America, but Bigger, by Mark Kawar

Near-Annexations, from Greenland to the Galapagos

In America, but Bigger: Near-Annexations, from Greenland to the Galapagos, author Mark Kawar recounts the surprising, often forgotten history of America’s unrealized empire. Intrigued by President Donald Trump’s 2019 bid to purchase Greenland, Kawar set out to ask a bigger question: Just how far could America’s borders have stretched?

The answer is astonishing. Beyond better-known attempts on Canada, Mexico, and Cuba, the United States has considered claims or proposals touching more than 40 countries, including Indonesia, Syria, Ecuador, Taiwan, and even Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. From 19th-century appeals by El Salvador and Polynesian chiefs, to a Cold War push for Greenland, the book traces two and a half centuries of schemes, negotiations, invasions, and near-misses.

Richly researched and often stranger than fiction, America, but Bigger reveals how the U.S.A. might have grown to cover much of the Earth — and how those ambitions continue to echo today.