Daniel Immerwahr

I walked a fine line between being fascinated by this book and being bored by it. Let me be clear: the fault wasn't with the book or the author. It's incredibly well researched, and at times astonishing, But it's also deeply political (as expected), and politics isn't one of my areas of interest. A book has to be truly outstanding to hold my interest when it deals so heavily with political machinations and maneuvers.

Immerwahr is clearly quite passionate about the subject matter. The vignettes he shares are powerful and striking, but they're also lengthy and in-depth in a way that requires full engagement with the material. For that reason, I struggled to finish this one… (mais)

"Pointillist empire."

There's a point in the middle of the book where Immerwahr transitions from Puerto Rico and the Phillipines to capitalism abroad. It seems to wander until you realize how badly foreign bases and the soft power of commercial and cultural dominance has resulted in so many own-goals in American foreign policy. Where colonial powers held land and conceded to independence movements, the US model held to strategic military and economic hooks that ultimately kindled insurrection via insurgency. The resulting terrorism hence is a direct and inevitable outcome of America's particular method of exerting imperial control across the globe.… (mais)