How to Hide an Empire

Ralph welcomes professor and historian Daniel Immerwahr to discuss the history of the United States' overseas possessions and his book "How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States."

Daniel Immerwahr is a professor and historian at Northwestern University. He is the author of Thinking Small: The United States and the Lure of Community Development and How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.

What I wanted to do in the book was to look at the United States and to take seriously the parts of the United States that don’t always feature in the textbooks—that are outside of the mainland, the contiguous blob. And what I discovered when I did that was that these places were often in the mainland’s mind seen as peripheral places, but this was not a peripheral history…It turns out that once you’ve got the territories in view, you have a different understanding of them. And so a lot of US history (and really important parts of US history) has actually taken place outside of the part of the country that we normally think of as the United States.

Daniel Immerwahr

I got really interested in the book in how it came to be and why it mattered that US standards prevailed and how other countries dealt with that by either jumping on the ship or trying to resist and that became difficult for them. And how emotionally hard it is for other parts of the world to [face] this onslaught of not just the US military, not just US planes, its bombs—we know all that stuff, and I don’t want to diminish it, but all the US stuff and ways of talking and the English language and the dollar. And each one of those comes as a kind of challenge: Are you going to adopt this or not? Because life’s going to be a little harder if you don’t, but if you do, you’re kind of a puppet. And everyone in the world has had to deal with that challenge on a daily basis—what screws they use, what language they speak, all that kind of stuff. And we don’t talk about that a lot, but that actually strikes me as a really important facet of US power.

Daniel Immerwahr

News 1/23/26

* Our first two stories this week come to us from New York City. On January 16th, Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew a line in the sand in an address celebrating a historic settlement with A&E real estate. While A&E is a serial offender, racking up “over 140,000 total violations, including 35,000 in the last year alone,” Mayor Mamdani made clear that this was to serve as an example for other landlords, saying “City Hall will not sit idly by and accept this illegality, nor will we allow bad actors to continue to harass tenants with impunity.” Mayor Mamdani made tenants rights a central pillar of his campaign and is signaling that it will be a major aspect of his administration as well, with the centerpiece being the “Rental Ripoff” hearings he plans to hold in all five boroughs. Yet again, Mamdani provides a blueprint for other Democratic elected officials in cities across the nation, if only they would pick up the mantle.

* In other news out of New York, on January 13th New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced a “settlement ending Betar US’s…campaign of violence, harassment, and intimidation against Arab, Muslim, and Jewish New Yorkers.” Betar, an extremist Zionist outfit, is considered so fringe that even the ultra-Zionist Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has labeled it an “extremist group” for its “embrace of Islamophobia and harass[ment] of Muslims.” Examples of Betar’s bias-motivated harassment include labeling keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves – as “rape rags” and claiming that the number of babies who had died in Gaza was “not enough,” adding, “we demand blood in Gaza.” According to this announcement, Betar is seeking to dissolve its nonprofit corporation and intends to wind down operations in New York. Mayor Mamdani added, “For years, Betar has sowed a campaign of hatred across New York, trafficking in Islamophobic extremism and harassing those with whom they disagreed. There is no place for their bigotry in our politics, and I’m grateful for [Attorney General James’s] unflagging pursuit of justice.”

* In more Israel news, earlier this week Israeli human rights lawyer Alon Sapir recounted the following story on social media. “On Saturday, I represented an American Jewish activist in deportation proceedings from the country due to his leftism. In the hearing, they presented him with a photo from a demonstration in the US to link him to anti-Israel organizations.” The photo in question was “taken at a demonstration against the Nazis in Charlottesville [Virginia],” and the Israelis “apparently took it from a page that promotes white supremacy.” This deportation proceeding – wherein the Israeli government used a white-supremacist photograph of an activist protesting Nazism to deport him on the grounds of being anti-Israel, is of course, stunningly backwards. But, as Sapir writes, “Indeed, [this is] grounds for deportation from the Jewish state.”

* In more news from abroad, the New York Times reports the People’s Republic of China has hit a new economic milestone: the world’s largest trade surplus ever. According to economic data released by the country’s General Administration of Customs, “China’s surplus, the value of goods and services it sold abroad versus its imports, reached $1.19 trillion, an increase of 20 percent from 2024.” As this piece notes, “The enormous trade surplus…came despite efforts by President Trump to use tariffs to contain China’s factories.” While the tariffs succeeded in reducing China’s trade surplus with the United States by 22% last year, Chinese firms compensated by increasing sales to other regions and “in many cases bypassing American tariffs by shipping goods to the United States through Southeast Asia and elsewhere.” In short, the tariffs have succeeded only in raising prices for American consumers by forcing Chinese firms to route their products through secondary markets instead of selling directly to Americans – further enriching China while further immiserating everyday Americans.

