Synopses & Reviews
At the dawn of the twentieth century, the U.S. Army swiftly occupied Manila and then plunged into a decade-long pacification campaign with striking parallels to todayandrsquo;s war in Iraq. Armed with cutting-edge technology from Americaandrsquo;s first information revolution, the U.S. colonial regime created the most modern police and intelligence units anywhere under the American flag. In
Policing Americaandrsquo;s Empire Alfred W. McCoy shows how this imperial panopticon slowly crushed the Filipino revolutionary movement with a lethal mix of firepower, surveillance, and incriminating information. Even after Washington freed its colony and won global power in 1945, it would intervene in the Philippines periodically for the next half-centuryandmdash;using the country as a laboratory for counterinsurgency and rearming local security forces for repression. In trying to create a democracy in the Philippines, the United States unleashed profoundly undemocratic forces that persist to the present day.
and#160;and#160;and#160; But security techniques bred in the tropical hothouse of colonial rule were not contained, McCoy shows, at this remote periphery of American power. Migrating homeward through both personnel and policies, these innovations helped shape a new federal security apparatus during World War I. Once established under the pressures of wartime mobilization, this distinctively American system of public-private surveillance persisted in various forms for the next fifty years, as an omnipresent, sub rosa matrix that honeycombed U.S. society with active informers, secretive civilian organizations, and government counterintelligence agencies. In each succeeding global crisis, this covert nexus expanded its domestic operations, producing new contraventions of civil libertiesandmdash;from the harassment of labor activists and ethnic communities during World War I, to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, all the way to the secret blacklisting of suspected communists during the Cold War.
andldquo;With a breathtaking sweep of archival research, McCoy shows how repressive techniques developed in the colonial Philippines migrated back to the United States for use against people of color, aliens, and really any heterodox challenge to American power. This book proves Mark Twainandrsquo;s adage that you cannot have an empire abroad and a republic at home.andrdquo;andmdash;Bruce Cumings, University of Chicago
and#160;andldquo;This book lays the Philippine body politic on the examination table to reveal the disease that lies withinandmdash;crime, clandestine policing, and political scandal. But McCoy also draws the line from Manila to Baghdad, arguing that the seeds of controversial counterinsurgency tactics used in Iraq were sown in the anti-guerrilla operations in the Philippines. His arguments are forceful.andrdquo;andmdash;Sheila S. Coronel, Columbia Universityand#160;andldquo;Conclusively, McCoyandrsquo;s Policing Americaandrsquo;s Empire is an impressive historical piece of research that appeals not only to Southeast Asianists but also to those interested in examining the historical embedding and institutional ontogenesis of post-colonial statesandrsquo; police power apparatuses and their apparently inherent propensity to implement illiberal practices of surveillance and repression.andrdquo;andmdash;Salvador Santino F. Regilme, Jr., Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairsand#160;andldquo;McCoyandrsquo;s remarkable book . . . does justice both to its authorandrsquo;s deep knowledge of Philippine history as well as to his rare expertise in unmasking the seamy undersides of state power.andrdquo;andmdash;POLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Reviewand#160;Winner, George McT. Kahin Prize, Southeast Asian Council of the Association for Asian Studies
Review
andldquo;The superb essays in this volume admirably provide a broad approach to understanding the centuries-long growth of American power.andrdquo;andmdash;Walter LaFeber, author of
The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860andndash;1898and#160;
and#160;
Review
andldquo;This remarkable study provides a meticulous analysis of the novel colonial system developed by the U.S. in the Philippines after the murderous conquest, with startling implications for the shape of the modern world.and#160;As McCoy demonstrates, the U.S. occupation developed a major innovation in imperial practice, relying on the andlsquo;information revolutionandrsquo; of the day to establish intense surveillance and control of the occupied population, along with violence when needed and privileges to obedient elites. This andlsquo;protracted social experiment in the use of police as an instrument of state powerandrsquo; left a devastating legacy for the Philippines, while also contributing substantially to the modes of suppression of independence and social change elsewhere, and returning home to lay the foundations for a national security and surveillance state.andrdquo;andmdash;Noam Chomsky, MIT
Review
andldquo;In this stunning book, McCoy reveals how empire shapes the intertwined destinies of all involved in its creation. Written with deft strokes, this is an instant classic of historical writing.andrdquo;andmdash;Lloyd Gardner, Rutgers University
Review
