Imperial Material

An ambitious history of flags, stamps, and currency-and the role they played in US imperialism.

In Imperial Material, Alvita Akiboh reveals how US national identity has been created, challenged, and transformed through embodiments of empire found in its territories, from the US dollar bill to the fifty-star flag. These symbolic objects encode the relationships between territories-including the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam-and the empire with which they have been 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.