmer, Daniel B. "Access: post-Cold War imperialist expansion," Monthly Review 45,4 (9/93):38-51.

Schwenninger, Sherle R. "America & the world: the end of easy dominance," Nation (11/20/00):19-24.

Smith, M. Brewster. "Nationalism, ethnocentrism & the New World Order," Journal of Humanistic Psychology 32,4 (fall 92):76-91.

Soros, George. “The bubble of American supremacy,” Atlantic Monthly (12/03):63-66.

Stokes, Doug. "The heart of the empire? Theorizing US empire in an era of transnational capitalism," Third World Quarterly 26,2 (2005).

Tyson, Ann Scott. “US ‘empire’ & its limits,” Christian Science Monitor (10/9/03).

Urquhart, Brian. "World order & Mr. Bush," NY Review of Books (10/9/03):8-

Vest, Jason. "The army's empire skeptics," Nation (3/3/03): 27-30. Officers raising serious questions about manpower, morale and technology.

Vidal, Gore. "The menopause of empire," Progressive (5/98).

Wallerstein, Immanuel. "Entering global anarchy," New Left Review 22 (7-8/03). Prospects for American Empire after Iraq.

Walraff, Barbara. "What global language?" Atlantic (11/00):52-66. On the long-term prospects for English.

Williams, William A. "Empire as a way of life," Radical History Review 50 (spr 1991):71-102.

Zakaria, Fareed. "Our way: the trouble with being the world's only superpower," New Yorker (10/14/02):72-81.

In the Library: Non-Fiction Books

Appy, Christian (ed.) Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of US Imperialism, 1945-1966 (Amherst: U. Massachusetts, 2000).

Aruri, Naseer H. Dishonest Broker (Boston: South End, 2003).

Bacevich, Andrew J. American Empire: The Realities & Consequences of US Diplomacy (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 2002). Argues for policies that would make America a benevolent superpower.

Bennis, Phyllis & Michael Moushabeck (eds.) Altered States: A Reader on the New World Order (NY: Olive Branch, 1993).

Blum, William. Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Monroe ME, 2000).

Bouza, Tony. The Decline & Fall of the American Empire. Corruption, Decadence, & the American Dream (NY, 1996).

Buhle, Paul & Edward Rice-Maximin. William Appleman Williams: The Tragedy of Empire (NY: Routledge, 1995).

Blum, William. Killing Hope: US Military & CIA Interventions since World War II (Monroe ME: Common Courage, 2003).

Cambell, A.E. (ed.) Expansion & Imperialism (NY, 1970).

Cohen, Warren I. (ed.) The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations (NY: Cambridge, 1993).

Conteh-Morgan, Earl. American Foreign Aid & Global Power Projection: The Geopolitics of Resource Allocation (Brookfield VT: Gower, 1990).

__________. Japan & the US: Global Dimensions of Economic Power (NY: P. Lang, 1992).

de Grazia, Victoria. Irresistible Empire: America's Advance through 20th-C. Europe (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 2005).

Díaz Espino, Ovidio. How Wall Street Created a Nation: J.P. Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt & the Panama Canal
(NY: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003).

Fann, K.T. & Donald C. Hodges (eds.) Readings in U.S. Imperialism (Boston: P. Sargent, 1971).

Ferguson, Niall. Empire: The Rise & Demise of the British World Worder & the Lessons for Global Power (NY: Basic Books, 2003). Engaging sentimental review of British experience, urging Americans to take up the "white man's burden" in forthright manner.

Fleming, Thomas. The War Within World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt & the Struggle for Supremacy (NY: Persus, 2001).

Fousek, John. To Lead the Free World: American Nationalism & the Cultural Roots of the Cold War (Chapel Hill: U. North Carolina, 2000).

Fleming, Thomas. The War within World War II (Perseus Press, 2001).

Gardner, Lloyd C.; Walter F. LaFeber & Thomas J. McCormick. Creation of the American Empire: US Diplomatic History (2nd ed.; Chicago, Rand McNally, 1976).

Gill, S.  Power & Resistance in the New World Order (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003).

Goodman, Amy with David Goodman. The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, & the Media that Love Them (NY: Hyperion, 2004).

Harvey, David. The New Imperialism (NY: Oxford, 2003).

