xOver Here: The First World and American Society by David Kennedy (Progressive Era-WWI, Military & Foreign Policy, Politics)

Over Here: The First World War and American Society 

by David Kennedy

Progressive Era-WWI
Military & Foreign Policy
Politics

Thesis:

US involvement in WWI ultimately led to an end in the Progressive Era. Progressive rhetoric was used to build public support for the war but ultimately made the people feel manipulated. To fund the war, much of the advancements towards democratic power instituted by progressives were abandoned.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary:
The author explores the internal American effects of World War I. Domestic changes were drastic during the war period.

Under the auspices of the Espionage Act of June 1917 (which allowed Postmaster-General Burleson to aggressively censor the mail) and the Sedition Act of 1918 (which prohibited "any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States"), outspoken members of the left (among them Eugene Debs) were arrested and locked away for voicing dissent.
After the war, Wilson's 14 points were given little attention or reflection in the Treaty of Versailles, calling an end to the war. A treaty that was never ratified by the US. In addition the League of Nations, created to avoid another World War and to force countries to disarm, pushed for by Wilson, was not joined by the US and ultimately fell apart.

What does this tell us about Military and Foreign Policy in the Progressive Era-WWI?
Up to the point of US involvement in WWI, the US was proudly avoiding the war. The US was spending resources on Progressive reform efforts and had no interest in spending it on a European War. In order to support the war efforts President Wilson instituted policies that decreased the free expression of the people. In an attempt to frame US involvement as a moral imperative, Wilson gave his speech on the 14 points. Establishing a list of actions that, he and his advisers believed would prevent another World War, these included disarming, and destroying alliances, giving colonies their independence, and free trade. Unfortunately the 14 points were not adopted in the Treaty of Versailles and the treaty was not ratified by the US Senate, by then largely controlled by big business who had an interest in tariffs. 

What does this tell us about Politics in the Progressive Era-WWI?

The moral evangelism of the Progressive era had to re-frame their rhetoric to fit the war. Wilson always felt the minds and the hearts of the people must be won, he created the Committee on Public Information to bombard the public with the justifications for America's entry into WWI. Additionally, Espionage and Sedition Acts were passed to silence opposing opinions on the war. The US public, including Progressives mostly bought into the propaganda but found themselves demoralized by the outcome. Big business got richer and the power of the people was greatly reduced.

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

General Thoughts:

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

"Here now we have the first contemporary synthesis of work accomplished with regard to America's internal experience in World War I."

"Wilsonians' (and Americans' continuing) unwillingness to exercise power in any formal, straightforward, or forceful way-of their phobic refusal to carry out the rationing, taxing, requisitioning, and coercing that European governments had long since undertaken. Such a renunciation of authority had a second unfortunate effect as well, for it led of necessity to the Wilson administration's deliberate propagandizing and agitation of the public as a means of achieving needed discipline, whipping up a patriotic hysteria that would ultimately undermine progressive forces politically and help to undo the benefits that groups like workers, blacks, and women derived from the war."

"Kennedy also discusses the war's cultural dimension. From diaries and other literary material he evokes the overseas experience of Pershing's "doughboys" and also describes and interprets the cultural struggle over the war's meaning in both literary and popular culture in the 1920s. Kennedy suggests, moreover, that as a cultural phenomenon the war crisis reveals a number of core American social values, including a deeply rooted suspicion of concentrated public power and a bias toward voluntarism in the construction of social institutions."

