How the US became America

Summary

Throughline (NPR) – "How the US Became America"

Release Date: April 14, 2026
Hosts: Rund Abdelfatah, Ramtin Arablouei
Guest: Daniel Immerwahr (Professor of History, Northwestern; Author, How to Hide an Empire)

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Overview

This episode of Throughline delves into the transformation of the United States from a revolutionary democracy into a global imperial power around the turn of the 20th century. Specifically, it investigates how and why, following the Spanish-American War, the country's identity shifted—both geopolitically and symbolically—prompting a rebranding from "the United States" to "America." The episode explores the contradictions between the nation's foundational ideals and its actions overseas, the explosive consequences of imperial expansion, as well as the cultural and linguistic shifts this era produced.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. From Revolutionary Underdog to Imperial Power

Timestamps: 00:31–04:01

• Rund Abdelfatah frames the United States’ early global reputation as a beacon of democracy and inspiration for other nations' quests for independence.
• In 1898, the U.S. goes to war with Spain to support Cuban and Puerto Rican independence, which leads not only to military involvement in the Caribbean but also, crucially, to the Philippines.

2. The Philippine-American War and Its Contradictions

Timestamps: 04:01–07:26

• After purchasing the Philippines from Spain for $20 million, the U.S. becomes embroiled in a brutal colonial war against Filipino independence fighters.
• Daniel Immerwahr highlights the scandalous violence:
  • "The United States is burning villages. US forces are concentrating people in camps ... It's torturing people with a kind of water based torture that bears a discomfiting resemblance to waterboarding today." (05:02)
  • These actions shock both domestic and international audiences, contradicting the values supposedly animating the U.S. since 1776.
• Notable quote from Teddy Roosevelt, reflecting imperial attitudes:
  • "Not one competent witness who has actually known the facts believes the Filipinos capable of self government at present ... You might as well try to transplant a full grown oak into alien soil." (06:04)
• Rund summarizes: "In other words, democracy works in the US, not in the Philippines." (06:37)

3. Expansion and American Identity Crisis

Timestamps: 07:07–13:14

• U.S. annexes Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico—the U.S. flag "is flying in all sorts of places." (07:07)
• This expansion triggers an identity crisis: The term "United States" no longer fits a country with overseas colonies.
• Daniel Immerwahr discovers a pivotal shift in how the country refers to itself:
  • "Before 1898 ... people would always say, no, no, no, no. America is not the name of our country. It is the United States. ... Then the war with Spain happened ... now ... we call it America." (07:57–09:14)
• Immerwahr’s research shows even anthems like "The Star-Spangled Banner" don't mention "America" until after 1898; songs like "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America" emerge only after this shift.

4. The Sudden Rebranding: From "The United States" to "America"

Timestamps: 13:14–16:26

• As the U.S. acquires colonies like the Philippines, the old name stops working:
  • "It's not a union because this was certainly not consensual. It is not a collection of states ... And it also isn't entirely restricted to the Americas either." (12:16)
• This necessity coincides with the rise of imperialist leaders like Teddy Roosevelt, who actively promote a new national identity:
  • "His first message to Congress, he refers to it as America ... more than every past president combined had." (15:16)
  • For Roosevelt and others, "the United States" doesn't reflect the new realities of empire.
  • "They're actually aware that the political character of the United States is changing and that it might make sense to have a different kind of way to refer to it that doesn't involve describing it as a union of states, because they're forthrightly imagining their country to be an empire." (16:12)

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Standout Quotes & Moments

• Daniel Immerwahr on the brutality and irony of the Philippine-American War:
  "It's really hard to understand how that's compatible with the animating virtues of the United States." (05:45)

• Teddy Roosevelt's dismissive attitude towards Filipino self-rule:
  "The institutions of a free republic cannot at a leap be transplanted into wholly alien soil ... You might as well try to transplant a full grown oak into alien soil." (06:04)

• Daniel Immerwahr on language change:
  "I found a two-week period where [Roosevelt] uses the word America to refer to the country ... more than every past president combined had." (15:16)

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Timeline of Key Segments

• 00:31–01:38: Rund introduces the shift from revolution to empire (Spanish-American War).
• 04:01–06:44: The U.S. war in the Philippines, atrocities, and ideological contradictions.
• 07:07–13:14: Expansion brings identity crisis; emergence of "America" as national shorthand.
• 15:01–16:26: Teddy Roosevelt’s role in rebranding the nation and the significance of that language shift.

