Name : Furkan

Surname: Çakar

WPIR/ ERASMUS

EMPIRE’S TWIN :

U.S. ANTI-IMPERIALISM FROM THE FOUNDING ERA TO THE AGE OF TERRORISM

Edited by Ian Tyrrell and Jay Sexton, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press,
2015, 1st Edition, Page : 299, ISBN : 978-0-8014-7919-9.

Empire’s Twin consists of the conference papers of eleven different individuals and is
edited by Ian Tyrrell and Jay Sexton. Ian Tyrrell is Emeritus Professor from the University of
New South Wales and his research areas are American history, environmental history and
historiography. Jay Sexton is Professor of History in University of Missouri and his research
areas are U.S. history and global history, he is specialized in political and economic history of
the nineteenth century.The book has twelve chapters that clearly indicates the evolution of anti-
imperialism from the Early American Republic era to Obama Presidency era. The anti-
imperialism studies in U.S. has its roots from the establishment of the Republic and got popular
in times of debatable imperial policies of U.S. which its establishment is based on anti-
imperialist and anti-colonialist thoughts. As Ian Tyrrell puts it , anti-imperialism studies
generally coincides with imperialism eras. Historiography of anti-imperialism studies in U.S.
is a clear approval for this statement. Starting from the establishment era, it is seen that anti-
imperialism studies increase in number and popularity in times of expansionist policies of U.S.
invasion of Philippines in the end of 19th century initiated the first anti-imperialist critics to U.S.
foreign policy. Another anti-imperialist study booming coincides with Vietnam War. Historian
such as Daniel Schirmer, E. Berkeley Tompkins, James A. Zimmermann examined the
Philippines expansion of U.S. and look for the roots of anti-imperialism in U.S. history in
1960s-70s. Also there are feminism studies that examines the relation of anti-imperialism and
feminismi. Anti-imperial studies mostly have evaluated the concept by focusing on particular
era in U.S. history and examining the anti-imperialism movements’ positions and critiquesii.
What makes Empire’s Twin distinctive is its handling with the evolution of the anti-imperialist
critique in U.S. history. Each chapters of the book focus on one particular era and explains what
anti-imperialism meant in that era, how people conceived imperialism and anti-imperialism,
indicates the paradoxes of the anti-imperialist thought in that particular era. Since the detailed

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features of each era can be seen, the readers can easily track evolution of the anti-imperialist
thought in US history. The book is not strictly chronological, rather it is based on the different
approaches of each writer. Also the book doesn’t provide comprehensive history of American
anti-imperialism, because it is not the purpose of this book. The purpose of the book instead, as
editors put it, is to highlight the diverse manifestations of anti-imperialism and to showcase the
historians can approach it. The method of the book is to first introduce the anti-imperialist ideas,
actors and actions, then to array this anti-imperialism story in a historical line that begins with
Revolutions and comes to the Obama era and finally to open up the transnational and global
dimensions of American anti-imperialism. The book consists of an introduction and four parts
that help us track historical phases of anti-imperialism. The first part is Conquest and Anti-
colonialism in the nineteenth century and examines the anti-imperialism in the Early American
Republic, the policies of U.S. towards native Americans and rising anti-imperial critic of them,
and, the civil era and its connection with Declaration of Independence in the context of
imperialism. The second part, Anti-imperialism and the New American Empire, captures an era
from the end of nineteenth century to the WW1. It starts with the Julian Go’s chapter that
examines the anti-imperialism in the U.S. after 1898, an era that covers the first expansionist
policies of U.S in the Pacific and anti-imperialist critique of these policies. Alan Knight’s
chapter reveals the connection between Mexican revolution and anti-imperialism in U.S. that
enables us to see the debates over threat and anti-imperialism. This part also focuses on the anti-
imperialism in U.S. towards Middle East and shows us the contradictory arguments of anti-
imperialists related to Middle East rearrangement. The third part, the extent and limits of anti-
imperialism, includes more diverse perspectives to anti-imperialism. This part consists of three
chapters that examine the global anti-imperialism in Wilson presidency, a feminist perspective
of anti-imperialism historiography and the debates between anti-imperialists and imperialists
on the issue of resource usage in the external lands. The last part, anti-imperialism in the age of
American power, covers an era from early Cold War to 2010s. This part contains the USSR
accusations of US as an imperial power and US propaganda of anti-imperialism as a response,
explain the ruling class anti-imperialism critics in Vietnam War era and array its features and
distinctive features in comparison to other anti-imperialism thoughts in American anti-
imperialism, lastly, in the last chapter they discuss contemporary anti-imperialism arguments
and try to whither American anti-imperialism in the post colonial world.

