Full Episode Link: https://youtu.be/7CL_8jnKBRk?si=S3dgqoeCM6-8ef-p
The conversation between Anirudh and Daniel discusses the transition of colonial empire methods and justifications from the British Raj to the United States, focusing on the language and ideologies used to justify expansionist tendencies. It reflects on how empires were once sources of pride and the belief in spreading civilization as a justification for imperialism. The conversation includes how the U.S. developed its unique form of global governance, drawing from ancient and modern empires, and compares direct versus indirect control methods used by the British and later by the Americans. The discussion also touches on the post-World War II era, where the U.S. shifted from direct colonialism to a more indirect form of control, influencing global politics, economy, and culture, while examining whether the U.S. can still be considered an empire.
00:00 Exploring the Justifications of Colonial Empires
00:29 The Moral and Ideological Foundations of Empire
02:38 The American Empire: A Unique Global Governance
03:45 Post-World War II: The Evolution of American Power
04:53 Indirect Control: The British Model and American Strategy
05:59 The Shift to Indirect Empire in the Post-War Era
07:03 Concluding Thoughts on Empire and Control
Book Links:
AnirudhSuri:
The Great Tech Game by Anirudh Suri : https://amzn.eu/d/1Su38My
How to Hide an Empire: https://amzn.eu/d/hssq9QF
About Daniel Immerwahr:
Daniel Immerwahr (Ph.D., Berkeley, 2011) is Bergen Evans Professor in the Humanities. His first book, Thinking Small (Harvard, 2015), offers a critical account of grassroots development campaigns launched by the United States at home and abroad. It won the Merle Curti Award in Intellectual History from the Organization of American Historians and the Society for U.S. Intellectual History's annual book award. His second book, How to Hide an Empire (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), is a narrative history of the United States that brings its overseas territory into the story. It was a national bestseller, a New York Times critic's choice for one of the best books of 2019, and the winner of the Robert H. Ferrell Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Immerwahr's writings have appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, the Washington Post, Harper's, The New Republic, The Nation, and the New York Review of Books, among other places.
More information and many of Immerwahr's writings are available at his website (https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core-faculty/daniel-immerwahr.html)
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