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Empire Shelley Streeby
which has turned attention away from the economy
economy refers to has remained surprisingly resilient.
and back toward the seemingly simpler idea of “the
While the field of cultural studies (American and oth-
market.” Like economies, however, markets must be
erwise) has paid much attention to other organizing
made. They are produced not by the natural working
concepts, such as nation, class, gender, society, and of
of self-interest but by the complex organization of de-
course culture itself, it has often left the idea of the
sire, agency, price, ownership, and dispossession. Eco-
economy untouched. There have been a number of in-
nomics (especially in a wider sense of the term,
teresting studies of different “representations” of the
encompassing fields such as accounting and manage-
economy. These usually assume, however, that the
ment) helps to produce these arrangements, by provid-
economy itself remains as a kind of underlying mate-
ing instruments of calculation and other necessary
rial reality, somehow independent of the intellectual
equipment (Callon 1998), just as it helped to produce
equipment and machinery of representation with
the economy. However, while the idea of the economy
which it is set up and managed. In the same way, aca-
refers to a specific territory, usually the nation-state,
demic economics is often criticized for misrepresent-
the market has no particular spatial connotation. It
ing the “true nature” of the economy. The task now is
can refer to the trading floor of a futures exchange or a
to account for the great success of economics and re-
transnational network. Unlike the economy, therefore,
lated forms of expertise in helping to make the econ-
it does not invoke the role of the state, as the power
omy in the first place.
that governs economic space and defines its task as the
management and growth of the economy and the nurturing and regulation of economic actors. The regulation of markets and the forming and governing of
market agencies is dispersed at numerous levels.
The idea of the economy survives today as much as
a political concept as an object of economic theory. A
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Empire
Shelley Streeby
sign taped to the wall in the Democratic Party cam-
In the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, it
paign headquarters for the 1992 U.S. presidential elec-
was often observed that the word “empire” was be-
tion proclaimed, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Placed
coming increasingly popular as a way to describe the
there, it is said, as a reminder of where the campaign
current form of U.S. power in the world. Many com-
should keep its focus, it reminds us today of the work
mentators noted that while the meanings of the word
that is done to make the existence of the economy ap-
had previously been overwhelmingly negative, a host
pear obvious and its truths uncontestable. It also
of best-selling books, policy statements, newspaper ed-
should remind us that the goal of fixing what the
itorials, and other sources promoted the idea of an
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Empire Shelley Streeby
American empire. One example among many was Vice
Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase of 1803,
President Dick Cheney’s 2003 Christmas card, which
which massively increased the size of the United
contained the following quotation, attributed to Ben-
States, went a long way toward realizing those conti-
jamin Franklin: “And if a sparrow cannot fall to the
nental ambitions. And Jefferson’s statement that U.S.
ground without His notice, is it probable that an em-
territorial expansion enlarged the space of freedom
pire can rise without His aid?”
and enabled an “empire for liberty” has been echoed
As Cheney’s citation of Franklin suggests, this em-
by
many
subsequent
empire-builders.
But
the
brace of the word “empire” was not really a new phe-
founders’ readings in republican political theory also
nomenon. Even though the United States established
provoked debates about whether a great extent of ter-
its political independence from the British empire by
ritory might endanger a republic and ultimately lead
winning the Revolutionary War, understandings of
to its downfall. Some versions of republicanism (no-
empire as necessarily tyrannical and as an Old World
tably those influenced by Montesquieu) warned that
vice competed with arguments about the possible
the pursuit of empire threatened a republic with cor-
virtues of U.S. empire. As historian Richard Van Al-
ruption and decline through overextension and by en-
styne pointed out in his 1960 study The Rising Ameri-
gendering luxury, incorporating alien peoples, and
can Empire (a title which, as he noted, “comes straight
promoting the maintenance of standing armies. Such
from George Washington”), many of the founders
fears are displayed in Thomas Cole’s famous set of
were invested in the idea of an American “imperium—
paintings called The Course of Empire (1833–66), which
a dominion, state, or sovereignty that would expand
represent what he and many others imagined as the
in population and territory, and increase in strength
five stages of empire: the Savage State, the Arcadian or
and power” (1). Such ideas were strengthened by the
Pastoral State, Consummation, Destruction, and Des-
notion that civilization was moving westward, and
olation (A. Miller 1993). While Jefferson and the U.S.
that the United States would be the next (and perhaps
empire-builders who followed him hoped that excep-
last) great incarnation of civilization. The idea of a U.S.
tional American conditions would prevent the United
empire was also partly driven by fears of the other em-
States from sharing the fate of other empires, the
pires — British, French, and Spanish — that claimed
darker strains of republican theory continued to pro-
vast territorial possessions in North America. In com-
vide resources for those who wanted to argue against
petition with these powerful imperial states, U.S. poli-
the nation’s imperial ambitions.
cymakers often claimed, in spite of the much longer
Comparisons to other empires and questions about
presence of indigenous peoples, a natural right to the
the annexation of new lands also provoked both pro-
continent based on geographical factors as well as the
and antiwar arguments during the U.S.-Mexico War
migrations of U.S. settlers.
