Structure

The most notable structural element in How to Hide an Empire is the author’s decision to break the book into two parts, titled “The Colonial Empire” and “The Pointillist Empire.” In doing so, the author automatically and immediately reminds the reader that there are multiple possible definitions of empire, and that, in this case, the book will offer readers two possible versions of empire: the colonial version, and the “pointillist” one.

Both terms will be surprising to readers in different ways. In the first case, Immerwahr’s decision to term the first half of the novel the “colonial empire” is a clear rejection of the argument that the U.S. has not had an empire. The second term, “pointillist,” describes the new kind of empire that took shape in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the world was beginning to shift, in Immerwahr’s...