In the introduction part, Ian Tyrrell and Jay Sexton analyze the anti-imperial studies and
locates their own book in the American anti-imperialism literature. They also explain the
purpose and method of the book. Then they open up their threefold agenda. The first one is
varieties of anti-imperialism. In this subhead they explain what empire is in the eyes of
historians and gives cases from U.S. history that can be regarded as imperialistic policies. Then
they present the anti-imperialism in American history related to the imperialistic policies of
United States. Their connection of anti-imperialism and imperialistic policies of U.S. shows us
that anti-imperial movements and ideas were generally case specific and their critics were
limited to the case, didn’t have stable grounds. They show the anti-imperialists were not totally
against the concept of empire but only to some cases. They clarify this tendency in the actors
by presenting three features of the anti-imperialist actors. Moreover, they indicate the
limitedness of some the anti-imperialism critiques in scope to the only opposing to colonialism,

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not more general projection of imperial power. They show the varieties of anti-imperial concept
during the American history. They also remark that they will not limit the book just to the
historical actors such as the members of Anti-imperialist League but also give place to different
perspectives. In the second part of the introduction, Anti-imperialism across time, they explain
the historical evolution of the term. Thus, they explain the each chapters of the book that
corresponds to a different time in US history. In the last and third subheading, Transnational
Connection, the editors explain the transnational character of anti-imperialism and gives
examples from the Soviet Union ,Mexican Revolution, Middle East to show how anti-imperial
thoughts in U.S. was used against U.S. or different approaches to U.S. imperialism has been
embraced by foreigners, to indicate that the American anti-imperialism should also be regarded
in global context, not just in American anti-imperialism tradition. There after, they present the
chapters that includes the transnational approaches and give brief information about the
chapters.

First chapter, written by Peter S. Onuf, displays the roots of anti-imperialism in

American history. The aim of the chapter is to present the arguments on the concepts of empire,
how this is connected to the colonial justifications in U.S. and the anti-imperial critique as a
response to understanding of empire and colonialism by examining the different types of anti-
imperial critiques and their features. He initially begins with indicating how American
understanding of empire distinguished from British empire. He mentions about the Jeffersonian
Republicans and federalist ideas on empire and shows how Americans had trouble because of
the incompatibleness of the empire and nation. By moving on to the empire examination of that
era, he mentions about the American exceptionalism evolved in that time by setting forth
different themes of American exceptionalism in idealist and realist thinking. He explains, by
indicating quotations from the arguments of early republican era , how British imperialism led
American society to embrace a Anglophobic anti-imperialist national discourse. Then he details
the different languages of empire that were revealed in early American Republic era. In this
subheading, he shows how Anglo Americans were in doubt to embrace a new identity that is
fully independent from British. Thus shows, how empire concept in the minds of Americans
was different from the British empire. After that, the writer moves on by explaining the process
that led from empire to union. In this part, writer gives place to the different opinions on the
future of U.S., imperium and imperil and federalist, and indicates how this debate ended with a
union that is imperfect and how this imperfection showed itself in the process that led to Civil
War. He, lastly, arrays the different anti-imperialism critiques that emerged in that era. Overall,
this chapter shows us the roots of anti-imperialism in the foundation era and its evolution and
different types in early republican era. As a result, writer displays a proto anti-imperial critique
which is versatile and malleable and how these critiques found justifications to the U.S.
expansionist policies.