(1846–48). Along with the more familiar allusions to
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Empire Shelley Streeby
the Roman empire, Spain and England increasingly
While commentators such as Parker opposed the
became important reference points for such compar-
U.S.-Mexico War by calling the nation an empire and
isons. On the one hand, U.S. Americans sometimes
invoking pessimistic comparisons to other empires
imagined themselves as the heirs to the Spanish em-
both classical and contemporaneous, many who sup-
pire in the New World. The popularity of W. H.
ported the war tried to sidestep such comparisons by
Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico during the
using other words to describe U.S. expansion. One es-
1840s inspired many soldiers and commentators to
pecially influential formulation was coined in 1845 by
imagine that U.S. armed forces were retracing the steps
Democratic Review editor John O’Sullivan, who argued
of the Spanish invaders as they marched on Mexico
that it was “our manifest destiny to overspread the
City during the war. On the other hand, such a com-
continent allotted by Providence for the free develop-
parison was potentially disturbing because of the Black
ment of our yearly multiplying millions” (quoted in
Legend: the idea that the Spanish conquest of the New
Horsman 1981, 219). The concept of Manifest Destiny
World was uniquely bloody and vicious. And although
derived in part from earlier ideas about the Puritan
the Black Legend positioned the British colonists as
settlers as God’s chosen people, who were working
more enlightened and humane than the Spanish, mid-
out their destiny in the Promised Land. It also built
nineteenth-century events in India and Ireland also
on eighteenth-century Lockean arguments that pos-
made the British empire a potentially unsettling point
session of land was justified by use, as well as the Jef-
of comparison. In a powerful antiwar speech delivered
fersonian notion that the extension of agrarian
in 1847, for instance, Boston Unitarian clergyman
democracy was coterminous with the extension of
Theodore Parker (1863/1973, 26) compared the U.S.
freedom. The use of the concept of Manifest Destiny
invasion of Mexico to England’s “butchering” of Sikhs
instead of “empire” gave divine sanction to U.S. ex-
in India and seizure of lands in Ireland. Debates over
pansion and implied that it was a natural and nonvio-
the imperial annexation of new territories also raised
lent process. This concept even influenced subsequent
divisive questions about the incorporation of hetero-
scholarship by twentieth-century researchers, who
geneous elements—notably Catholics and nonwhite
tended to distinguish continental expansion from im-
people—into the nation, as well as about the exten-
perialism, thereby disconnecting earlier moments of
sion of slavery. During these years the issues of empire
U.S. empire-building from later imperial conflicts,
and slavery became fatally conjoined; soon after the
such as those of the 1890s.
United States increased its size at the expense of Mex-
In much of that scholarship, U.S. wars in the
ico after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hi-
Caribbean and the Pacific during and after the 1890s
dalgo, this conjunction would culminate in the U.S.
were regarded as part of an aberrant period in which
Civil War.
the nation uncharacteristically acted as an empire.
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Empire Shelley Streeby
This disavowal was coincident with the coinage,
was based on an understanding of imperialism as nec-
around 1860 according to the Oxford English Dictio-
essarily involving the extension of rule over “distant
nary (OED), of the word “imperialism,” which has
places,” particularly places located overseas. Third,
very different connotations than the much older
this new definition emphasized the pursuit of com-
word “empire.” In its earliest and subsequent usages,
mercial “interests and investments,” as well as the es-
imperialism was often associated with “arbitrary” or
tablishment of military bases, in addition to or instead
“despotic” rule, as well as the “advocacy of imperial
of the formal annexation of new lands.
interests,” including “trading interests and invest-
Of course, none of these elements was particularly
ments.” The OED even states: “In the United States,
new. During the U.S.-Mexico War, antiwar activists
imperialism is similarly applied to the new policy of
pressed the comparison to the British and Spanish em-
extending the rule of the American people over for-
pires; the United States had long had an interest in try-
eign countries, and of acquiring and holding distant
ing to take over or control “distant places,” such as the
dependencies, in the way in which colonies and de-
islands in the Caribbean; and the notion of a commer-
pendencies are held by European states.” That the
cial empire extends back to the early days of the
OED writers, who compiled their definitions in the
United States and was strongly articulated by Abraham
early twentieth century, would see U.S. imperialism as
Lincoln’s secretary of state, William Steward, among
a “new policy” shows the pervasiveness of the idea
others. While it is true that after the 1890s the nation
that U.S. empire-building before the 1890s did not
tended to back away from the previous pattern of an-
count as imperialism.
