America's Boy
A Century of United States Colonialism in the Philippines
By James Hamilton-Paterson
(Henry Holt and Co., Hardcover, 9780805061185, 496pp.)
Publication Date: September 1999
Categories: Asia - Southeast Asia, International Relations - General, Political History
 |     |
A narrative history of the U.S.-supported dictatorship that came to define the Philippines.
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos presented themselves as the reincarnation of a primal couple from Filipino mythology. Ferdinand reinvented himself as a matchless fighter against the Japanese, and Time magazine hailed him as a hero. He was the strongman, the dictator, welcomed at the White House by Lyndon B. Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and the C.I.A..-America's Boy. For twenty-one years he and Imelda dominated the Philippines. In the , a "democratic revolution" replaced them with Corazon Aquino, who, in turn, was followed by Fidel Ramos, Imelda's cousin. Nothing changed: the world applauded, the shadow play went on.
James Hamilton-Paterson has gathered astonishing information from senators, cronies, rivals, and Marcos family members, including Imelda. Covering the entire one-hundred-year history of U. S. involvement in the Philippines, he offers a devastating vision of the price Filipinos paid for dictatorship. Perhaps no other couple is as emblematic of American Imperialism as the Marcoses; America's Boy is their story. Passionate, deeply researched, and haunting, it is "a riveting read" (The Guardian [London]) by one of the language's best stylists.
James Hamilton-Paterson is the critically acclaimed author of sixteen books, including the Whitbread Award-winning Gerontius. Writer of both fiction and history, he has lived half of each year in the Philippines for almost twenty years. The author has been profiled in Vanity Fair and other magazines.
 |
Flight Behavior Barbara Kingsolver Harper |
 |
The Art Forger Barbara Shapiro Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill |
 |
Sweeth Tooth Ian McEwan Nan A. Talese |
 |
The Light Between Oceans ML Steadman Scribner |
