How Latin America Built L.A.

Excavating the Century of Economic Domination Beneath the 2022 Summit of the Americas

Los Angeles is just the second U.S. city to host the Summit of the Americas, which brings together political leaders, civil society organizations, and business executives from North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean to promote inter-hemispheric cooperation, economic growth, and regional security.

The very first summit in 1994 was held in Miami, often considered the hub of Latin America in the U.S. But this time around the Biden administration gave Los Angeles the nod, pointing to its “deep and robust ties throughout our hemisphere.”

This relationship is over a century in …

by Jessica Kim | June 6, 2022

How Modern India Was Built on the Legacy of British Institutions

Indians Have Drawn From a Dark Colonial Past to Create a More Liberal and Open Society

by Sir David Gilmour | January 30, 2019

In the years after India’s independence in 1947, Britons tended to congratulate themselves on their legacy to the subcontinent.

Although the empire’s successor states, India and Pakistan, had been born amid …

The Cold War Government-Funded Publishing House that Took American Literature to the World

Though Driven by a Desire to Assert U.S. Values, Franklin Publications Was Viewed as Pushing Imperialist Propaganda

by Amanda Laugesen | July 13, 2018

In 1952, a group representing the most important trade, university, and educational publishers in the United States met in New York City to incorporate Franklin Publications.

Some of the men (and …

Will Donald Trump Be America’s First ‘Post-Imperial’ President?

As the U.S. Declines and China Rises, Its Chief Executive Will Have to Accept a Loss of Privilege and Status

By Victor Bulmer-Thomas | May 15, 2018

In a forthcoming book, I argue that the United States has been an empire ever since its birth as an independent country, that the empire ceased to be based on …

Brexit Succeeded by Playing to Britons’ Imperial Nostalgia

Searching to Become “Great” Again, British Voters Ignored Their Empire’s More Recent History

By Philippa Levine | June 28, 2016

Shortly after the result of Britain’s referendum on the European Union was declared last week, an academic colleague remarked to me, “the final curse of the empire is that the …

California’s Last Stand Against San Francisco Imperialism

Only San Jose Can Stop the City by the Bay from Gaining Too Much Power and Money

By Joe Mathews | May 5, 2016

Poor San Jose—so far from God, so close to San Francisco.

San Jose is the 10th largest city in the United States, the third most populous in the state of California—and …

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