nexing new territories and making them into states,
The definition of a “new” U.S. imperialism in-
this development was more of an innovation in the
cluded three key elements. First, it depended upon the
administration of empire than an absolute break with
identification of similarities between U.S. imperialism
the past. But by viewing late-nineteenth-century U.S.
and the various European imperialisms that were in
imperialism as a new development, and by distin-
their heyday during the late nineteenth and twentieth
guishing continental expansionism from overseas im-
centuries. Although many advocates of the Spanish-
perialism, U.S. commentators promoted the notion
American War (1898) argued, especially early on, that
that the pursuit of empire was an exceptional episode
U.S. forces were liberators rather than conquerors,
in U.S. history, rather than the norm.
comparisons to European-style imperialisms became
This view of the 1890s as an aberration is especially
more difficult to dismiss as the United States turned
ironic given the extent of the U.S. military presence
from warring with Spain to warring with Filipinos,
and the reach of U.S. commercial imperialism in the
Cubans, and others who sought independence. Sec-
decades that followed the 1890s. In his 1904 corollary
ond, the concept of a new U.S. empire (LaFeber 1963)
to the Monroe Doctrine, for instance, Theodore Roo-
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Empire Shelley Streeby
sevelt stated that “chronic wrongdoing, or an impo-
said to be motivated by the need to contain commu-
tence which results in a general loosening of the ties of
nism and to counter Soviet expansion. According to
civilization, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately
many Cold War thinkers, it was the Soviet Union, and
require intervention by some civilized nation, and in
not the United States, that was imperialist; this logic
the Western Hemisphere . . . may force the U.S., how-
suggested that an aggressive U.S. military policy was a
ever reluctantly . . . to the exercise of an international
defensive response to the threat that communist ex-
police power” (quoted in Stephanson 1995, 107). This
pansion posed to capitalist democracies. Within such
understanding of the United States as a police force
binary schemas, the United States was cast in the role
devoted to the defense of civilization would be used to
of the defender of freedom and liberty, and therefore
justify multiple interventions in Latin America and
its interventions around the world were not viewed by
elsewhere, from the early twentieth century to the
U.S. policymakers as imperialist. This helps to explain
present. Indeed, although Theodore Roosevelt has of-
why, during the Cold War years, so many historians,
ten been contrasted with Woodrow Wilson, largely
literary critics, and other American studies scholars
because of Roosevelt’s frank endorsement of empire-
maintained that the United States was not and had
building and Wilson’s emphasis on creating interna-
never been an empire, except perhaps for that brief pe-
tional institutions, the two shared a vision of the
riod during and after the Spanish-American War.
United States as a sort of “world cop” (Hardt and Negri
Scholars such as diplomatic historian William Apple-
2000, 177). Although Wilson was ostensibly devoted
man Williams, who argued that empire had been a
to preserving peace and Roosevelt was committed to
“way of life” from the beginning of the nation, were
the war of civilization against savagery, Wilson was
definitely in the minority during the Cold War years.
also determined to establish governments he approved
The question of empire was posed anew during the
of in strategically important locations, and so sent U.S.
Vietnam War and particularly in educational activists’
troops to Russia, Mexico, Haiti, Central America, and
battles for ethnic studies during the 1960s and 1970s.
the Dominican Republic. Perhaps Wilson’s most im-
Social movements pressing for justice, including the
portant contribution to the empire question was his
antiwar movement and the movements of people of
idealistic, Jeffersonian recasting of U.S. imperialism as
color working both outside and inside the academy,
the protection and extension of universal values; his
helped to make U.S. empire an issue in revisionist
declaration, in 1917, that the nation was devoted to
scholarly work of the Vietnam War era and after. We
“making the world safe for democracy” has often been
could go back even further, of course, and find critical
echoed by more recent empire-builders.
work on U.S. imperialism, often linked to the collec-
After World War II, U.S. military involvement in
tive endeavors of social movements and to interdisci-
other parts of the world, especially Asia, was often
plinary concerns, in the writings of W. E. B. Du Bois,
99
Empire Shelley Streeby
Americo Paredes, C. L. R. James, Ricardo Flores Magón,
and several extended insights from contemporary cul-
Lucy Parsons, and many others. In the late 1970s and
tural studies research (Ashcroft et al. 1989; Gilroy
1980s, the literatures and theories of decolonization,
1987, 1993). Michael Rogin, for instance, explored
work on internal colonialism in U.S. ethnic studies (es-
how political spectacles of covert operations in popu-
pecially Native American studies and Chicano stud-
lar culture contributed to an amnesia about U.S. em-
ies), as well as the impact of postcolonial studies, all
pire. And in her introductory essay, Kaplan (1993, 5)
helped to make U.S. empire visible as a problem.
similarly focused on imperial amnesia as she argued
When we define American studies in terms of pro-
that “imperialism has been simultaneously formative
grams and institutions, we need to recognize how it
and disavowed in the foundational discourses of
emerged as a post–World War II form of area studies
American Studies.” She thereby helped to inspire a
that had ties on some campuses to the CIA, the Cold
large body of new work on forgotten histories of U.S.
