American Imperialism can be viewed as the economic, military, and cultural influences of the United States on other countries. An author for “Boundless US History” wrote an article on American imperialism and says, “It is partly rooted in American exceptionalism, the idea that the United States is different from other countries due to its specific world mission to spread liberty and democracy.” Furthermore, the history that comes from American foreign relations is the story of power which can come in many ways. If we seek to understand people, we have to put ourselves as far as we can in that background and understand the power the country has on influencing other countries (Brewer 15).
It’s not a question that after the 9/11 attacks really changed the world in so many ways. The Reluctant Fundamentalists really emphasizes how the military power that the United States, especially financially, just doesn’t compare to the rest of the world. In the story, it also explains how our military force is very demanding, but also can be “soft” per say when it comes to wanting foreigners do adapt to the American ways. The Americans in the story tended to show crudeness towards the power that our country has and how that can impact foreigners when they come to America and the struggles that they face.
Specifically, in The Reluctant Fundamentalists, when Changez is offered a job through a company at Underwood Samson after proving he was one the top in his class and excels very well at his university, however after traveling to South America for a project he realizes that they were bribing him for using things like his free education. He was doing the work, but this was keeping American still having the most power and the most money and, in his words, “kidnapped” him in a way. This shows how the concept of American imperialism has big effects on foreigners as it did for Changez in The Reluctant Fundamentalists.
Work cited:
Zevin, R.( 1972). An Interpretation of American Imperialism. The Journal of Economic History, 32(1), 316-360. doi: 10.1017/S0022050700075537
Steinmetz, George. “The State of Emergency and the Revival of American Imperialism: Toward an Authoritarian Post-Fordism. “Public Culture, vol. 15 no.2, 2003, p. 323-345. Project MUSE
The points you made here are very interesting, and one part specifically that stuck out to me was when you noted how our military force can be “soft” when being demanding. I think that this was also evident in the way that the story was told. From an outside perspective reading this book, not under the analysis we have to do, but simply as a story, a reader might be caught up in the love story going on and the heartbreak that Changez deals with, it seems like the war going on is only secondary. By doing this, I think Hamid emphasizes the effect of war and violence on immigrants more by not making the story explicitly about Changez experiences with racism and biases in the US post 9/11.
I think you provided a lot of details about American Imperialism. I did not know much about how much money our military force had during that time before I read your post.
This is a good example of American Imperialism that many probably haven’t thought of before. Most of us are aware of early imperialism “justified for” by trade routes and the Imperialist mentality of the US toward Southeast Asia, but this is a new perspective that I hadn’t yet seen.
Thank you for your blog post on American Imperialism. This is a good example of how we often don’t recognize imperialism from our own country.