Hertsgaard, Mark. The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates & Infuriates the World (NY: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2002).

Hudson, Michael. Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (NY: Holt, Rinehart & Wilson, 1972).

Jensen, Derrick. The Culture of Make Believe (NY: Context, 2002).

Johnson, Chalmers. Blowback: The Costs & Consequences of American Empire (NY: Metropolitan, 2000).

Johnson, Robert David. The Peace Progressives & American Foreign Relations (Cambridge: Harvard, 1995).

Kaplan, Amy & Donald Pease (eds.) Cultures of U.S. Imperialism (Durham NC: Duke, 1993).

Kiernan, V.G. America: The New Imperialism. From White Settlement to World Hegemony (London: Zed, 1978).

Kolko, Gabriel & Joyce Kolko. The Limits of Power: The World & US Foreign Policy, 1945-1954 (NY: Harper & Row, 1972).

Kolko, Gabriel. Confronting the Third World: US Foreign Policy, 1945-1980 (NY: Pantheon, 1988).

Kupchan, Charles A. The End of the American Era: US Foreign Policy & the Geopolitics of the 21st C. (NY: Knopf, 2003). Predicts rise, not of China, but of united Europe in response to "stingy internationalism combined with a prickly unilateralism" of current US policy.

LaFeber, Walter. The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860-1898 [1963] (Ithaca: Cornell, 1998).

__________. The American Age: US Foreign Policy at Home & Abroad since 1750 (2nd ed.; NY: Norton, 1994).

__________. The Clash: A History of US-Japan Relations (NY: Norton, 1997).

__________. The New Empire. An Interpretation of American Expansionism, 1860-1898 (Ithaca, 1998).

Landau, Saul. The Dangerous Doctrine: National Security & US Foreign Policy (Boulder: Westview, 1988).

Langley, Lester. The Banana Wars: An Inner History of American Empire, 1900-1924 (Lexington: U. Kentucky, 1983).

Lebovics, Herman. Imperialism & the Corruption of Democracies (Durham NC: Duke, 2006).

Lens, Sidney. The Forging of the American Empire (NY: Crowell, 1971).

Mann, Michael. Incoherent Empire (NY: Verso, 2005). US imperial project "fundamentally flawed on its own terms," promising "a future in which unfettered militarism must make up for glaring inadequacies in polcy-making."

McCormick, Thomas J. & Walter LaFeber (eds.) Behind the Throne: Servants of Power to Imperial Presidents, 1898-1968 (Madison: U. Wisconsin, 1993).

McDougall, Walter A. Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World Since 1776 (Boston, 1997).

McEwen, Arthur. Debt & Disorder: International Economic Instability & US Imperial Decline (NY: Monthly Review, 198?).

McMahon, Robert J. The Limits of Empire: The US & Southeast Asia since World War II (NY, 1999).

Meiksins-Wood, Ellen. Empire of Capital (NY: Verso, 200?).

Newsom, David D. The Imperial Mantle: The U.S., Decolonization & the Third World (Bloomington IN, 2001).

Nye, Joseph S. Jr. The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone (NY: Oxford, 2002).

Packenham, Robert A. Liberal America & the Third World (Princeton, 1976).

Panitch, Leo & Colin Leys (eds.) Socialist Register 2004: The New Imperial Challenge (NY: Monthly Review, 2004).

__________ & Colin Leys (eds.) Socialist Register 2005: The Empire Reloaded (NY: Monthly Review, 2005).

Peceny, Mark. Democracy at the Point of Bayonets (University Park PA: Pennsylvania State, 1999).

Perkins, John. Confessions of an Economic Hitman: How the US Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2004).

Pilger, John. The New Rulers of the World (NY: Verso, 200?).

Porter, Bernard. Empire & Superempire: Britain, America & the World (New Haven CT: Yale, 2006). British & American empires similar historically; but post-2001 "super-imperialism" a different thing entirely.

Prestowitz, Clyde. Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism & the Failure of Good Intentions (NY: Basic Books, 2003). Brilliant, well-informed argument from a traditional conservative perspective that US foreign policy today is irresponsibly messianic & doctrinaire, & that it puts the future of our country in serious jeopardy. Proposes revitalization of UN, signing of Kyoto Protocol & all treaties against weapons proliferation, & thorough overhaul of policies towards Israel & Taiwan.

