Customer Reviews

America's Boy: A Century of United States Colonialism in the Philippines

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3 star:		(1)
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Generally, books offering an insight to Filipino culture are difficult to come by. This book mixes history and sociology, and, indeed, a bit of comedy and brings it all together. Lots of little stories and anecdotes which help one understand how a corrupt, virtual royal couple ammassed perhaps one of the world's largest fortunes, with the backing of successive American governments. Filled with dark humor and even a bit of sarcasm, this book would actually be humorous if it wasn't based on the story of one of the 20th Century's true tragedies. This is the story of how a rich, fantastically varied and beautiful tropical country, a country populated by a good but largely simple and powerless populace, was plundered by it's ruling family--with Washington's aid--while the world barely took notice.

Read it!

For the first time Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and Philippine-American relations are examined with accuracy and skill by an author who understands their country as few outsiders ever can, combining insights of a poet who knows both people of a remote fishing village and Manila intellectuals. This is not an anti-US diatribe by a jealous Briton but as accurate a picture of how Filipinos really are as opposed to the impressions they create as I have read in a lifetime of interest in the archipelago. Marcos, while looting the nation on a grand scale, established the first real rapport with country people of any of its rulers. The title is misleading: far from being a puppet, Marcos often used Washington. The author believes Imelda "was the logical culmination of centuries of inspired subversion" against repression by foreigners and fellow countrymen. He deftly demolishes myths like Marcos' wartime heroism and General Yamashita's treasure hoard. He succinctly describes the antecedents and continuation of Philippine history after Marcos was forced into exile. Maps of East Asia, the Philippines and Metro Manila identify places cited in the text, which is well documented and superbly written.

Hamilton-Paterson's AMERICA'S BOY won the 1999 Philippine National Book Award in the social sciences on Sept. 12 from the Manila Critics Circle during the annual Philippine Bookfair.

I was born in the Philippines one year after Marcos took office and lived under his Presidency through my teenage years. As a student of history, I've gone through several of the books which have been published on Marcos and this book is by far the best of the lot. Mr. Hamilton-Paterson clearly shows an understanding of the Filipino psyche in a way that could only have been gained from years of living with the people.

Wonderful authorship, I suppose thats because he's British and therefore a reliable third party with unbiased insight. It never occured to me that my father was born on the right side of the Agno. I always wondered how he got a sinecure in the armed forces, which he was very well found on. Some of the Hamilton-Paterson's conclusions are quite emasculating to many Filipinos especialy to elites, which is nonetheless true as I can tell and am Filipino living in the West. He is very astute in coining crony monopolism instead of crony capitalism. The part about economics are the parts that draw me to the book as it is my avocation. Just by reading that chapter just smacks you of market failure. And this book is recomended also to people who has some erudition in economics and want to learn some developmental economics pertaining to the Philippines.

This well-researched book not only covers the colonization of the Philippines but also illustrates how the Marcos' came into power, mainly based on keeping communism out of the Philippines. It is the only prominent English-speaking, predominately Christian nation in Asia, and America's boys (hand-picked local leaders) kept it that way. None were more glamorous (and corrupt) than Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos who did America's bidding. The Filipinos in many ways are still loyal to the Marcos Years, and in fact, Imelda just got elected to the Filipino Congress (2010). The book is not without criticism of America's role in colonislism, and in fact, Mark Twain stated, "The new US flag flying over the Philippines should be altered to include the skull and crossbones..." In the little known Philippines-American War, the strategy of "hamletting" and the term "gook" were first used. As a sidebar, there was a media blitz over Marcos'mistress, Dovie Beams, an American actress. For anyone studying the Philippines and America's foreign policies, this is a "must read" book by an award-winning reporter/writer that spent over twenty years in the Philippines.

A marvelous book about my homeland, the Philippines ; some of the villagers depicted in the anecdotes almost seem like people I actually know. Patterson is SPOT-ON about the Filipino personality, believe me. I wish I could meet the author of this book and shake his hand.

cb@lynx.bc.ca should know that thanks to Amazon.com.uk I have a copy of the London edition of this book and have read it carefully.

Thank you for your review of "one weak to freedom" Of course you should buy the book first and read it.

John Miller's reference to the Philippines as "a land few Westerners even begin to understand" is typical of someone who dosen't even begin to understand the culture or the people of the Philippines himself. The notion that ALL so-called "westerners" are a bunch of ignorant morons when it comes to other countries and cultures outside of northern North America and west Europe has been perpetuated by his type for far too long. What good would it do me to buy this book if I could supposedly "never hope to understand" the Filipino people anyways? By the way, I'm married to a Filipina and spent a couple years living there myself (not with the US Army or on a sex tour as everyone assumes!) so know this before you jump to any conclusions about me from reading this. I actually think that colonialism, the Marcos DICTATORSHIP (martial law and censorship included) and the one-term presidencies installed under Cory Aquino have been bad for the country and have kept it locked off from the rest of the world, especially as far as trade, banking and investment go- there need to be some serious changes made but I'm sure they won't happen with former Marcos crony and bad actor Joseph Estrada in power. Let's see what happens...