Chapter two, Native Americans against Empire and Colonial Rule, written by Jeffrey
Ostler, offers an overview of Indian opposition to U.S. empire building process in an era ranges
from American Revolution to1900s. Writer identifies a variety of oppositional arguments by
quoting the arguments of natives on that era. Thus we can easily see how native Americans see
the expansionist policies of U.S. and what they want as a response. Also he explains the anti

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colonial actors in that era. Even though the actors were consist of mostly colonized
communities , we can see the other movements that has an anti-imperialist critique to the U.S.
policies, like confederationists. Then he details these movements and array different anti-
imperialism actors among the natives, like Cherokees , Apees’s critics and most popular anti-
imperialist movement of the nineteenth century, Ghost Dance. The writer indicates the features
and argument of those critiques and explain the relation between the movements in U.S. and
other colonized countries, like South Africa and New Zealand, and displays common features
of these movements. By doing so, the book shows us the transnational aspect of anti-
imperialism in the nineteenth century. The writer also gives place to the imperialist
justifications of expansionist policies and shows how the religious missionary thoughts, the idea
of rescue natives from savagery and make them civilized, and, the empire for liberty arguments
became the motor of the expansionist policies. This chapter generally, mentions about the anti-
imperial movements in the U.S., among the natives mostly, against the expansionist policies
and U.S. justification for these policies.

Chapter three, “The Imperialism of the Declaration of Independence” in Civil War era
written by Jax Sexton, aims to explore the inconsistent aspects of the imperialism of the
Declaration of Independence in Civil War era. Also argues how traditional notions of anti-
imperialism shaped Americans’ understanding of conflict in civil war era. Initially, Sexton
focus on the term anti imperialism and sets forth the anti imperialist actors of the Civil War era
and displays the main features of these actors. Then he indicates how anti-imperialist ideas and
structure of Declaration of Independence era paved the way to the imperialist policies of Civil
War era. In this part, he gives place to the important anti-imperialist arguments of North and
South by quoting the actor’s speeches and writings. In this way, this chapter gives reader a wide
perspective of American anti-imperialism and distinguishing features of each other. Chapter
also mentions about the roots of anti-imperialism in U.S. and explain the Irish migrants’
contribution to the term in nineteenth century. Chapter in general, focuses on the connection
between the anti-imperialism values of Declaration of Independence era and imperialism
projects of Civil War and shows the inconsistency of the term by referring the versatile feature
of the anti-imperialism mentioned in the first chapter.

Chapter four, Anti-imperialism in the U.S. territories after 1898, written by Julian Go,
aims to unearth the anti-imperial practice of colonial overseas subjects of United States. She
unearths this practice by giving cases of each type of anti-imperialism, Philippines, Puerto Rico
and Guam Islands. She explains the language and form of anti-imperialist movements
resistance and goals. By doing so, chapter clearly shows the different features of movements
and how anti-imperialism had a wide range of meaning from independence to political
integration in the early twentieth century. Additionally, Go makes reference to some cross
imperial and inter-imperial studies to indicate the connection between the actors of anti-
imperialism and show how the colonial people in the empire crossed the empire in different
ways. Generally, chapter shows the anti-imperialist movements in the colonial possessions of
U.S. and different features of them and help us understand the different types of anti-
imperialism in that era and their connection with each other.

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 Chapter five, U.S. Anti-imperialism and Mexican Revolution, written by Alan Knight,
aims to analyse the U.S. anti-imperialism in the context of the Mexican Revolution in an era
that coincides with U.S. was in transition from a regional power to a global power. The chapter
begins with the history of U.S.- Mexican relations during the 1910 to 1940 and shows us what
anti-imperialism meant that day and how people conceived it in America and evaluates the role
of anti-imperialism in the relation between Mexico and United States. Writer also mentions
about Mexican Revolution by setting forth different anti-imperialist movements and explain
how they contributed to the revolution. Lastly, he concludes by arraying the circumstances that
contribute to the anti-imperialist policy of U.S. towards the revolution.

Chapter six, Anti-imperialism, Missionary Work, and The King- Crane Commission, written
by Ussama Makdisi, deals with early U.S. missionary works in Middle East, in Ottoman Empire
and explain the prehistory of American imperialism in Middle East. It then examines the reports
of evangelical and racial foundations and helps us to see the missionaries’s opinion towards the
Middle East and Ottoman Empire. With this way, writer shows us the contribution of these
missionary movements to create an anti-imperial image for U.S. in the Middle East, especially
among Arabs. The chapter handles anti- imperialism in Middle East in the context of King-
Crane commission of 1919. The report of this commission shows us contradictory aspects of
anti-imperial movements in Middle East. Writer clarify this contradictory by examining the
arguments of anti-imperialists on Palestine issue and Armenian issue. This chapter generally is
about how the missionary movements in Middle East was welcomed by sympathy and created
a benevolent anti-imperial image for Americans.