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Tone and Style

• Throughline’s hallmark style: deeply narrative, sound-rich, introspective, and often wry.
• Daniel Immerwahr is insightful and accessible, breaking down complex history with vivid examples and approachable language.
• Rund frames each discussion with probing questions about national identity, always circling back to fundamental American contradictions.

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Next Episode Preview

The hosts tease the next episode, which will examine the construction of the first border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, expanding on how territorial and conceptual borders have shaped the meaning of "America."

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For further listening:
Rund invites listeners to Throughline's earlier full-length episode, "Becoming America," for a deeper dive into this topic.

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Summary by: Throughline Podcast Summarizer
Intended for: Listeners seeking a clear, comprehensive understanding of the U.S.’s transformation from a revolutionary republic to an empire, and how language reflects that legacy.

Transcript

[Katie Milkman]

This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast Choiceology. Hosted by Katie Milkman, an award winning behavioral scientist and author of the best selling book how to Change. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Hear true stories from Nobel laureates, historians, authors, athletes and more about why people do the things they do. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] podcast or wherever you listen.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is America in Pursuit, a limited run series from Throughline and npr. I'm Rund Abdelfatah. Each week we bring you stories about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the US that began 250 years ago when the country's founders penned its breakup letter with the King of England and launched a revolution founded on the principles of democracy. For years after that, the US Was seen as a shining beacon of what democracy could look like, an inspiration to other colonized countries looking to shake off their shackles. And then in 1898, the US made the crucial decision to go to war with Spain in support of Cuban and Puerto Rican rebels fighting for independence from Spain. But that wasn't the only place the US Military got involved. The next year, the US Got involved in another rebellion in another Spanish territory, this time in a nation on the other side of the world, the Philippines.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

Suddenly, very confusingly, the United States takes the Philippines from Spain.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The US Ended the war by purchasing the Philippines from Spain for $20 million and suddenly the US was no longer this democratic underdog, but an imperial player in its own right. Today on the show, how the US Became an empire, changed its name from the United States to America, and why that matters. That story right after a quick.

[Katie Milkman]

This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast Choiceology, hosted by Katie Milkman, an award winning behavioral scientist and author of the best selling book how to Change. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Hear true stories from Nobel laureates, historians, authors, athletes and more about why people do the things they do. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] podcast or wherever you listen.

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[Narrator/Quote Reader]

It should be the earnest wish and paramount aim of the military administration to win the confidence, respect and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines. President William McKinley.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

In February 1899, Filipinos began a new fight for independence, this time against the United States.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

You know, you can imagine the dashed hopes of people who'd been fighting for independence. Suddenly you have to realize the they have to do it again. And they do do it again.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is Daniel Immerwar.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

I wrote a book called how to Hide an A History of the Greater United States.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

He's a history professor at Northwestern University.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

And it becomes a war that just consumes so many lives.

[Narrator/Quote Reader]

I hope that when they are conquered they will be made to see for many years the iron hand of military rule, the only kind for which they are suited.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

The United States is burning villages. US forces are concentrating people in camps or garrison towns where they're cut off from food supplies. It's torturing people with a kind of water based torture that bears a discomfiting resemblance to waterboarding today. Back then it was called the water cure where dirty water was put into insurgents mouths or suspected insurgents mouths until they just sort of couldn't take it anymore. And it becomes a scandalous war. What people quickly see back in the US mainland and all over the world are accounts and photographs of, you know, trenches full of Filipino corpses and Filipino nationalists who are seeking independence getting tortured and killed. And that's really hard to understand how that's compatible with the animating virtues of the United States. The core values of the country. At least the core values that have been articulated in 1776.