"Among the book's many strengths are a first-rate synthesis of recent work on economic and financial mobilization; a critical evaluation of Wilsonian economic diplomacy; convenient summaries of the war's impact on various social groups, including liberal intellectuals, women, blacks, organized labor, and political radicals; and a useful commentary on congressional and national party politics based upon private manuscript collections"

My Highlighted Passages: 

""war had killed something precious and perhaps irretrievable in the hearts of thinking men and women, namely a faith in the reasonableness, plasticity, and fundamental decency of "the people." (92)

"the war thus demonstrated the distasteful truth that voluntarism has its perils. Reliance on sentiment rather than strengthened sovereignty to mobilize a people for total war compounded the problem of requiring all people to do what but few people wished. That kind of coercion, no less insidious for its indirection -- perhaps doubly objectionable on that count -- had deep roots in liberal democratic culture, and was to become a salient feature of twentieth-century American life." (143)

"In effect, writers such as Hemingway, Dos Passos, and Cummings use the way to "launch a second attack on the cultural authority of the Old Guard -- the Old Guard that had promoted American entry into the war, and employed the full force of its rhetorical power to describe the war in terms compatible with its ancient values...The postwar writers of disillusionment protested less against the war itself than against a way of seeing and describing the war."

x The Transplanted by John Bodnar (The Progressive Era and WWI, Immigration, Ethnicity and Race)

The Transplanted: A History of Immigration Urban America.

by John Bodnar 

The Progressive Era and WWI

Immigration
Ethnicity and Race

Thesis:

Immigrants to urban America maintained a dynamic relationship with both their past culture and the imperatives of their present environment by creating a mediating "culture of everyday life" most evident in the structure and function of the immigrant family.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Despite that industrialization moved the work force out of the home, family remained central to labor as family and friends found jobs for one another. Wages were used to sustain the family unit. 

Summary:
Bodnar is attempting to correct the historic record of Progressive Era immigration to reflect the evidence that immigrants were not simply victims of circumstance, completely displaced, and alienated from any of the social cultural norms they were used to at home. In fact, their homeland had also changed dramatically and through their immigration the attempted recreate much of their society in this new environment.

What does this tell us about Immigration in the Progressive Era/WWI?

 Immigrants were often leaving their home that was experiencing profound change and disruption due to the new capitalist world order. While extreme upheaval to their lifestyle did occur, it was anticipated and much was done to attempt to reincorporate the social structures they were losing.

What does this tell us about Ethnicity and Race in the Progressive Era/WWI?

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

General Thoughts:

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

"Emigration was a means for those who could afford it to sustain traditional family against the disruptions of the modern world. On the other hand, the immigrant family itself had to modernize. In either respect, immigrants were children of capitalism."

"Urban immigrant life was neither traumatized by modern capitalism nor fixed in primordial tradition but, rather, transformed by the dynamic between these forces."

My Highlighted Passages: 

xThe Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois (Progressive Era and WW1, Ethnicity and Race)

The Souls of Black Folk

by W.E.B. Du Bois

Progressive Era and WW1

Ethnicity and Race

Thesis:

"The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line." DuBois believes the U.S. still has a great deal of work to do, to correct the problems of incomplete reconstruction and integration of African Americans into society after emancipation. 

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary:
Co-Founder of the NAACP in 1909, Du Bois was the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard. He published The Souls of Black Folk in 1903 to discuss the failures and shortcomings of post emancipation reconstruction/integration. 

What does this tell us about Race and Ethnicity in the Progressive Era?

The Progressive Era is generally viewed as the 1890's to the 1920's, a time when the rapid industrialization of the U.S. left many citizens concerned with social reform and politics. Written in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk is a representative piece that demonstrates the movement towards social equality for American blacks trying to integrate with society since emancipation. DuBois describes the current state of the black man in society in the early 20th century. Through his own observations and travels, DuBois found that black people were not truly receiving what was promised to them (education, fair wages, justice, and protection under the law). DuBois, a highly educated man saw education and political involvement as the key to correcting the wrongs of slavery's past. 

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?
DuBois, like Douglas, was there. His accounts are a primary source that paints a picture of what was going on in the early 20th century. DuBois was also a historian and he analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of reconstruction policy.  