Chapter seven, Global Anti-imperialism in the Age of Wilson, written by Erez Manela,
explains how anti-imperialism as a critique and movement became a principle for restructuring
global order. He then arrays three arguments that helped this transition of anti-imperialism.
There after, he shows the failure of the restructuring in a few years later. Generally, this chapter
introduces the transition of anti-imperialism to a global structuring principle and shows that this
transition is not only due to Wilson or U.S. but also to the nationalist sentiments in the elites of
colonies and other great powers that supports anti-imperialism.

In chapter eight, Feminist Historiography, Anti-imperialism, and the Decolonial, Patricia A.

Schechter approaches to the anti-imperialism historiography from a different perspective. She
explores how anti-imperialism has figured in feminist scholarship in U.S. and reveal the relation
between deconial women politics and anti colonialism. Then she shows the thinness of anti-
imperial thinking among activist women and explain the reasons of this situation. Lastly, this
chapter reveals the connection between women and colonized people in women’s anti-imperial
critics.

Chapter nine, Resource Use, Conservation, ad. The Environmental Limits of Anti-imperialism,
C. 1890-1930, written by Ian Tyrrell, focuses on U.S. formal and informal imperialism that led
to the birth of modern anti-imperialist ideas. He begins with the deficiency in the
historiography of anti-imperialism in evaluating the concept in the context of environment. He
then explains why most part of the historiography didn’t question U.S. imperialism in the
context of environmental crisis. He then compares the anti-imperialism ideas with other ideas

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such as Marxism, and, indicates why U.S. anti-imperialism failed to raise question to issue on
the contrary of other ideas. Lastly, he compares environment studies in U.S. with Europe and
conclude that Europe was more interested in environment context than United States. This
chapter, overall, focuses on the historiography of anti-imperialism in the context of
environmental studies.

Chapter ten, Promoting America. Anti-imperialism in the Early Cold War, written by Laura A.
Belmonte, explores the method and reasons of U.S. officials to use anti-imperialism propaganda
as a response to communist accusations on democratic capitalism. Then writer explains the
propaganda race between the two superpower and mutual accusations of both sides to each
other as imperialist. Later than, she explains the reasons of U.S. officials to embrace anti-
imperialistic propaganda and then, she explains the method of this propaganda by introducing
the U.S. Information Service and its propaganda tactics. After that, she indicates the failure of
USIS propaganda tactics by referencing to the surveys of that day. Then she explains the reasons
why U.S. failed and why couldn’t change the image of imperialist. Generally, this chapter
focuses on U.S. anti-imperial propaganda during the Cold War and explains the reason and
consequences of the propaganda.

Chapter eleven, Ruling Class Anti-imperialism in the Era of Vietnam War, written by Robert
Buzzanco, focus on the ruling class critique to U.S. Vietnam policy and how it created a new
anti-imperialism. Buzzanco begins with mentioning the general situation in U.S. against the
Vietnam War. Then, he explains how ruling class criticized the Vietnam Policy of the
government and indicates their understanding of anti-imperialism by arraying the reasons of
their opposition. After that, he examines the Wall Street critique of Vietnam War in detail and
shows the connection of anti-imperialism and economy. In addition to pressures from insides,
he mentions about the effects of war in Europe and how this created an external pressure to
government. Lastly, he explains the transition of U.S. from the old empire to new one by
referring the global and interconnected feature of this new world. Generally, this chapter
examines the ruling class anti-imperialism, it’s features and distinctiveness from the other anti-
imperial movements, and, how this anti-imperialism shaped the policy of U.S. in Vietnam War
era.