[Narrator/Quote Reader]

Teddy Roosevel of course would later become president said this about Filipinos.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

So far as I'm aware, not one competent witness who has actually known the facts believes the Filipinos capable of self government at present or believes that such an effort would result in anything but a horrible confusion of tyranny and anarchy. The institutions of a free republic cannot at a leap be transplanted into wholly alien soil among a people who, who have not the slightest conception of liberty and self government. As we use those words, you might as well try to transplant a full grown oak into alien soil.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

In other words, democracy works in the us, not in the Philippines.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

That war drags on. It just does not end. And it drags on basically until 1913. So from 1899 to 1913, we think that that war killed some three quarters of a million people.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The US was taking control of nations across the world. It annexed Guam and Hawaii. And this brought up an identity crisis.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

So, you know, for all the talk about the United States of extending liberty, this stuff makes headlines and it impinges on the consciousness of mainlanders such that it becomes harder to think of the United States as just a contiguous collection of states because it's quite obvious that the US flag is flying in all sorts of places.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The sudden move towards imperial expansion in the late 19th century and the bloody, scandalous conflict in the Philippines caused the United States to redefine its identity, its place in the world, and even to reconsider its own name.

[Narrator/Quote Reader]

When Daniel Immevar was writing how to Hide an Empire, he noticed something. At some point in the late 19th century, around the time of the Filipino American War, the name for the United States sort of changed.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

I did not go into this having any thought that the name of the country had changed at all. I mean, I, you know, I got a doctoral degree in US History, and at no point had I read anything about that. I'd always been interested in the fact that the common shorthand, at least that I was familiar with for the United States was America. And I was sort of aware that that was something that would piss people from other parts of the Americas off reliably. But I just assumed that was there from the get go. So I had this kind of amazing moment where I was in the Library of Congress, which one of the great things about the Library of Congress is not just all the manuscript and archival collections they have. It's also that it is a repository library, which means that pretty much every book published is, is there. So I had this great experience where I was just plowing through books from around the time when the United States takes a number of overseas territories. And I found one that was written by a British writer. He said, you know, it's really funny because before 1898, we would always refer to the United States as America. And we were constantly getting corrected. Like we were there. And people would always say, no, no, no, no, no. America is not the name of our country. It is the United States. Don't call it America. That's wrong. Don't get. And then the author said, and then the war with Spain happened in 1898, and now it's like exactly the opposite. Now whenever we refer to the country as the United States, we get corrected the other way. And they say, no, no, no, we call it America. That's how we've always called it. That's how we think of the country. And I read that and I thought, that can't possibly be true. And then I looked and I thought, oh my God, that's right. Wow. Another way that you can see it, and this kind of stunned me is I looked at all of the anthems I could find about the United States. And so it would be like, you know, these are familiar to us today. Yankee Doodle, Hail to the Chief, My country, Tis of the battle cry of freedom. Same deal, other side. Battle Hymn of the Republic, Stars in Stripe Forever and the Star Spangled Banner. These are all 19th century or 18th century songs that people sang about the United States. Not a single one of them mentions the word America in its lyrics. The national anthem, Star Spangled Banner does not refer to America at any point. Like, you might not know which country is being referred to because the name of the country, at least the name that I was familiar with, is nowhere in the lyrics to this. America the Beautiful and God Bless America. Those are all anthems that come after 1898.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

But by the end of the 19th century, when the US is emerging as this world power, something changes, right?

[Daniel Immerwahr]

Yeah. So it's interesting, by this time, there's still a kind of evasion about referring to the United States of America in shorthand as just America. And people tend to go for the Republic, the Union, the United States. Sometimes if you're writing it, it might just be the U period. States, things change at the end of the 19th century, and it's not the way you might think it would be. It's not a just sort of gradual shift. As far as I can tell, there's actually a pretty abrupt shift.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

It all started to change with the US decision to wage war in Cuba and the Philippines and the country's eventual takeover of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

And then at the same time, in a of sort burst of imperial enthusiasm, it also takes the non Spanish lands of Hawaii and American Samoa. So very quickly, the United States has a really serious and populous overseas empire. And it just becomes clear to everyone who's paying attention that the borders of the United States have just changed dramatically in a very short amount of time, and that that might have some serious implications for the identity of the United States. Once the Philippines is part of the United States, once Puerto Rico is part of the country, then people start to have very different thoughts, and they start to think, is this really a union of states? Because suddenly the name no longer works in any way. It's not a union because this was certainly not consensual. It is not a collection of states, because places like the Philippines are quite clearly colonies, and it's not at all clear that they're going to be states. And it also isn't entirely restricted to the Americas either.