General Thoughts:

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

My Highlighted Passages: 

"Henceforth, the destiny of the race could be conceived as leading neither to assimilation nor separatism but to proud, enduring hyphenation."

xProgressivism: A Very Short Introduction By Walter T. K. Nugent (Progressive Era-WWI, Politics)

Progressivism: A Very Short Introduction

By Walter T. K. Nugent

Progressive Era-WWI

Politics

Thesis:
The reforms made during the Progressive era are still present today. This was a new time for America in which the people felt that social welfare should come before individual gains.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary:

What does this tell us about Politics in the Progressive Era-WWI?

During this time because of the west and the South, the more agrarian population had more political power. With this power they wanted fight against the corporate monopolies. They made legal changes.
Progressives also felt they should protect people from themselves in whatever way possible, this is what led to prohibition from 1920-1933, this is currently viewed as an attack on personal freedom and the government overstepping its constitutional limits. 

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

General Thoughts:

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

My Highlighted Passages:

Very soon these would take shape in federal legislation including the four Progressive-era constitutional amendments (the income tax, direct election of U.S. senators, woman suffrage, and prohibition).Read

Ida, A Sword Among Lions by Paula J. Giddings (Progressive Era-WWI, Ethnicity & Race, Gender & Sexuality)

Ida, A Sword Among Lions 
by Paula J. Giddings

Progressive Era-WWI
Ethnicity & Race
Gender & Sexuality

Thesis:

Ida B. Wells was an incredibly significant Progressive player in the issues of racism and gender equality at the turn of the 20th Century. Her work against African American lynching is of the utmost importance but it is also, often overlooked.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary:

This book discusses the life of Ida Wells. Daughter of freed slaves, her life and her story spans from the post Civil War Reconstruction through to the beginning of the Great Depression. 
Ida's life was full of challenges, her parents were killed when she was 16 by an outbreak of Yellow Fever. At that time she quit school to become a teacher and care for her siblings. Ever bitter by the hand she was dealt, Ida became an outspoken woman unafraid of speaking out against perceived wrongs. “Throughout the remainder of her life, she struggled to turn the negative emotions of abandonment into a righteous determination to reform herself and the society that had forsaken her race.”
She moved to Memphis where she made her first public attempt to challenge racist notions. Aboard a train she was asked to move to the "Jim-Crow" car but refused on the argument that it was crowded and people were smoking in there. They forcibly removed her and she sued the rail company. She eventually lost the suit in the Supreme Court of Tennessee. This further emboldened Wells about the injustice inherent in the post-Reconstruction South. 

 
In 1884 she was asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man and ordered her into the smoking or "Jim Crow" car, which was already crowded with other passengers. Despite the 1875 Civil Rights Act banning discrimination on the basis of race, creed, or color, in theaters, hotels, transports, and other public accommodations, several railroad companies defied this congressional mandate and racially segregated its passengers. It is important to realize that her defiant act was before Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the fallacious doctrine of "separate but equal," which constitutionalized racial segregation.
As a platform to speak frankly about the injustice she co-owned the Free Speech newspaper. When three of her friends were lynched for their competing grocery store taking business from their white neighbors, she was outraged. She began writing articles documenting the illegal violence of lynching so common in the South. Her life was threatened because of her articles. 

What does this tell us about Gender in the Progressive Era-WWI?

As an African American Women in the Jim Crow South before women has the vote, Wells' public role was unique. 

While temperance was not a passion of Wells, she worked in association with WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) to promote women's rights and suffrage.

What does this tell us about Race and Ethnicity in the Progressive Era-WWI?Although the atrocities against African Americans were extensive, there were few spoke out against them. Wells' anti-lynching speaches, articles, and eventually her published work in 1892, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases" brought to light how extensive the atrocities had become.