andldquo;Alfred McCoy has written the most thorough account of America relations with the Philippines that the reader is likely to come across.and#160; Itandrsquo;s a history with meticulous detail, the product of an academic career thatandrsquo;s concentrated on the torturous story of the connections between the US and Southeast Asia.andrdquo;andmdash;Peace Researcher
Review
andldquo;A landmark work for both Hispanic imperial history and Southeast Asian studies by one of the most respected Latin American historians of his generation.andrdquo;andmdash;Alfred W. McCoy, series editor
Review
andldquo;This wide-ranging and incisive set of studies makes an invaluable contribution to the debate of the American empire.and#160; Summing Up: Highly recommended.andrdquo;andmdash;K. Kumar, Choice
Review
andldquo;Colonial Crucible is an impressive compilation of original research. It is essential reading for anyone interested in colonialism, internationalism, and transnationalism involving the andlsquo;United States of the world.andrsquo;andrdquo;andmdash;Hiroshi Kitamura, Journal of American History
Review
andldquo;[Colonial Crucible] defies Americaandrsquo;s denial of its imperial past while also questioning the limits of American exceptionalism in American historiography and American studies. . . . an impressive, remarkable and exciting achievement.andrdquo;andmdash;CENTRO
Review
andldquo;Colonial Crucible should end any discussion as to whether the category andlsquo;empireandrsquo; applies to the United States. In this exceptionally coherent set of essays, the editors make good their subtitle, for this is the most exacting account that one could wish about the way in which empire made America and, in particular, the American state. This book, appropriately, is dedicated to William Appleman Williams, whose early challenge to the complacency of American exceptionalist historiography Colonial Crucible honors and extends.andrdquo;andmdash;Marilyn Young, Pacific Historical Review
Review
andldquo;A stunning, exemplary, and hair-raising fusion of colonial and metropolitan histories. McCoy shows how the Philippines served as a laboratory subject for experiments in policing, intelligence, surveillance, and andlsquo;black-operationsandrsquo; that were then repatriated to shape the American domestic surveillance state from World War I forward. This is history at its most powerful and most subversive of imperial self-hypnosis. The term magnum opus applies both to its ambition and its comprehensiveness.andrdquo;andmdash;James C. Scott, Yale Universityand#160;and#160;
Review
andldquo;[S]hows how the dark underworld of crime, subversion, vice and drugs in the Philippines has been linked to the bright, public world of politics. The link? The police and security forces, particularly their shadowy side: spies, undercover agents, specialists in covert operations, assassins. The currency passed up and down the system? Information, particularly incriminating information, scandal, graft, murder.andrdquo;andmdash;John J. Carroll, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Review
andldquo;McCoyandrsquo;s monograph will be the starting point for any future historical study of control and dissent in the Philippines. Summing Up: Highly recommended.andrdquo;andmdash;Choice
Review
andldquo;An eye-opener of a book, this should be must reading for concerned Filipinos, not only to be able to understand their own police forcesandmdash;and criminal world, as well as their politiciansandmdash;better, but also to see deeper into the United States design and policies.andrdquo;andmdash; Ricardo Trota Jose, Philippine Studies
Review
andldquo;Provocative. . . . raise(s) important issues regarding the impact of empire, as home as well as abroad, a dialectic of ill effects wrought by an imperial system bottom lined by domination and coercion, force and violence.andrdquo;andmdash;Allen Ruff, Against the Current
Review
andldquo;
Colonial Crucible is precisely the book we need now, in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib and all the other revelations about the andlsquo;missionandrsquo; in Iraq. . . . An essential reference book on the consequences of empire for the metropole and its colonies.andrdquo;andmdash;Lloyd Gardner, author of
The Long Road to Baghdad: A History of U.S. Foreign Policy from the 1970s to the PresentReview
andldquo;Brilliantly illustrates the myriad ways in which the costs of empire-building are borne, although neither equally nor obviously, by both colonizers and the colonized.andrdquo;andmdash;Franklin W. Knight, Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
Synopsis
After conquest of the Philippine archipelago in the late sixteenth century, Spanish colonizers launched a sweeping social program designed to bring about dramatic religious, political, and economic changes. But the limitations of Spanish colonial resources, together with the reactions of Filipinos themselves, combined to shape the outcome of that effort in unique and unexpected ways, argues John Leddy Phelan. With no wealth in the islands to attract conquistadores, conquest was accomplished largely by missionaries scattered among isolated native villages. Native chieftains served as intermediaries, thus enabling the Filipinos to react selectively to Spanish innovations. The result was a form of hispanization in which the resilient and adaptable Filipinos played a creative part.
