The Philippines A Singular And A Plural Place, Fourth Edition

In his 1982 endorsement of the first edition of this book, the late Benigno Aquino Jr., noted that "anyone wanting to understand the Philippines and the Filipinos today must include this book in his 'must' reading list." His recommendation holds equally true for the fourth edition of this widely praised work. The new edition has been updated through the final years of the Ramos presidency, and contains a new section on the impact of President Estrada.

A unified nation with a single people, the Philippines is also a highly fragmented, plural society. Divided between uplander and lowlander, rich and poor, Christian and Muslim, between those of one ethnic, linguistic, and geographic region and those of another, the nation is a complex mosaic formed by conflicting forces of consensus and national identity and of division and instability.It is not possible to comprehend the many changes in the Philippines?such as the rise and fall of Ferdinand Marcos or the revolution that toppled him?without an awareness of the religious, cultural, and economic forces that have shaped the history of these islands. These forces formed the focus of the first edition of The Philippines. Of that 1982 edition, the late Benigno Aquino Jr., noted that ?anyone wanting to understand the Philippines and the Filipinos today must include this book in his '`'must' reading list.?The fourth edition has been updated through the final years of the Ramos presidency, and contains a new section on the impact of President Estrada.

* Contents * List of Illustrations * Preface to the Fourth Edition * 1. The Rules of the Road * Kinship and Other Relationships * Social Values * 2. This Very Beautiful Pearl of the Orient Sea * Nature's Terrors * The Physical Environment * Wet Rice * Sugar, Hemp, and Coconut * Land Ownership and the Distribution of Rural Wealth * Other Crops and Resources * Manila * 3. A Singular and a Plural Folk * The Plural Society * Lowlanders and Uplanders * Migrants * The Chinese * The Mestizos * The New Filipinos * The Ilustrado Elite * The Function of Education * 4. The Search for a Usable Past * The Spanish Era * The Nineteenth Century * Ilustrado Nationalism * The Decade of Struggle * Ilustrado-American Collaboration * Historical Ambiguities * The American Interregnum * 5. The Religious Impulse: Global and Local Traditions * The Spanish Church * Iglesia Filipina Independiente * The Roman Church During the American Interregnum * The Local Tradition * Islam * Religion Today * 6. Collaboration and Restoration * The Trauma of World War II * The Old Order * 7. The Marcos Era * The Man Himself * The Constitutional Presidency * Martial Law * The Communist Insurgency * Economic Growth and Decline * New Players and Old * Disease and Decay * 8. The Age of Aquino * The First Blush * The Politicized Army and the Militarized Party * Prosperity and Stability * Nationalism Resurgent * A Democratic Conclusion * Change and Stasis * 9. The Ramos Years: Solid, Stolid, Successful * The Ramos Presidency * The Election of 1995 * Economic Progress * National Stability * Postneocolonial Realities * The Endgame * 10. The Estrada Anomaly * Jose Ejercito Estrada * The New Regime * Security and Insecurity * Conclusion * Glossary * Bibliography * Index

David Joel Steinberg