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/Stanley Karnow Karnow goes back 500 years to paint a fascinating portrait of Philippine history, ultimately focusing on the U.S.'s imperial experience in the islands. Here is the truth about America's attempt to remake the Philippines "in our image"--complete with American political, educational, and cultural institutions. "Authority and great insight."--Time. 16 pages of photographs.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House; First Edition (March 18, 1989)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 494 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394549759
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394549750
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.24 pounds
Reviewer: H. N. T.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An interesting, informative and fast paced read
Review: This is a fantastic book about US-Philippines relations and history. Stanley Karnow produces a tour de force of both history and writing, and I must say this is a far superior book than his better known history of the Vietnam war.The book goes back all the way to Magellan but quickly (and efficiently) moves to the Spanish American War; but as a result the casual reader will understand the influence and importance of monastic orders and much of the situation of the Philippines when US troops finally arrive. The build up to the American-Spanish war, the internal American politics, and the American cultural environment are very well presented. I do believe Spain was given to little attention in their internal details, but there is only so much the author can do in a single book and preserve it as coherent, the situation within the Phillipines is very well covered. Afterwards we get a detailed view of the military operations in the Phillipines from both the nationalists and the American point of view, and the subsequent American efforts at colonialism/democracy building.The reactions in from the Americans on the democratization process and their view of the people of the Phillippines are incredibly interesting and covered by many curious anecdotes. The book is somewhat timelier now than ever due to America's renewed interest in forging democracies; also, due to the book's age, Karnow's most frequent analogy is to the Vietnam War, but the more modern analogies become even clearer by remaining unmentioned. Karnow doesn't flinch from depicting the racism and general low impressions by the Americans towards there "little brown brothers". Also the brief description of several figures such as Taft, Roosevelt, and many others is quite interesting since they are rarely seen when dealing only about this subject.Overall an informative and entertaining book, and with the added benefit of being about a subject most have not read anything previously.

Reviewer: deacon
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very interesting and a great reading experience
Review: I purchased the Kindle Edition of this book with some doubts in my mind as to how interesting a book on the Philippines could be. Once I started the book all doubts ceased. This book is written in a very engaging and interesting style that keeps you coming back to it for more. It opens with a brief treatment of then current Philippine/American relations and then delves deeply into the early Spanish colonial period. Along the way the author provides all the important details of The Age of Discovery for Spain in a very frank and adult way, detailing the realities of early Spanish colonialism in the islands.The author clearly has a deep knowledge of the people and history of the Philippines and he shows an impressive grasp of the country's culture and collective world view. This book is excellent on the history and weaves together all the facts in a very entertaining and compelling way.

Reviewer: JustinHoca
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An excellent starting point for learning about American-Philippines relations
Review: I think every State Department employee assigned to the Philippines reads this Pulitzer prize-winning book, or is told to read this book and never completes it. It's comprehensive, even as the author reveals his biases and maintains his own opinions as the primary source. One should remember that while his experience in the Philippines is extensive, it is not comprehensive. His own observations serve as primary source, and he gives his own spin on history. That said, he has researched things well from Magellan to Marcos. Another book I recommend to people is Mixed Blessing: The Impact the American Colonial Experience on Politics and Society in the Philippines (edited by McFerson) which is a compilation of essays written years after Karnow's book; that book also contains more statistics that I found useful. I consider the books complementary. James M. Scott's 2018 Amazon award-winning book Rampage on the Battle of Manila gives many more important details about MacArthur and the WWII experience that Karnow omits.The author was friends with Ninoy Aquino and his wife Cory, and the friendship plays a critical role in the chapters regarding that family. The friendship biases him, surely, but it also gave him unique windows into their lives that no one else would have. Karnow chronicles the good, the bad, and the ugly bits of U.S. policy toward the Philippines after first giving a great overview of Spanish colonial history. He also details various intrigues of the political lives of Philippine Presidents as seen through the workings of various CIA handlers, U.S. Ambassadors, and U.S. Presidents. One major thing I gleaned is that an administration change-- from Republican to Democrat-- has always had large foreign policy implications, causing swings overnight in U.S. policy towards its colony. This was seen most dramatically when Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats came into power and Francis Burton Harrison became a pro-independence Governor General, rapidly moving to "Filipinize" the civil service over an 8 year period in contrast to the Republican administrations who roughly wanted to keep the Philippines a colony indefinitely. While no president fares well, Reagan probably fares the worst in the book.There is plenty more to glean about the culture of the Philippines, the history of landed gentry owning the power, the corruption, etc. that is pretty well detailed in the book. Karnow pays special attention to documenting much of the monetary value of the Marcos' corruption, something needed as many people today are in denial or yearning for the "good old days."In all, I give this book five stars. There are some typos and factual points I would quibble about but it's hard not to give this comprehensive a volume five stars.

Reviewer: John C. Cocchiarella
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great
Review: It's a bit of a slog (took me months to finish) but well worth it. I'm married to a Filipino and have been to the wonderfully complex country maybe 15 times and always look forward to going back. This book really gave me an in depth background going back centuries of the modern Philippines. For a briefer history, go to the end of the book for a nice summarized timeline (or go to the Ayala Museum in Manila, which has a wonderful set of around 60 dioramas that display this country's rich and complicated history). I have long said the Philippines is the United States of Asia, not because of the U.S.'s political history, but because more than any country in Asia that I've been to, you see a true mixing of cultures-Malay, Chinese, Spanish, American, Indonesian, Arab, etc. This book obviously focuses of the U.S./Filipino history but it is a fascinating read even without the U.S. angles.

Reviewer: Johnny M. Magcalas
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I have learned lots of things about the Phil from the time it became an American colony up to the present times. It also has some information about the Phil pre-American Times. A very informative book without any bias in it. A must read for Filipino High School students and the entire Filipino citizenry. Highly recommended reading of our history.

Reviewer: Paul Ross
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I've read this book three times. Each time it's like a journey into a world of revelation. Do yourself a favor and read it once.

Reviewer: John D.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Highly readable book, and truly interesting history.

Reviewer: Gary F. Dunn
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This Pulitzer-prize winning history book is informative, entertaining and quite insightful, especially about American and Filipino political manoeuvring and the workings of imperialism. It is generally very well-written, though there is unnecessary repetition and confusion is created by the practice in some chapters of including material out of chronological sequence. Part of the virtue of the book comes from the inclusion of interesting and relevant material relating the writer's personal encounters with some of the leading politicians and military leaders in the decades after WW2. Unfortunately the book was published in 1989 and, not being updated, has nothing on the past 25 years of American-Filipino relationships. There is a recent book, "A History of the Philippines (from Indios Bravos to Filipinos)", by Luis H. Francia published in 2013 that does cover more recent Filipino history and that I would highly recommend.

Reviewer: Rob B-I Western
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A great read on the U.S/Filipino relationship going back to 1898. Great attention to details and very well researched.It could use an updating, as it ends with the Presidency of Cory Aquino and leaves the reader with an impression that the Philippines will be better off under her presidency (of course 30 years of Aquino rule have left people missing Marcos, and probably goes a long way to explaining Dutuerte), but the author of course could not have predicted her failing as spectacularly as she did.The rest, from the Spanish American war, to the Filipino Commonwealth, through WWII and the Marcos regime, is all fascinating. It is a long read but I couldn't put it down. Well worth a read for anyone interested in U.S colonial history, Filipino history, or any of the eras covered in this book.