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

General Thoughts:

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

My Highlighted Passages: 

Land of Desire by William Leach (Progressive Era-WWI, Class and Economy)

Land of Desire 

by William Leach 

Progressive Era-WWI
Class and Economy

Thesis:

Industrialization, and the concentration of wealth and production led to a transformation of American culture into a consumer culture like had never been seen anywhere in the world.
This book covers the rise of consumerism from 1890-1930.
American society was ultimately changed from that point on. The American way of life, valued as goods and wealth became mainstream and has never faded.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

The development of department stores was a dramatic change to the economy because now the sale of goods was concentrated with those wealthy enough to create one of these massive stores that sells some of everything. The merchants of the old world could no longer compete.
The world's fair drove a desire for a massive range of goods from around the world.
Advertising, and window displays were developed and perfected at the end of the 19th century to produce a drive towards consumerism.

Fashion was a necessity to maintain consumerism. Focused mainly on women, advertisers tried to convince them that wearing something from last season would prove that you did not have the livelihood to afford to buy new clothes like the rest of the presentable women.
The relative easy access to and cheap nature of credit arose during this period and encouraged people to buy things they hoped to afford later. Saving went out the window, traded in for buy now pay later mentality. This was also encouraged by the relative degradation of the value of money. Money not spent, lost buying power as time went on.

Summary:

As consumerism became mainstream, it was supported and promoted by other fixtures of American life. The government assisted with the Department of Commerce, educational institutions like Harvard taught advertising as integral to business, cities promoted business by sponsoring pageants, the US Postal Service and Children's Bureau partnered with department stores.

What does this tell us about Class and Economy in the Progressive Era-WWI?
During the Progressive Era there was a large concentration of wealth with the elite and corporations. Consumerism fostered this kind of dispersal of wealth. Artisans and merchants could not contend with the large scale department stores. The cult of desire encouraged people to spend their money on fashionable items every season. Money came and went quickly. 

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

During this era, advertising really began as an industry with color adds, and clever selling techniques. Before this, people usually just had text ads that advised when and where a product could be purchased.
Additionally store windows were added to show off goods each store sold. before this, windows were not often used in store construction.
At this time, department stores would basically do anything for their patrons. Shipping anywhere was free and they would hunt down items for customers. The stores sent out catalogs that contained everything one could think of to buy.
This is when the commercialized Santa came out to help promote family values by way of consuming.

General Thoughts:

It's interesting that during the Progressive era, consumerism took hold. Thinking of the progressives as wanting to equalize economic welfare through government intervention seems contrary to consumer culture, but perhaps it is the strong desire for wealth promoted by consumer culture that made people so unsatisfied by the economic inequalities of the period.

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

My Highlights:

"Acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness; the cult of the new; the democratization of desire; and money value as the predominant measure of all value in society." (3)

"American corporate business, in league with key institutions, began the transformation of American society into a society preoccupied with consumption, with comfort and bodily well-being, with luxury, spending, and acquisition, with more goods this year than last, more next year than this." (xiii.)

"diminished American public life, denying the American people access to insight into other ways of organizing and conceiving life, insight that might have endowed their consent to the dominant culture...with real democracy." (xv.)

"This book examines how this older culture was challenged and was gradually superseded by the newer culture. It deals with the new national corporations and the investment banks as they moved almost overnight into the everyday lives of Americans. It focuses on mail order houses, on chain stores and dry goods houses, on hotels and restaurants, and especially on department stores, and it does so in part because most historians have for too long looked down on them."

"It was the country’s first world’s fair and probably the most influential of all the fairs because it unlocked the floodgates to what became a steady flow of goods and fantasies about goods."

A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan by Michael Kazin (Progressive Era, Politics, Religion)

A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan 

by Michael Kazin 

Progressive Era
Politics
Religion

Thesis:

While the legacy of William Jennings Bryan is mixed, the author argues for his impact as a moral crusader and brilliant turn of the century orator who rewrote the rules of politics.
Bryan was never elected into office, in fact he seldom held an office except a stint as Secretary of State. He was a beloved politician but failed to negotiate the field well enough to gain election.
An ardent Christian, he fought against big business, seeing himself as Jeffersonian by principle, honoring the average man.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary:
Bryan focused his education and career around becoming an incredible orater, this brought him into law. He enjoyed the court room 