The last chapter, Whither American Anti-imperialism in a Postcolonial World?, written by the
editors, examines the different manifestations of anti-imperialism in an era in which
imperialism took new and less visible forms. Then they mention about the decolonization era
and determine the position of U.S. in that era in the imperialist and anti-imperialist context and
explain its reasons. Later than, they examine the anti-imperialism studies and movements in the
post Vietnam War era. They move on to examine the anti-imperialism in the post Cold War era
and mention about the dialectic end of anti-imperialism related to end of history theory of
Francis Fukuyama. Also they show the transition of structure from empire to free market and
relatedly emergence new global anti-imperialism. Lastly, they introduce the new debates on
imperialism of U.S. policies starting in Bush presidency and new anti-imperialist movements
as a response to these policies. They also mention about new debates on what constitutes
imperialism in the technology era. Generally, this chapter focuses on new forms imperialism

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and anti-imperialism in the modern and post modern era and evaluate the anti-imperialism in
era of global integration and U.S. policies.

The book overall, presents the evolution of American imperialism and anti-imperialism in a
clear way. The cases of each chapters creates a linear historical line that displays the evolution
of the term clearly. This linear line also shows the the inconsistency of anti-imperial movements
and ideas. Chapter one and three, together, explains this inconsistency of anti-imperialism of
founding fathers and how anti-imperialism led to imperial projects. Another distinctive feature
of this book is that it includes a comprehensive historiography that shows the wide range of
anti-imperial movements from different parts of the society and in different times.Chapter two,
four and nine indicates how anti-imperialism movements ranges from opposition, marginal
groups, academy to ruling class and colonized people. This book also handles not only well-
known approaches but also lesser-known approaches. By doing so, the book introduces the
different approaches that widens the perspective on American anti-imperialism. Schechter’s
chapter presents the lesser-known feminist approaches in the American anti-imperialism
historiography and contribute to the field with this detailed historiography work.The book
attaches importance to different perspective that were lack in the American anti-imperialism
historiography. Tyrrell’s chapter on environmental limits of anti-imperialism shows the
deficiency of studies in approaching the issues in an environmental context. This chapter
contributes to the understanding of the movements with its deficiencies and helps to build a full
perspective of American anti-imperialism. Besides indicating the evolution, this book is quite
successful in showing the transnational bounds of the anti-imperialist movements with the
increasing integration of globe. These transnational boundaries from pacific to Middle East,
from colonized revolutions groups to ruling class elites can be seen in the chapters of Buzzanco,
Makdisi and Go. Nevertheless, book sometimes choked with quotations that covers the most of
the work because they present large historiography of topics. While large historiography work
reference makes this book comprehensive, it also hardens to follow the main points of the
authors. Chapter five is an example of this problem with its numerous quotations. Another
drawback of this book, is to ignore the contributions and supports of American anti-imperialism
to anti-colonial movements in Asia during the World Wars era. Even-though there are books
that explains the relations of these anti-imperialism movements from American perspectiveiii,
it would be a good contribution to address the transnational boundaries of anti-imperialist
movements in the twentieth century if this topic was included to the topic. Ignoring Asian-
American interaction leaves a gap in the comprehensive structure of the book.

To conclude, Empire’s Twin is a comprehensive book on understanding the evolution of the

anti-imperialism, inconsistency of the concept, distinctive features of different movements by
explaining each era with detailed chapters. The book has a Hegelian understanding of anti-
imperialism and structures the chapter according to this. The reason of including the topics that
corresponds to imperial policies of U.S. derives from this Hegelian understanding as editors put
it ; “In logical terms, without imperialism there would be no anti-imperialism”. Thus they
follows the tracks of anti-imperialism as a response to imperialism discourse. With its
comprehensive different approaches and references, this book aims to show this relation and
mutual evolution of the terms. Lastly, based on this connection and wide perception of anti-

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imperialism, the book interprets the contemporary anti-imperialist discourse and gives an
opinion on the future of the anti-imperialism in the globalizing and technologically advancing
world.

i Erin Leigh Murphy, “Women’s Anti-imperialism, ‘The White Man’s Burden,’ and the Philippine-American
War: Theorizing Masculinist Ambivalence in Protest,” Gender&Society 23(2009), 240
ii M. Patrick Cullinane, Liberty and American Anti-imperialism, 1898-1909, New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012
iii Raucher, Alan. “American Anti-Imperialists and the Pro-India Movement, 1900-1932.” Pacific Historical

Review, vol. 43, no. 1, 1974, pp. 83–110.