* This trade surplus is expected to widen further with news of an economic thaw between China and Canada. AP reports Canada has “agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products,” according to Prime Minister Mark Carney. Carney added that there would initially be an annual cap of 49,000 Chinese EVs coming into the Canadian market at a tariff rate of 6.1%, but this cap would grow to about 70,000 over the next five years. In return, China will “reduce its total tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from 84% to about 15%,” and allow visa-free travel to China for Canadian citizens, many of whom are of Chinese descent. This deal is obviously a humiliating disaster for President Trump, who sought to both isolate China economically and force Canada to further subjugate itself to the United States, going so far as to muse about annexing the country and making it the “51st state.” Like the Greenland fiasco, this is a case of Trump needlessly alienating American allies, driving them into the open arms of more rational partners like China.

* Meanwhile, in South Korea, Al Jazeera reports former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in the failed coup attempt orchestrated by ousted president Yoon Suk-yeol. In a moving statement, Judge Lee Jin-gwan of the Seoul Central District Court, said Han “disregarded his duty and responsibility as prime minister,” and “As a result…South Korea was in danger ​of returning to the dark past ‌when the basic rights and liberal democratic order of the people were violated, potentially preventing them from escaping from the quagmire of dictatorship.” These words sound especially tragic to American ears at this moment, as our country slides ever further away from basic rights and liberal democratic order. Han is “the first member of Yoon’s cabinet to be found guilty and sentenced to jail,” and his sentence gives an indication of how seriously the court is taking this matter. As we discussed last week, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Yoon himself.

* Moving back to American politics, NOTUS reports Congresswoman and Senate hopeful Jasmine Crockett is amassing money from some unsavory donors. These include, “Tech titan and conservative provocateur Marc Andreessen [and] Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Facebook fame,” as well as several super PACs funded by the cryptocurrency lobby. Perhaps most damningly though, she has received donations from the PACs for BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and massive defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Crockett’s acceptance of these donations has sent ripples through the progressive community. Fellow Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett called it “very troubling that she would be reliant on those kinds of contributions.” Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, is quoted in this piece refuting characterizations of Crockett as in line with that group’s preferences, saying “To call her in any way the progressive or leftist candidate is a misnomer...She’s a somewhat effective anti-Trump troll and resistance liberal, but is not one of us when it comes to a progressive populist or anti-corporate warrior.” Green added that his group will likely endorse Crockett’s opponent in the primary, Texas State Representative James Talarico. As of mid-January, Talarico leads Crockett 47% to 38% in the polls, with 15% undecided, per Emerson.

* Another red state senate race, this one in Montana, just got more interesting in its own way. According to the Montana Free Press, “University of Montana President Seth Bodnar is expected to run for U.S. Senate as an independent,” which the paper claims is “part of an elaborate plan apparently backed by former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.” Apparently, this move has angered Montana Democrats, two of whom have filed long-shot bids to run against incumbent Republican Senator Steve Daines. The Free Press reached out to Tester for a comment, and he sent back a text message explaining his reasoning behind backing the independent bid, writing “Every race I ran as Montana Senator and U.S. Senator it was about distancing myself from the Democratic Party…. During my last two races the democratic Party was poison in my attempts to get re-elected.” Tester is likely taking some inspiration from the Independent Senate campaigns of Dan Osborn in Nebraska. Osborn ran against incumbent Republican Deb Fischer in 2024 and made the race unusually competitive, eventually losing 53% to 47%. Osborn is now running against Nebraska’s other incumbent Republican Senator, billionaire Pete Ricketts, and the two are in a statistical dead heat in the polls.

* Next, with tax season on the horizon, the neutering of the Internal Revenue Service is starting to be felt. More Perfect Union reports “The IRS is effectively unable to audit private equity, venture capital, and real estate investment firms,” because “Thousands of workers have been fired from the agency,” post-DOGE. According to the numbers, audits of the aforementioned giant enterprises have “dropped 80 or 90%.” Stunningly, Forbes reports that instead of fighting to re-fund the IRS and restore some oversight to the lawless corporate sector, lawmakers from both parties are seeking to slash $11.7 billion of the $80 billion allocated to the agency in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. As this piece notes, that number itself is deceptive; a report issued by the Treasury Inspector General, found that that $80 billion has already been shrunken down to just $37.6 billion, and the IRS has only spent about $13.8 billion of the IRA funding. The Treasury Inspector General’s projections of the additional funds available to the IRS is approximately $19.3 billion, meaning an additional cut of $11.7 billion would effectively curtail any plans to expand the IRS to police large, complex financial entities.

* Finally, on January 14th, Congresswoman Robin Kelly of Illinois formally introduced three articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. These articles, accusing Noem of obstruction of Congress, violation of public trust, self-dealing, and directing ICE to make “widespread warrantless arrests, forgo due process, and use violence against United States citizens, lawful residents, and other individuals,” initially garnered 80 Democratic cosponsors. But that list appears to be growing. Newsweek reports that as of January 21st, the list has grown to 100 cosponsors, nearly half of the 213-member Democratic caucus in the House. A successful impeachment vote is unlikely, as Republicans still control the House, but as provocative and unpopular actions across the country – by DHS in general and ICE specifically – continue to escalate, this list is only expected to grow. The larger question remains however: even if Noem is removed, will that force the administration to change course or will they simply appoint another pliant enforcer in her place. We can’t know unless we try.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe