The United States has had an overseas empire longer than it has not. This "introduction to history" course will examine the long history of the United States empire across the North American continent, the Pacific Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea from the establishment of the US Constitution and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 to the twenty-first century global military empire. We will explore how the US amassed and governed its empire as well as how Native, Indigenous, Black, Asian, and Latine peoples have navigated, negotiated, and resisted different forms US colonialism. Studying US history from the perspective of empire not only augments our framework of an US national history, but questions fundamental assumptions we take for granted in narrating US history, including the geography and temporality of the US, notions of citizenship and inclusion, the power of US militarism, and the seemingly incommensurable divide between liberal and conservative politics. As esteemed historian William Appleman Williams wrote, this course examines "empire as a way of life." |