The Airplane and the Imperial City: A Brief History of Seattle and American Empire

Abstract

This essay explores airplane manufacturing in twentieth-century Seattle to trace the correspondence between major developmental moments in the city’s history and broader transitional moments in American empire. In doing so, it argues that Seattle is best understood as an imperial city characterized by four ongoing features: extensive connections beyond the city’s nominal borders; sustained alliance between private commercial interests and the state that made such connections possible; a built environment of technological infrastructure made to serve that alliance; and labor forces, segmented by race, subject to the evolving needs of empire.