What does this tell us about Religion in the Progressive Era-WWI?
In 1925 the Scopes trial, Bryan prosecuted a substitute teacher for teaching evolution in class. The trial was widely discussed as religion in education was a contentious issue. Bryan was actually called to the stand by the defense and had to defend his belief that the bible was factual despite the scientific questions it brings up. In the late nineteenth century, the second great awakening spurring a huge movement toward religiosity from most American people, in the Scopes trial you can observe this being phased out as people began to see industrial and capitalist growth bringing about increased quality of life for the average person.
The author also felt that after Bryan passed on, the fundamentalist Christian right took a huge hit, they lost their spokesperson and their leader in politics. They wouldn't find another for a long time.

What does this tell us about Politics in the Progressive Era-WWI?

Bryan spoke to the people. People loved him. He made a living giving speeches and sometimes multiple in one day. He had a huge amount of fans and one might expect this to translate into support for candidacy, so why then did Bryan fail to get elected to president of the US 3 times? Bryan was passionate and refused to back down on his moral convictions, this often meant he couldn't get funding or support from any big business. In his first run for President, companies said that if he were elected they would be forced to lay off a significant part of their labor force because of Bryan's support of lifting tariffs. It also seems that his religious fervor was not always well accepted by the voters.
Bryan's passionately conducted, self-written, brilliant speeches changed how politics was done. He was the inspiration behind

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

General Thoughts:

Bryan's argument against teaching Darwin in school was more around the social implications of the theory that were prominent at the time. As promoter of peaceful resolution to problems and a man who wanted his country to avoid war, he saw the way Darwinism was being used to justify violence in the world and did not want that perpetuated and given more merit by being taught to children. He also, obviously, disapproved of how Darwinism discounted the bible's story of creation but that was only part of his argument.

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

My Highlighted Passages: 

But in the mid-1890s, most Americans assumed that wealth consisted largely of products that were tangible and visible—crops, livestock, iron, coal, textiles, real estate. When calamity struck, they naturally fell to arguing whether the fault lay in a surplus or shortage of the shiny commodities, or specie, on which their dollars were based. Because creditors, industrialists, and the Bank of England favored gold, ordinary Americans who resented their power, and often found it mystifying, rallied to the promise of free silver. They were groping for a flexible currency, tailored for a fast-growing economy, but they trafficked in the argot of conspiracy.

But his immediate task was to flesh out the assault on corporate wealth, to turn the Democrats’ new power into a boon for the majority of American voters who either earned wages or owned a farm or other small business.

What ensued was the greatest rush of reform legislation in U.S. history until the New Deal, one inspired by Bryan’s speeches and the party platforms he’d been drafting since 1896.

he recoiled at any research in biology or geology that denied the supernatural. The acceptance of such work, he believed, opened the door to every manner of immoral behavior, from defiance of the Volstead Act to a lust for war. 34 Surprisingly, he could cite two influential disciples of Darwin to back up his fears. Early in the Great War, Vernon Kellogg, a Stanford professor who wrote widely about evolution, spent several weeks with German scientists who had become officers on the kaiser’s general staff.

democracy. Taxpayers should prevent the public schools they financed from teaching “atheism, agnosticism, Darwinism, or any other hypothesis that links man in blood relationship with the brutes.” Nonbelievers were free, of course, to say whatever they liked in their own private schools, just as Christians did in their sectarian institutions. But the public schools, free and open to any child, should refrain from promoting either a single faith or none at all. Wasn’t that the American way?

The Blood of Government by Paul Kramer (The Progressive Era & WWI, Military and Foreign Policy, Ethnicity and Race)

The Blood of Government

 by Paul Kramer 

The Progressive Era & WWI
Military and Foreign Policy 
Ethnicity and Race

Thesis:

Kramer argues that the US involvement in the Phillippines and colonial mother country status was inextricably linked to racist sentiment. 