Synopsis
At the end of the nineteenth century the United States swiftly occupied a string of small islands dotting the Caribbean and Western Pacific, from Puerto Rico and Cuba to Hawaii and the Philippines. Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State reveals how this experiment in direct territorial rule subtly but profoundly shaped U.S. policy and practiceandmdash;both abroad and, crucially, at home.and#160;
About the Author
Alfred W. McCoy is the J. R. W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsinandndash;Madison and author of A Question of Torture and The Politics of Heroin. Francisco A. Scarano is professor of history at the University of Wisconsinandndash;Madison and author of Puerto Rico: Cinco siglos de historia.
Table of Contents
Illustrationsand#160;and#160;and#160;
Prefaceand#160;and#160;and#160;
Part 1. Exploring Imperial Transitions
On the Tropic of Cancer: Transitions and Transformations in the U.S. Imperial Stateand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Alfred W. McCoy, Francisco A. Scarano, and Courtney Johnson
Reading Imperial Transitions: Spanish Contraction, British Expansion, and American Irruptionand#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Josep M. Fradera
From Old Empire to New: The Changing Dynamics and Tactics of American Empireand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Thomas McCormick
Part 2. Police, Prisons, and Law Enforcement
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Alfred W. McCoy
American Penal Forms and Colonial Spanish Custodial-Regulatory Practices in Fin de Siandegrave;cle Puerto Ricoand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Kelvin Santiago-Valles
Prohibiting Opium in the Philippines and the United States: The Creation of an Interventionist Stateand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Anne L. Foster
Policing the Imperial Periphery: Philippine Pacification and the Rise of the U.S. National Security Stateand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Alfred W. McCoy
andquot;The Prison That Makes Men Freeandquot;: The Iwahig Penal Colony and the Simulacra of the American State in the Philippinesand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Michael Salman
Part 3. Education
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Adam Nelson
Negotiating Colonialism: andquot;Race,andquot; Class, and Education in Early-Twentieth-Century Puerto Rico
and#160;and#160;and#160; Solsirandeacute;e del Moral
Enlightened Tolerance or Cultural Capitulation? Contesting Notions of American Identityand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Amandiacute;lcar Antonio Barreto
The Business of Education in the Colonial Philippines, 1909andndash;30and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Glenn Anthony May
The Imperial Enterprise and Educational Policies in Colonial Puerto Ricoand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Pablo Navarro-Rivera
Understanding the American Empire: Colonialism, Latin Americanism, and Professional Social Science, 1898andndash;1920and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Courtney Johnson
Part 4. Race and Imperial Identities
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Clare Corbould
Race, Empire, and Transnational Historyand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Paul A. Kramer
Censuses in the Transition to Modern Colonialism: Spain and the United States in Puerto Ricoand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Francisco A. Scarano
Race and the Suffrage Controversy in Cuba, 1898andndash;1901and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Alejandro de la Fuente and Matthew Casey
From Columbus to Ponce de Leandoacute;n: Puerto Rican Commemorations between Empires, 1893andndash;1908and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Christopher Schmidt-Nowara
A Critical-Historical Genealogy of Koko (Blood), 'Aina (Land), Hawaiian Identity, and Western Law and Governanceand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Rona Tamiko Halualani
Buying into Empire: American Consumption at the Turn of the Twentieth Centuryand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Kristin Hoganson
Confabulating American Colonial Knowledge of the Philippines: What the Social Life of Jose E. Marco's Forgeries and Ahmed Chalabi Can Tell Us about the Epistemology of Empireand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Michael Salman
Part 5. Imperial Medicine and Public Health: Bodies as Subjects
