@transjewtalian wrote on Twitter today, “october 7th permanently shaped postcolonial studies as a discipline in that it revealed beyond all doubt just how many scholars are careerist unprincipled charlatans who wouldn't know what solidarity looked like even if it set up camp occupying the center of campus for weeks” and it perfectly breaks down the biggest issue I had with this book. 

The United States Empire is a topic under-discussed, and the beginning of this book was very detailed in how leaders in the USA were able to create such a web of exploitation outside the continental "borders."

There were a few offhand remarks and factual issues that reminded me to read with a sharp eye, but the core thesis was good enough that I kept going. 

This completely fell apart as the timeline neared modern day. 

Despite brining up the massive number of military bases the USA has abroad, there was little to no discussion of Vietnam or South Korea, not enough discussion of USA influence in Africa, and generally an underdeveloped analysis of impact in the Global South. 

Worst: the treatment of Palestine. This line explains it all: “in 1948, when Palestine gained independence as the State of Israel.” 

The arguments in the book completely lacked a connection to the impacts of this empire today. This made the entire book feel almost pointless. It is mind-numbing to be able to see the reach of USA imperialism globally, but not discuss the impacts of that force on the modern local populations. If you pick this up, I would urge you to take the history you may not have heard about before and search out authors from the parts of the world under the thumb of empire whose voices are not published with such large marketing budgets or New York Times reviews.