Purdy, Jedediah. Being America (NY: Knopf, 2003).

Rabe, Stephen G. The Most Dangerous Area in the World: John F. Kennedy Confronts Communist Revolution in Latin America (Chapel Hill, 1999).

Retort. Afflicted Powers: Capital & Spectacle in a New Age of War (London: Verso, 2005).

Robinson, William I. Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention, & Hegemony (NY: Cambridge, 1996).

Rosenberg, Emily S. Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics & Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900-1930 (Cambridge, 1999).

Rowbotham, Michael. Goodbye America: Globalization, Debt & the Dollar Empire (London, 2001).

Ruppert, Michael C. Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil (Gabriola Island BC: New Society, 2004).

Sardar, Ziauddin & Merryl Wyn Davies. Why do People Hate America? (NY: Disinformation, 2002).

Schmitz, David F. Thank God They're On Our Side: The US & Right-Wing Dictatorships, 1921-1965 (Chapel Hill, 1999).

Schulte-Nordholt, Jan Willen. The Myth of the West: America as the Last Empire (Grand Rapids, 1996).

Shoup, Laurence H. & William Minter. Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations & US Foreign Policy (NY: Monthly Review, 1977).

Smith, E. Timothy. Opposition Beyond the Water's Edge: Liberal Internationalists, Pacifists & Containment, 1945-1953 (Westport CT, 1999).

Smith, Michael. Portraits of Empire: Unmasking Imperial Illusions from the "American Century" to the "War on Terror" (Monroe ME: Common Courage, 2003).

Swomley, John M. American Empire: The Political Ethics of 20th-C. Conquest (NY: Macmillan, 1970).

Todd, Emmanuel & C. Jon Delogu (trans). After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American System (NY: Columbia, 2003).

Tompkins, E. Berkeley. Anti-Imperialism in the US. The Great Debate, 1890-1920 (Philadelphia, 1970).

Twain, Mark. Following the Equator & Anti-Imperialist Essays (NY: Oxford, 1996).

Valladão, Alfredo. The Twenty-First Century Will Be American (NY, 1996).

Vidal, Gore. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace (NY: Nation Books, 2002).

Weston, Rubin Francis. Racism in US Imperialism: The Influence of Racial Assumptions on American Foreign Policy, 1893-1946 (Columbia: U. of South Carolina, 1972).

Williams, William A. The Tragedy of American Diplomacy [1959] (rev. ed.; NY: Norton, 1988).

__________. The Roots of the Modern American Empire: A Study of the Growth & Shaping of Social Consciousness in a Marketplace Society (NY: Random House, 1969).

__________ (ed.) From Colony to Empire: Essays in the History of American Foreign Relations (NY: Wiley, 1972).

__________. America Confronts a Revolutionary World, 1776-1976 (NY: Morrow, 1976).

__________. Empire as a Way of Life: An Essays on the Causes & Character of America's Present Predicament, Along with a Few Thoughts about an Alternative (NY: Oxford, 1980).

__________. A William Appleman Williams Reader: Selections from his Major Historical Writings (ed. Henry W. Berger; Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1992).

Windmiller, Marshall. The Peace Corps & the Pax Americana (Washington, 1970).

Wooley, Wesley T. Alternatives to Anarchy: American Supranationalism since World War II (Bloomington: Indiana U, 1968).

Zimmerman, Warren. First Great Triumph : How Five Americans made their Country a World Power (New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002).

Zunz, Oliver. Why the American Century? (Chicago, 1998). How US assumed voice of didactic moralism in propagating its culture abroad, and why it can’t succeed.

Zwick, Jim (ed.) Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the US-Philippine War (Syracuse NY: U. of Syracuse, 1992).

In the Library: Fiction

In the Library: For Young Readers

In the Library: Poetry

Baraka, Amiri. Somebody Blew Up America

In the Library: Drama

In the Library: Photography

CD & Audio

Film & Video

"Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War" (1999), by Great Projects Film Co. with South Carolina ETV, 1117m. From PBS Home Video.

"Highjacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire" [2004], dir. Jeremy Earp & Sut Jhally, 68m. From Media Education Foundation.