About the Book

In his first term, President Donald Trump raised an idea so far outside the Washington mainstream that it shocked his inner circle: The U.S. should buy Greenland. It would have been America’s first territorial expansion in the 21st century, reshaping borders that had seemed permanent. 

The effort was unsuccessful, but it wasn’t unprecedented. What other parts of the world could have become part of America? Far more than most people realize. 

Throughout its history, the nation has explored acquiring territory around the world—through war, diplomacy, purchase, and even private expeditions acting on their own initiative. Some places sought annexation. Others bitterly resisted it. Some were taken by America and then abandoned. Together, these near-annexations reveal how the nation’s borders were far less settled than they appear today.

 
From the Revolutionary War invasion of Canada to the relinquishment of the Panama Canal Zone and island claims across the Pacific in the late 20th century, America has spent over 200 years coming close to expanding its territory.  

Some of these efforts are well known: attempts to take Canada, Cuba, or more of Mexico. Others are obscure. Regions like Yucatán and Honduras explored joining the United States. American adventurers tried to bring parts of Latin America into the Union. U.S. officials considered acquiring places as distant as Armenia, the Galápagos Islands, and Taiwan. In total, these near-annexations touched at least 40 modern countries. 

America, but Bigger traces all of these episodes, from serious bids to buy Greenland and Cuba to stranger and lesser-known schemes across the globe. They are stories of ambition, opportunism, idealism, and failure. And they show how close the United States came to being much larger than it is today.