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Nancy Tomes
Pacific Crossings: Imperial Logics in United States' Public Health Programsand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Warwick Anderson
A Fever for Empire: U.S. Disease Eradication in Cuba as Colonial Public Healthand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Mariola Espinosa
Mapping Regional and Imperial Geographies: Tropical Disease in the U.S. Southand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Natalie J. Ring
The Conquest of Molecules: Wild Yams and American Scientists in Mexican Junglesand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Gabriela Soto Laveaga
Tropical Conquest and the Rise of the Environmental Management State: The Case of U.S. Sanitary Efforts in Panamaand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Paul S. Sutter
Part 6. Polity, Law, and Constitution
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; John Ohnesorge
Empire and the Transformation of Citizenshipand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Christina Duffy Burnett
The Afterlife of Empire: Sovereignty and Revolution in the Philippinesand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Vicente L. Rafael
The U.S. Constitution and Philippine Colonialism: An Enduring and Unfortunate Legacyand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Owen J. Lynch
Spanish Structure, American Theory: The Legal Foundations of a Tropical New Deal in the Philippine Islands, 1898andndash;1935and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Anna Leah Fidelis T. Castaandntilde;eda
The Hazards of Jeffersonianism: Challenges of State Building in the United States and Its Empireand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Paul D. Hutchcroft
Part 7. U.S. Military
Introduction: The Military and the U.S. Imperial Stateand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Christopher Capozzola
andquot;Mohammedan Religion Made It Necessary to Fireandquot;: Massacres on the American Imperial Frontier from South Dakota to the Southern Philippinesand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Joshua Gedacht
The U.S. Army as an Occupying Force in Muslim Mindanao, 1899andndash;1913and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Patricio N. Abinales
Minutemen for the World: Empire, Citizenship, and the National Guard, 1903andndash;24and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Christopher Capozzola
From Winship to Leahy: Crisis, War, and Transition in Puerto Rico
and#160;and#160;and#160; Jorge Rodrandiacute;guez Beruff
French and American Imperial Accommodation in the Caribbean during World War II: The Experience of Guyane and the Subaltern Roles of Puerto Ricansand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Humberto Garcandiacute;a-Muandntilde;iz and Rebeca Campo
Guantandaacute;namo and the Case of Kid Chicle: Private Contract Labor and the Development of the U.S. Militaryand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Jana K. Lipman
The Impact of the Philippine Wars (1898andndash;1913) on the U.S. Armyand#160;and#160;and#160; 0
and#160;and#160;and#160; Brian McAllister Linn
Part 8. Environmental Management
Introduction: Environmental and Economic Managementand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; J. R. McNeill
Conservation and Colonialism: Gifford Pinchot and the Birth of Tropical Forestry in the Philippinesand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Greg Bankoff
Manila's Imperial Makeover: Security, Health, and Symbolismand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Daniel F. Doeppers
andquot;'The World Was My Gardenandquot;: Tropical Botany and Cosmopolitanism in American Science, 1898andndash;1935and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Stuart McCook
Scientific Superman: Father Josandeacute; Alguandeacute;, Jesuit Meteorology, and the Philippines under American Rule, 1897andndash;1924and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; James Francis Warren
Part 9. The Elusive Character of American Global Power
The Limits of American Empire: Democracy and Militarism in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuriesand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Jeremi Suri
Crucibles, Capillaries, and Pentimenti: Reflections on Imperial Transformationsand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Nancy Tomes
Empire in American Historyand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Ian Robert Tyrrell
Notesand#160;and#160;and#160;
Contributorsand#160;and#160;and#160;
Index