#AcademicRunPlaylist - 1/3/25

After finishing my writing for the day I was able to get out for a bit and get a glimpse of the handiwork of some extremely busy beavers while listening to books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was "How to Hide an Empire" by Daniel Immerwahr. If you want an extremely engaging, well-researched introduction to the roots and ongoing dynamics of the United States' empire - territories that have inhabited a legal and social grey area from the perspective of the mainland US - this book is a one stop shop. Immerwahr lays out the surprising motivation for many of the US's territorial acquisitions (seriously, there's a whole chapter that centers on the importance of guano for agriculture), as well as the not so surprising (Teddy Roosevelt's desire to cosplay Daniel Boone). Beyond that, Immerwahr exposes the hypocrisy that has continually followed the United States from its inception - its claim of representative democracy and equality for all while excluding peoples and places from that ethos.

Mixed in are anecdotes and sections around these topics that are fascinating, even if they don't further the main aim of the book (did you know Herbert Hoover fished while wearing a suit and tie?). Also the section on the discovery of ammonia synthesis by Franz Haber and his subsequent scientific efforts/personal life literally moved me to tears. Highly recommend https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250251091/howtohideanempire/

Last was "Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas" by Jennifer Raff. Rather than spoon feed you a definitive account of the ever-evolving science on ancient human migration to the Americas, Jennifer Raff presents and evaluates the archaeological, genetic, linguistic, and indigenous evidence against the numerous theories that have been proposed. At the same time, Raff deeply engages with the problematic nature of many attempts to investigate the history of the first peoples of the Americas both at the start and throughout this book. Overall, this book gives you a much better understanding of the state of play in the field and a framework for evaluating the ongoing work in the space. Highly recommend https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9781538749692