The United States and Empire in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Amanda Nagel, School of Advanced Military Studies

In the United States, we tend to think of empire and empire building as events and topics more closely associated with other countries and their history. “Empire” has been a dirty word in United States politics for more than two centuries. After the American Revolution, many citizens and politicians sought to separate the United States’ legacy from that of Great Britain, particularly when it came to the subject of empire. That desire of separation from association with empire has continued into the present. What if that separation was only in the minds of citizens and politicians, but not in their actions? How, then, do we reconcile those actions with the narrative of United States history and historiography? This course seeks to explore these questions through the historiography of United States empire.