Adrian's Reviews > How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

** spoiler alert ** The amount of knowledge , facts , curiosities and events in this book is maddening.

I didn't know shit about late XIX century american foreign policy , nor could i have imagined the race to claim islands full of Guano (crystalized bird shit used as fertilizer) , the wars fought on foreign soil with the Spanish and then the Philippines, the continous usage of Puerto Ricans as Guinea Pigs especially in experiments with mustard gas and later chemotherapy or sterilization and planned parenthood.

The book shines on world war 2 , in regards to the massive global transport infrastructure built by USA around the globe (Egypt airbases , Iran , Lebanon) , the continous airbridge over the Himalayas in keeping the chinese resistance strong against the japanesse , the complete bomb and napalm pounding of Manilla in the later stages of the war resulting in millions of deaths.

The book continues with the post war order , the standardization across all industries and domains imposed by the USA , the way it built bases all over the world on areas which were given as 90 year leases , the rapid growth of countries that had these bases withing their local communities

We also get into the dirty stuff of the 90's and 2000 s with Osama Bin Laden , Afghanistan , Iraq , Guantanamo etc.


This guy is terrific , i recommend the book wholeheartedly to any history , geopolitic lover and not only !