A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902

by David J. Silbey

Book Overview

First-rate military history, A War of Frontier and Empire retells an often forgotten chapter in America's past, infusing it with commanding contemporary relevance.

It has been termed an insurgency, a revolution, a guerrilla war, and a conventional war. As David J. Silbey demonstrates in this taut, compelling history, the 1899 Philippine-American War was in fact all of these. Played out over three distinct conflicts--one fought...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B004PGRTLS
• ISBN13: 9780809096619
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Hill & Wang
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Well done history, very readable

I found the book highly readable and a good accounting of the topic. I have found other material on the subject highly colored by politics or other motives that this book did not have. Read this if you like a good historians coverage. He gives ample coverage to many angles through a well referenced series of materials. I was surprised at the negative comments others gave since so few books are even available, or as written by historians who want to introduce us in a comprehensive way to the topic. Perhaps unfortunately what some may decry is the lack of good reference in some areas because there are none. As an example documenting the numbers of Cholera deaths is no easy task. So perhaps some other the comments relate to something that is not the authors fault, no solid material exists to reference and only speculation is available. This is the best readable material that I have ever found on the subject. I would highly advise reading it.

Great Book

What a wonderful book to gain knowledge of the Philippine-American War. Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing of this war, but now I've been enlightened. I suggest that others take time to read the book as well. It is well written.

A Forgotten War with Echoes for Our Time

The Philippine-American War isn't part of our national consciousness. "Dewey at Manila" was a phrase that commemorated one particular part of the conflict that was a resounding victory, and made Commodore Dewey a hero whose framed picture hung in countless American homes. Dewey's nautical victory over the Spanish was just the start of a war that would take over three years and would kill over 4,000 servicemen. It was America's first attempt at sending its power across the globe, and it provided for all future such endeavors lessons that often had to be relearned. Indeed, there are many parallels to America's current war in Iraq. Historian David J. Silbey refrains from making pointed comparisons, but his _A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899 - 1902_ (Hill and Wang), shows that remembering this forgotten war, while sometimes an exercise in frustration because of the obvious repetitions of history, would be timely and instructive. The war was to be a small addendum to the "splendid" Spanish-American war. Dewey quickly finished off the Spanish fleet in Manila, and afterwards the Filipino insurgents were supposed to be united with the Americans in fighting the Spanish, but the union did not work smoothly. The Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo went on the lam, with the war changing to insurgent attacks by partially-united Filipino forces. While there was a conventional war, American victories just toted up. By May 1899, the American commander wrote that the war was over and "there will be no more real fighting", and McKinley and the War Department agreed. In the only overt reference in the book to current events, Silbey says, "Mission accomplished," only it wasn't closer to true then any more than when our current Commander-in-Chief declared it so in his foreign war. The appearance of victory was good for McKinley, but that it was appearance only soon became plain. The fighting took on a new pattern of small-scale attacks on the Americans. The war was a particular strain on the soldiers, as it required constant alertness for enemies that rarely showed themselves and did so always unexpectedly; "No one can tell what these devils will do next," wrote one lieutenant. Yet another comparison with our current Iraq difficulties is that although there were "General Orders 100" which had been written up during the Civil War to try to ensure fair treatment of enemy soldiers, they did not ensure such treatment. These orders were used in the Philippines, but left a good deal of judgement to the individual soldier. There were many examples of soldiers abusing captives which can be attributed to incompetence or ignorance or malice. But some of the practices were official or semiofficial, including the "water cure" of forcing water down a prisoner's throat. "Torture was never official American policy," writes Silbey, "but in many places it became de facto American practice." Aguinaldo was eventually captured in March 190

A very well written overview of our history in the Philippines that should be much more well known

Most Americans are aware of their country's contributions to the world during World War II and the Cold War. We also know about the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts (Wars), and now the War on Terror (Afghanistan and Iraq). As we go back nearly a century to World War I things get a bit dimmer and the Spanish American War and what we did with Cuba and the Philippines is unknown to most, including me. Oh, I am sure we covered it in a few paragraphs in high school, but it wasn't the direct object of study and would have been colored very much by our liberating them from the Japanese in World War II and giving them independence in 1946. This excellent little book is a wonderful overview of what happened during the Spanish American War and Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt's sending Dewey to the Philippines to capture that Spanish colony as Cuba fell to us in the Caribbean. It was an interesting time for us to go defeat the Spanish in the Philippines. There many islands of the Philippines were not a nation conquered by the Spanish, but a collection of islands with different ethnicities and languages that had been a Spanish colony for hundreds of years. However, the idea of throwing off the weakening Spanish and forming a nation motivated a leader named Aguinaldo and many others who, by 1899, had been fighting the Spanish for ten years and had just about won their struggle. When Dewey showed up and forced the Spanish surrender, Aguinaldo and his army now had to fight the more daunting Americans. The Americans viewed taking a colony in Asia as an extension of Manifest Destiny, but the opinion at home was not unified. There was an anti-Imperialist political wing led by William Jennings Bryan that decried our martial efforts to defeat the native army and take possession of what the Spanish had ceded to us. David J. Silbey does a fine job recounting the military efforts waged on the islands as well as how the politics back home affected the military and civilian leadership the United States sent to the Philippines. While the forces of the United States usually dominated the indigenous forces, the violence rose as time went on. This led to some extremely harsh reactions from certain United States military commanders. The most famous of these being the brutal leveling of Samar Island. The United States made use of concentration camps (not quite the Nazi style) that pushed the people together without proper hygiene. Since the Philippines were prone to cholera outbreaks anyway, it is not surprising that a people weakened by hunger, by the stress of being removed from their homes, and concentrated in camps without clean water or any way to handle animal and human waste would see an outbreak that killed hundreds of thousands of people. This devastation along with the national elections of 1902 led Theodore Roosevelt (who had become Vice-President when the previous occupant died, then President when McKinley was assassinated) to declare an en

Concise, well written history of a forgotten conflict

A fascinating story with remarkable resonance to current events. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand America's emergence on the world stage. The only improvement would be better, more readable maps.