How did the acquisition of overseas colonies affect the development of the American state? How did the constitutional system shape the expansion and governance of American empire? American Imperialism and the State offers a new perspective on these questions by recasting American imperial governance as an episode of state building. Colin D. Moore argues that the empire was decisively shaped by the efforts of colonial state officials to achieve greater autonomy in the face of congressional obstruction, public indifference and limitations on administrative capacity. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book focuses principally upon four cases of imperial governance - Hawai'i, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic and Haiti - to highlight the essential tension between American mass democracy and imperial expansion.

'American Imperialism and the State, 1893–1921 is an important book, filled with cross-disciplinary insights that bring the history of formal overseas empire to the study of US state formation, while also bringing a precise attention to the shape of the imperial state to the burgeoning historiography of early twentieth-century US empire-building.'

Katherine Moran Source: H-SHGAPE

'Moore’s analysis is compelling; the book moves through issues of politics, economics, culture, ideas, race, constitutionalism and law, international and bureaucratic relations, collaboration with local elites and state-building - as well as of course the opposition within the various local settings … This book makes an important contribution to the historiography of US colonialism. It opposes many existing interpretations - in a systematic, measured and deeply informed manner - and it will need to be taken very seriously, not least because of its implications for contemporary US foreign policy.'

David Ryan Source: International Affairs