[Narrator/Quote Reader]

The contradictions of these seemingly colonial wars caused many US Citizens to question what the country even stood for. But the reality is the wars of expansion had been building for a century and had many supporters.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

Some people are quite proud of that. People like Teddy Roosevelt, an ardent imperialist, are quite eager to revise how they see the United States. If you think about what it is, if you're a young man in the 1890s, you know, let's say you're in your 30s, you were just born or very young while the Civil War was happening. The Civil War was your dad's generation. And so by the 1890s, the opportunities to prove oneself on the battlefield like your dad did, those seem to be vanishing. And there's, you know, part of what seems to be in the air is men like Teddy Roosevelt who want to be hard and who have a real commitment and investment in a certain kind of violent masculinity and are eager for opportunities for that. So there's a lot of jingoism or war fever that has to do with people who want to have an opportunity for the United States to, you know, have more warfare. You know, at the same time as that's all happening, there's this theory in the air that grows quite popular that the democracy in the United States has been sustained by the presence of a frontier. And in 1890, the Census Bureau says, actually, the United States technically doesn't really have any more settlement frontier. Its borders aren't growing. And so whatever historical experience has characterized the United States to this day is over. And we're imagining a different kind of the United States. There's a solution. Make more frontier, seize more territory.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And that's what brings us to how all of a sudden, presidents go from

[Daniel Immerwahr]

calling the country the United States, the Republic, or the Union or something like

[Rund Abdelfatah]

that to Teddy Roosevelt taking office and rebranding the country America.

[Daniel Immerwahr]

You know, his first message to Congress, he refers to it as America and he's gone. Like I found a two week period where he uses the word America to refer to the country just in that two week period, more than every past president combined had. And once Roosevelt takes office and kind of rebrands the country in this way, he's not the only one doing it. Then you just see, you know, that's it. You know, now it's entirely normal to refer to the United States as America. And I think part of the thought here, and we have contemporary evidence that this is the case, is that people like Roosevelt don't find as much sense and comfort in the United States as their predecessors did, because they're actually aware that the political character of the United States is changing and that it might make sense to have a different kind of way to refer to it that doesn't involve describing it as a union of states because they're forthrightly imagining their country to be an empire.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

That's it for this week's episode of America in Pursuit. And yes, duly noted. This whole series refers to the US As America. If you want to hear the whole story about how the US became America, listen to our full length episode called Becoming America. It's actually one of the first episodes we ever made on Throughline. And make sure to join us next week when we keep exploring the geography of what constitutes the United States, not just through expansion, but by creating and closing borders. Customs officers start saying, you know, this is impossible for us to police this space. If people can just walk through John

[Daniel Immerwahr]

Brickwood's saloon and we can't see if

[Rund Abdelfatah]

they're entering the U.S. or Mexico. The story of the first border wall along the U.S. and Mexico border. Don't miss it. This episode was produced by Kiana Mogadam and edited by Christina Kim with help from the Throughline production team. Music as always by Ramtin and his band Drop Electric. Special thanks to Julie Kane, Irene Noguchi, Beth Donovan, Casey Miner and Lindsey McKenna. We're your hosts, Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei.

[Narrator/Quote Reader]

Thank you for listening.

[Katie Milkman]

This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast Choiceology. Hosted by Katie Milkman, an award winning behavioral scientist and author of the best selling book how to Change. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Hear true stories from Nobel laureates, historians, authors, athletes and more about why people do the things they do. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] podcast or wherever you listen.

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