Program Description
Event Details
Join us for the Pacific Beach Library's monthly book discussion! Our group meets in a hybrid format, so you can choose whether you'd prefer to join us in-person in the PB Library's Community Room or virtually (please send an email to cwainwright@sandiego.gov for this year's Zoom login info). July's selection is How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr.
Description: We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire," exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories--the islands, atolls, and archipelagos--this country has governed and inhabited? In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century's most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress. In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of colonies. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.
If you'd like to check out a print copy of the book, they are available 1 month before each discussion at the Pacific Beach Library's Circulation Desk. Please call 858-581-9934 x0 before coming to pick it up so that staff may confirm availability.
Book Discussion Calendar
- January 9, 2025: Select titles to discuss in 2025
- February 13: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
- March 23: The Gambler Wife by Andrew D. Kaufman
- April 10: The Color of Water by James McBride
- May 8: The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn & Janie Chang
- June 12: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
- July 10: How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
- August 14: 1984 by George Orwell
- September 11: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
- October 9: The Women by Kristin Hannah
- November 13: One Book, One San Diego selection (to be announced)
- December 11: The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger
- January 8, 2026: Select titles to discuss in 2026
- February 12, 2026: James by Percival Everett