Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy [Hardcover]

Professor Alfred W. McCoy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 1999

An approach to the military and political history of the Philippines. Comparing two generations of graduates from the Philippine Military Academy - the classes of 1940 and 1971 - McCoy uncovers fundamental differences in their academic socialization and subsequent ascent to power.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (December 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300077653
• ISBN-13: 978-0300077650
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,138,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Military in Politics, January 23, 2001

By 

James J. Halsema (Glenmoore, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy (Hardcover)

Professor McCoy has made hmself one of the handful of scholars with a deep understanding of fhe forces governing politics in a country of 70 million people who seem much easier to understand than others in Southeast Asia but who are influenced by Malay as well as Spanish and American customs and ideals. Today, as the Phililppine Armed Forces play another decisive role in their nation's history, this analysis is of immediate importance to those seeking to explore the role of armed, trained military leaders in countries whose democracies require support.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cautionary tale, September 9, 2007

By 

P. Willson (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy (Hardcover)

I bought the book because I was researching the acceptance of torture within an organizational or military context, and for that it's very useful -- and extremely well-written. However, as I read McCoy's inspired exploration of military socialization to either support civilian primacy and rule of law (at the cost of the soldiers' lives), or to disdain and despise civilian values and to become the law (at the cost of civilian lives), I was tremendously impressed.

He looks at how brutalization rather than civil socialization turns a military from our protectors to our terrorizers -- starting with harsh, degrading,even lethal hazing of cadets, on to ruthless interrogation of real enemies that creeps and then falls headlong into torture, then extra-legal detentions of civilian dissidents, then the torture and murder of civilians as a means of social repression and control, and with it coup attempts and martial law.

In this process, the military organization ceases to understand and obey the absolute requirement for great self-restraint by those who wield great firepower. It begins to believe its own prideful hype, and particularly in learning the unique potency of torture to destroy human will and rip apart the social fabric, the military begins to feel all-powerful. It no longer pledges allegiance to a nation or to democratic or broad social values, but becomes politicized and dedicated to protect only a few partisan values, or no values other than power and control for their own sake.

Read this book along with Mikey Weinstein's With God On Our Side, Scahill's Blackwater, and Lagouranis' Fear Up Harsh, and tell me you don't break into a cold sweat.

1 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Book Cover, "Closer.........Academy", September 23, 2000

By 

Joey G..... (NC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy (Hardcover)

I may not be the first person to bring this matter about Mr. Alfred W. McCoy's book, particularly about the book cover. I do not know how authoritative he is about Philippine setting, but the display of the Philippine Flag on the book cover is WRONG. I have not read the book because I just chance upon it when I was browsing for another book. I hope this matter will be brought to the author's attention and that of the publisher as well. Joey G.....