Imperial Material

"Alvita Akiboh's book reveals how US national identity has been created, challenged, and transformed through embodiments of empire found in its territories, whether stamps, flags, or currency. These objects are economic and symbolic, but they also encode the relationships between territories-including the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico, and Palau-and the empire with which they are entangled. Akiboh shows how such items became objects of local power, transmogrifying their original intent. For even if imperial territories were not always front and center for federal lawmakers and administrators, the people living there remained continuously aware of the imperial United States, whose presence announced itself on every bit of currency, every stamp, and the local flag"--