War national security state, and the imperatives of U.S.
imperialism.
empire. But we should also attend to what George Lip-
While many American studies scholars responded
sitz (2001, 27) has called “the other American studies,
to this call by focusing on imperial amnesia and hop-
the organic grassroots theorizing about culture and
ing that the naming of the empire would help to chal-
power that has informed cultural practice, social
lenge it, public policymakers and popular pundits
movements, and academic work for many years.”
were busy remembering and championing that his-
From that perspective, the influential 1993 anthol-
tory, although often in highly selective and mislead-
ogy Cultures of U.S. Imperialism, edited by Amy Kaplan
ing ways (Kaplan 2002). This does not mean that the
and Donald Pease, is best understood as an important
idea of an empire was universally acknowledged and
contribution to ongoing debates within American
endorsed. Even within the administration of George
studies and cultural studies, not as an origin point for
W. Bush, there is still some discomfort with the word
work on U.S. empire. The book grew out of a 1991
“empire”: when reporters asked Dick Cheney about
conference that was organized, according to Pease
his Christmas card, he denied that the United States
(1993, 22), “in the shadow of three macropolitical
was really an empire and jokingly blamed his wife
events—the end of the cold war, the Persian Gulf War,
Lynne for choosing Franklin’s quotation. It is certainly
and the Columbus quincentennial.” Each of these
true, however, that naming and exposing the empire
events, which involved multiple imperial histories,
does not automatically undermine its power, espe-
generated public debates that helped to shape the con-
cially at a moment when U.S. empire is being
versation about empire in American studies. Many of
identified, once again, with “universal” values such as
the essays in the volume linked recent episodes of U.S.
democracy and freedom. As Kaplan (2004, 6) suggests,
empire-building to longer histories of imperialism,
an American studies critique of U.S. empire must in-
100
Environment Vermonja R. Alston
volve not only “disinterring the buried history of im-
mythologize and indigenize their relationships to
perialism,” but also “debating its meanings and les-
place. This polyphony of competing voices and ge-
sons for the present” and showing “how U.S.
nealogies may be best understood as an interplay
interventions have worked from the perspective of
among many environmentalisms.
comparative imperialisms, in relation to other historical changes and movements across the globe.”
In his Keywords, Raymond Williams (1983, 219,
223) notes that “[n]ature is perhaps the most complex
word in the language . . . Nature has meant the ‘countryside’, the ‘unspoiled places’, plants and creatures
26
Environment
Vermonja R. Alston
other than man . . . nature is what man has not
made.” At the heart of this conception of nature lies
the sense that there exists inherent, universal, and primary law beyond the corrupt societies of “man.”
While “environment” is not one of Williams’s key-
In its broadest sense, the term “environment” indexes
words, “ecology” does make an appearance, even
contested terrains located at the intersections of polit-
though the term was not common in the English lan-
ical, social, cultural, and ecological economies. In its
guage until the middle of the twentieth century. Ecol-
narrowest sense, it refers to the place of nature in hu-
ogy, defined as the “study of the relations of plants
man history. In each of these usages, representations
and animals with each other and their habitat,” re-
of the natural world are understood as having deci-
placed environment, a word in use since the early
sive force in shaping environmental policy and the
nineteenth century but derived from the mid-four-
environmental imagination. Conservation politics
teenth-century borrowing from Old French, environ,
were inspired by interpretations of particular places as
meaning to surround or enclose (111). In American
untouched by the industrial revolutions of the nine-
cultural studies, “environment” has undergone a re-
teenth century, while much contemporary ecocriti-
newal among scholars and activists, owing in part to
cism has continued the mainstream preoccupation
resistance to the bracketing of “nature” and “wilder-
with wilderness traditions, pastoralism, and the Ro-
ness” as privileged sites of national identity, and its ac-
mantic impulse of nature writing. Environmental jus-
ceptance as a shorthand for research on ecosystems
tice activists and some ecofeminists have questioned
and diverse environmental movements. Curiously,
these preoccupations, as have indigenous and post-
even as the term “ecology” is used less often, it has
colonial writers and scholars across the Americas who
been condensed to a prefix in the names of social and
point out that imaginative writing about “nature” has
intellectual movements, notably ecocriticism and
a long tradition among colonial settlers attempting to
ecofeminism.
101