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Despite the Filipino people repeatedly displaying their aptitude for self-rule, America refused to grant independence and colored them as backwards an uncivilized. The evidence strongly supports his thesis. The Filipino people were highly educated and politically had learned a great deal from serving in the colonial government with Spain. They were much more civilized than they were given credit for. Minority populations (like extinct headhunters) were used to demonstrate the uncivilized nature of Filipinos and justify US involvement.

Summary:

Despite the rare discussion about the American Filipino War, it is a vastly significant moment in U.S. history. This war gave birth to the American Empire and brought American into competition with the world powers.

American military came into the Philippines under the pretense that they would help them establish independence from Spanish rule. The Philippine Revolution began in 1896, to gain sovereignty from the Spanish.

Aguinaldo was a Filipino revolutionary that rose to lead the independence movement in 1796, eventually he negotiated assistance from US Navy Commander Dewey only to be manipulated into an alliance that led to a trade of imperial overseers instead of independence. Eventually he became a hero of Filipino people because of his commitment to gain independence.

During war with Spanish, the US made a secret deal to turn over the colony as log as the Spanish in Manila were spared.

The Filipino ambassadors petitioned the world to support independence.
During Spanish occupation the Filipinos developed their education and began to lay the foundation for independence with more leaders in the colonial government and highly educated mestizo class.
The African American treatment in America made Filipinos weary of American occupation, fearing they would be turned into a slave class.
Eventually some of the revolutionaries attacked the occupying American forces giving them the perfect opportunity to declare war on the savage, uncivilized people who needed proper government and education provided for them, as they would never be able to do it themselves. (A common excuse for imperialism)
Racism played a major role in the war. Soldiers called Filipinos "niggers" and abused, tortured, and killed them far outside the rules of civilized warfare. Their defense was that the race was lesser and could not be fought using normal civilized rules of combat. Torture was often used by Americans as pictured below...

During the ongoing war with the Philippines, the US decided to exhibit their new colony in the Pan-American Expo to show the world that they were an empirical power and to show that they were participating in civilizing the world.
The
With American colony status established, the officials went about educating the Filipinos in American history and world supremacy, painting Americans and Filipinos as brothers. Of course America as the older brother, showing them the way of the world. Policy went about saying that once the Filipino people were capable of self rule, it would be given to them. In fact, this was America's way to justify their presence as benevolent and not made up of self-interest. As time went on, the Filipino people proved themselves time and again ready for independence. Not wanting to fuel the fire of the uncivilized claim, the desire for independence was repeatedly presented politically to the heads of state who always agreed that when they were ready, independence would be granted.
In 1916, The Jones Act gave Filipinos more representation in their own government and assured them that independence was the US goal for them.
Eventually the Filipino cause gained ground in the US but only by those threatened by the cheap Filipino exports and or the labor provided by Filipinos who came to America under policies that allowed for their immigration because they are citizens of a colony, also the nativist sentiment that wanted to exclude any people of Asiatic decent from entering the country and or gaining citizenship. It was only after WWII and the end to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines that the US finally agreed to independent status of the Philippines.

What does this tell us about Military and Foreign Policy in the The Progressive Era/WWI?
America's colonial interest was driven mostly by a desire to be viewed as a world power after industrializing. American's also saw themselves as a special people who's democratic freedom loving christian lifestyle should be spread to the less fortunate (manifest destiny extended). Spreading dominion to the Pacific made sense because it gave America a strong hold in Asia. 
Foreign policy towards undeveloped countries was much like the rest of the industrialized world at this time, COLONIZE under the guise of humanitarian intentions. This was especially true in the Philippines, where America came in to "help Filipinos establish their independence from Spain."

