BOOKS: Empire for Liberty. By Richard H. Immerman (Jim Miles)

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Empire for Liberty. Richard H. Immerman. Princeton University Press, 2010.

Oct. 15, 2010 (Palestine Chronicle) -- History takes on an interesting life when written as well as Richard Immerman’s new book “Empire for Liberty,” with the lengthy subtitle “A History of American Imperialism From Benjamin Franklin to Paul Wolfowitz.” Immerman’s work ranges, as indicated, from the foundation of the United States to its second to last manifestation under the George Bush government. The six figures through whose lens the creation of empire is viewed are major figures in the era that they served, but only one actually served as president. This supports one of the main ideas of Immerman -- and other historians -- that it is not the presidency that defines a unique and particular paradigm or epoch with each change in government, but that there is a consistency with U.S. imperial/foreign policy that has existed since the foundation of the original United States.

At initial view, the trajectory of the six persons studied may appear subject to a disjointed story, yet the history flows from one person to the other not just on the consistency of the policy issues, but with the connections between the various persons via their families, friends, and political associates. They are all bred from the same elite group that has been in power from the beginning, undergoing political name changes and sometimes political rhetoric but always with the same message -- the empire for liberty.

What Immerman highlights within this theme is that the empire is much more about empire and much less about liberty. With that, he begins with a discussion on what an empire consists of and what liberty consists of, having more difficulty defining the latter than the former. His work “seeks to persuade the reader that America is and always has been an empire,” and that the “extension of America’s territory and influence has always been inextricably tied to extending the sphere of liberty.” He admits that liberty is interpreted “so broadly and in so many different contexts, that it all but loses its meaning.”

One of the “fundamental features of empire” identified by Immerman is that within an empire “Centralization and integration are distinct from equalization.... Class and regional differences .” Further, “Because of violence’s historic role in the establishment of empires, not all the people with the heterogeneous population could qualify as citizens, not all were equal, not all could or would assimilate, and not all consented to the rule of the sovereign.” After exploring the various permutations of empire Immerman concludes that the United States “fit even the most restricted definition of empire by the outbreak of the Civil War.” His work takes a broader perspective however and sees the U.S. empire as roll-over from the intentions of the British Empire on the North American continent.

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