{TEXTBOOK} in Our Image: Americas Empire in the Philippines

IN OUR IMAGE: AMERICAS EMPIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Stanley Karnow | 26 pages | 01 Aug 2003 | Random House USA Inc | 9780345328168 | English | New York, United States In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines - Wikipedia The people began to rise up and fight back. He and his family ran the country as their own personal piggy bank for twenty years while the US was preoccupied in Vietnam. The US looked the other way for the sake of the military bases, vital to the war in Indochina. Marcos was eventually overthrown by an impromptu election he himself called for. His successor, however, could do little but pick up the pieces of the country Marcos had driven into crippling debt. Instead of dismantling the system that had led to such unrest, she merely reestablished the system that had kept landowners in power and the peasants in the mud, looking out for those of her own social class. The United States hoped to change the Philippines into a bastion of Western civilization in the East, but failing to force change on the established gentry, who controlled land, industry, politics, and all other aspects of the nation, ensured nothing would ever improve for anyone but the rich minority. All promises of land reforms to improve the condition of the poor never happened due to the landowners fighting every attempt at meaningful change. Cronyism still runs the country, and it remains a practically feudal society to this day. The US may look down on their corrupt democracy, but cronyism and nepotism run the world. It just happens to be less of a secret in the Philippines. It is not a simple era. The motivations for taking control of the Philippines were not simple. The outcome was also not simple. Meaningful change could never happen so long as the rich resisted it, and so long as the US caved in to the demands of the rich. View 2 comments. Dec 18, Tara rated it really liked it. This was a really readable, interesting account of the history of the Philippines, from Spanish colonization up to Cory Aquino's presidency. Definitely recommend it to anyone traveling to the country. It gave me a better understanding of Filipino society and culture while I was there. The author has spent decades covering the country as a journalist, and includes really interesting insight and anecdotes from his time there. Good book. Despite Americans' continual debates about the nature of their modern "empire," or about their supposedly imperialistic foreign policy, there is one extremely relevant case of American empire that almost no one discusses, the Philippines. And yet, as Stanley Karnow shows in this engaging history, the Philippines represents the one place where Americans engaged in a classic colonial adventure, where we tried to govern tens of millions of foreign people for decades from to Yet America Despite Americans' continual debates about the nature of their modern "empire," or about their supposedly imperialistic foreign policy, there is one extremely relevant case of American empire that almost no one discusses, the Philippines. Yet America seems to have forgotten the experiment. The Philippine conquest started by chance. In a bid to save the Cubans from Spanish perfidy, America attacked the Spanish empire across the globe. Admiral Dewey smashed the Spanish fleet off the Philippines, and U. After winning the battle, however, it turned out the Americans were in possession of a massive piece of that Spanish empire. While we had promised to give Cubans their freedom, we had said nothing about this distant archipelago, which President WIlliam McKinley, when he appointed his first ambassador there, couldn't find on a map. McKinley, however, claimed that God had told him in a dream to take possession of the islands, and the treaty confirming this dream only passed the Senate by the tie-breaking vote of the Vice President. Although the United States brutally put down an insurgency led by the wealthy native leader Emilio Aguinaldo, overall, the U. From the beginning, the U. S allowed the Philippines to form political parties advocating independence, to vote in local and parliamentary elections, and to print their own newspapers. Unlike European countries who refused to teach most natives the colonizers' language, America began an unprecedented effort to cover the island with English language primary schools. Fond memories of U. Twice, when the U. Congress willingly voted for Philippine independence admittedly at the instigation of US sugar and tobacco barons who feared Philippine competition in and , Philippine legislators, including the nominal hero of independence Manuel Quezon, secretly asked that the U. Only after General Douglas MacArthur whose father Arthur MacArthur had actually led the struggle against Philippine insurgents liberated the islands from a brutal Japanese dictatorship earning him near godlike status there did the U. So despite America's obvious mistakes, the nation has much to be proud of in its time in the Philippines. It brought genuine advancement, and gave the nation up willingly to a democratic alternative. This explains why today Filipinos still admire the U. The book lags when it deals with the long pre-American Spanish empire, and when it goes into the innumerable twists and turns of Philippine politics post, but on the whole it offers a vivid reminder of one of the U. Feb 15, David rated it really liked it Shelves: read-history. I blogged about this excellent book here. I learned that my eighth-grade English teacher was right: if you really want to retain what you've read, try writing about it after you read it. When this book was published, some readers probably went directly to the final chapters — a detailed narrative of recently-passed events before, during, and after the downfall of the Ferdinand Marcos regime — because they seemed the most important part of the book. Now, twenty years later, this narrative has lost I blogged about this excellent book here. At the same time, the first half of the book, formerly prologue, has now taken on a possible new significance as a distant mirror of the current troubles of the USA's occupying armies in the Middle East. I think this parallel also struck American author and filmmaker John Sayles , which is why he recently produced both a book and a movie about this darkly ambiguous episode in America's history. You can tell in this book that Karnow has Vietnam on the brain. The consistent references might be a little mystifying to someone who wasn't aware of the extent that the Vietnam War transfixed public attention and became the defining event in the lives of many who were there. Still, that's a small quibble in a book as good as this one. Sep 11, Nick Klagge rated it really liked it Shelves: filipino. Very good, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Philippines--particularly Americans who, like me, haven't had much exposure to the history of the country. Although this book does focus on the relationship between the Philippines and America, it's a pretty comprehensive history of the country, from the arrival of Magellan through Cory Aquino. Karnow is a good storyteller and, I think, a fairly objective historian. I was kind of hoping to find in this book some Filipino heroe Very good, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Philippines--particularly Americans who, like me, haven't had much exposure to the history of the country. I was kind of hoping to find in this book some Filipino heroes to look up to, and while there are certainly some good people, no one is put on a pedestal, even Karnow's personal friend Ninoy Aquino. Sep 02, Dream rated it did not like it Shelves: horrid. Revisionist history that makes widely reactionary conclusions without much backing, such as the assertion that Filipinos "submitted voluntarily to their own exploitation" and the imperialist beliefs that the Philippines would not have formed its own infrastructure had it not been for American intervention. San Juan Jr. View all 4 comments. Aug 05, Jed rated it really liked it. The beautiful archipelago of 7, islands and home to a bunch of crazy islanders including my mother. Ask Magellan. Just kiddin, ma! Salamat po, for such an illuminating book about the engrossing history of the Philippine islands. The book is a panoramic study and includes, history of the year colonization from Spain, the blundering attempt by America to purchase and make the P. Okay, the last bit I added, but my copy has one. Feb 27, Alex Zakharov rated it liked it. In preparation for a trip to the Philippines, I picked Karnow up as ostensibly the least biased and best- written historical account of the country. He primarily concentrates on the 20th century, understandable given the dearth of material otherwise. Overall a pretty decent read, and perhaps an indispensable one if one is thinking of visiting the region. Also, a nice coverage of American foreign policy dilemmas and debates at the turn of 19th century. Outline and notes to self: Pre-colonial histor In preparation for a trip to the Philippines, I picked Karnow up as ostensibly the least biased and best-written historical account of the country. Chinese trading posts across most of SE Asia, including Ph. Arab traders bring Islam to Malaya, reaching Ph. Brutal trip, makes it to Cebu in , converts one tribal chief Humabon , but gets killed by another Lapu Lapu. Spanish Colonization - After Magellan 50 years of indecision by Spain, but Mexican Spaniards eventually convince the queen to colonize Ph.

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