{"product_id":"the-making-of-the-modern-philippines-9781350296817","title":"The Making of the Modern Philippines","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWell-researched...\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003ea welcome guide. \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eReliable and lucid. \u003ci\u003eHistory Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eWith a fractured geography and complex identity, The Philippines is an eclectic and unique mix of culture, environment, people and politics. Known mostly for natural disasters, migrant labour and dictatorial presidents, in this book Philip Bowing shows how it is much, much more. Deftly navigating the history of this populous island republic, \u003ci\u003eThe Making of the Modern Philippines\u003c\/i\u003e traces its history to define and explain its position in the modern world. Looking past the headlines of volcanoes, earthquakes and violence, it asks why has the Filipino economy lagged behind its neighbours, explores the importance of its location in geopolitics, and investigates how its deep-rooted Catholicism clashes with the Islamic consciousness of the region in which it sits.  Taking the history of the Philippines from its pre-colonial era, through its Spanish and American occupations\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA serious, \u003cb\u003ewell-researched\u003c\/b\u003e survey of the Philippines, noted its manifold weaknesses and set them against what has been achieved in neighbouring countries. His is \u003cb\u003ea welcome guide\u003c\/b\u003e for the general reader to a country whose excesses are often difficult to fathom. -- Simon Scott Plummer * The Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eBowring’s \u003cb\u003ereliable and lucid\u003c\/b\u003e new book draws on his experience as a journalist in the region. -- Michael Dillon * History Today *\u003cbr\u003eProvides insight into what Filipinos think about their country. -- Alan Robles * South China Morning Post *\u003cbr\u003e[Bowring] is the perfect chronicler of what Filipinos have done right and wrong … It is \u003cb\u003ea much-needed wake-up call\u003c\/b\u003e from someone with no agenda. -- Ruel S. De Vera * The Philippine Daily Inquirer *\u003cbr\u003eThe Philippines merits both more attention and more understanding and \u003ci\u003eThe Making of the Modern Philippines\u003c\/i\u003e is both a good place to start and \u003cb\u003ea useful crib-sheet\u003c\/b\u003e for those who had been following along but whose memory needs brushing up. -- Peter Gordon * Asian Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003eA book that the world should be reading to better understand the political tidal waves [in the Philippines]. -- John Berthelsen * Asia Sentinel *\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Making of the Modern Philippines, \u003c\/i\u003ePhillip Bowring is acutely aware of the many contradictions that define the Philippines. Only someone who has lived and loved the region – a genuine “Asia hand,” as it were - can give us this fraught portrait of my country. * Patricio N. Abinales, Professor of Asian Studies, University of Hawaii-Manoa, USA *\u003cbr\u003eBowring’s book on the Philippine narrative is a pot of history and current events, compressing the past and dissecting the present. It is the book Filipino youths, bombarded with revisionism, must read to understand the schizophrenic nature of their country’s ghosts with the Spanish, the Americans, and the Japanese. They will be able to see the landscape of the Left and the Right, the Church and the Oligarchs that stirred politics into the everyday lives of the people that were once proud of leading the pack of Southeast Asian nations. Just by the woven accounts of the past thirty-five years since the fall of a dictatorship, Bowring was able to us what went so wrong and what is left of the hopes a country had stood for. * Criselda Yabes, Writer and Journalist, The Philippines *\u003cbr\u003eThis extraordinarily wide-ranging, yet accessible, account illuminates the intersections between the Philippines’ Malayic roots and connections, its obdurate colonial inheritances, and its contemporary geopolitical predicaments. Bowring works concertedly through the country’s complex, diverse past(s), painting a vivid picture of how today’s Philippines came to be – and what it could become. * Liana Chua, Tunku Abdul Rahman Assistant Professor in Malay World Studies, University of Cambridge, UK *\u003cbr\u003eThe Philippines has long seemed something of an enigma to outsiders -- 2,000 disparate islands, ruled as a single political entity for more than 500 years.  An indigenous Malay archipelago, but seeming more Spanish than Asian.  And a former American colony with a U.S.-style constitution and political system, but a country marred by feudalism, violence and dictatorship.  In \u003ci\u003eThe Making of the Modern Philippines,\u003c\/i\u003e journalist and historian Philip Bowring makes sense of the riddle of the Philippines.  In a lively narrative that begins in pre-colonial times and continues through colonization and occupation to the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship and the rule of its authoritarian President Rodrigo Duterte, Bowring shows us how the country's modern dark impulses are rooted in its past. This timely book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand this strategically vital country and its 100 million people, whose destiny could have outsized impact on Asia and the future stability of the region.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Figures List of Maps Preface  Introduction 1.     Fractured Geography, Complex Identity 2.     More Church than State 3.     Uncle Sam’s Brown Boys 4.     Choices of Evils 5.     Old Wine in New Bottles 6.     Marcos: Power Corrupts Absolutely 7.     Ladders and Snakes 8.     Straight Paths and Road Blocks 9.     Man with a Gun 10.  'Imperial' Manila's Weak Grip 11.  Lost Advantage 12.  The Root of Poverty 13.  An Unempowered Economy 14.  Beyond the Bayan 15.  Of “Free Trade” and the Short Arm of the Law 16.  Happy Families of Conglomerate Capitalism 17.  Mindanao: Beckoning Frontier 18.  Moros, Datus, Military and More 19.  Religion on its Sleeve 20.  Left Field Lies Fallow 21.  Foreign Policy: All at Sea Conclusion   Bibliography Index","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48738617131351,"sku":"9781350296817","price":24.66,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781350296817.jpg?v=1720049669","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-making-of-the-modern-philippines-9781350296817","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}