What does this tell us about Ethnicity and Race in the The Progressive Era/WWI?
The way the American's treated the Filipinos in the colony as opposed to in America demonstrates the real ethnic racism taking place in America. Many of the soldiers who went to the Philippines after the colonial government had been installed, found that Filipinos were often well educated and intelligent, calling them their little brown brothers. In America, on the other hand, Filipinos were generally considered in the same class as the Chinese and Japanese who experiences the worst atrocities of racism. They found it hard to get jobs, did not receive a fair wage, couldn't get housing, and sometimes were the victims of violence. Americans campaigned against Filipinos who they claimed took their jobs and had an affinity for white women.

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

General Thoughts:

The author argues that the colonial relationship with the Philippines drastically changed the United States as people were exposed to an Asianic other that proved to be civilized and educated and not fit into the racist stereotypes so embedded in American popular culture at that time. While I agree that the people who had intimate interactions with the majority of Filipino colonial immigrants or those the military interacted with in the Philippines were changed by the relationships, the average American just lumped Filipinos in with the other Asian peoples and their stereotypes remained strong. This book did not provide significant evidence to support the idea that Americans as a whole followed suit, it was the minority who appreciated and supported the Filipino cause for the right reasons.

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

My Highlighted Passages: 

Exiled revolutionaries were divided and willing to play both sides. The end of April 1898 saw Miguel Malvar in Hong Kong negotiating with Spaniards for autonomy and Emilio Aguinaldo in Singapore negotiating with a U.S. consul for recognition of Philippine independence.1226

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By Aguinaldo's account, Wood had stated that the United States was "a great and rich nation and neither needs nor desires colonies";1229

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Aguinaldo claimed Dewey had honored him as a general, urged the lifting of a Philippine flag, and promised U.S. recognition of Philippine independence.1251

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Aguinaldo appointed diplomatic emissaries to travel to European capitals and to Washington to lobby for the recognition of the Philippine Republic.1334

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These agents launched legal and historical arguments for the sovereignty of the Philippine Republic and the impossibility of the islands' legitimate transfer from Spain to the United States.1335

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when Filipinos were "told of America's treatment of the black population," they were "made to feel that it is better to die fighting than to become subject to a nation where, as they are made to believe, the colored man is lynched and burned alive indiscriminately." 551394

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Some black leaders made the still more controversial move of declaring solidarity or even identity with Filipinos.1594 

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Along with torturing them, U.S. soldiers also killed Filipino prisoners.1880

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derecognition to its furthest extension: Filipinos had already "caused so much trouble & murdered so many of our boys" that U.S. soldiers "recognize them no longer but shoot on sight all natives.1900

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Natives will not or cannot understand kind & civilized treatment.1901

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"I wish you to kill and burn." Smith ordered "all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United STop of Form

tates," When Waller had asked the general for clarification, Smith stated that he considered any person over the age of ten "capable of bearing arms,"1922

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The direct result of these instructions was systematic destruction and killing on a vast scale.1923

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Race would not only justify the ends of the war-especially as the necessary response to Filipino savagery and tribal fragmentation-but would be used to justify many of the "marked severities" employed by U.S. soldiers to bring it to its desired conclusion. 1928

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Those who adopted guerrilla war, it was argued, surrendered all claims to bounded violence and mercy from their opponent.1942 

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the report had concluded that Aguinaldo, who had never been guaranteed American support, had provoked a war with the United States in the name of a falsely named "republic";2437

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Viewed from the perspective of Philippine colonial officials, the exposition failed to accomplish its three principal political goals: to convince the American public of civilian control and the terms of assimilation; to promote Philippine exports through tariff reform; and to persuade elite Filipinos of U.S. power and good intentions.3392

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The racial-political angst of these anti-imperialists reflected a profound truth: that the very racial formations upon which American politics was grounded at that moment were themselves plastic.5605

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Like other empires, the United States had gone out into the world in the twentieth century, only to find itself remade by it.5612

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Long after the end of formal U.S. imperial sovereignty, struggles over the terms of Philippine-American colonialism, embedded in Philippine and U.S. national and racial formations, would continue to haunt the way each society approached its global history. 5613