The Philippines: A Singular and a Plural Place, Fourth Edition

By David Joel Steinberg

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813337550
• ISBN13: 9780813337555
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A very accurate understanding

I read this book for a class that I took during my undergraduate years at UCI and found it to be a very helpful book in understanding the history, culture and people of the Philippines. Being a Filipina-American myself, I could better understand where my parents came from in their way of thinking and understanding the world. My parents were born and raised in the Philippines and I was born and raised in the USA. We often clashed in our ways of thinking and beliefs because of the different environments we grew up in, and this book definitely helped me to understand why. The title itself, "The Philippines: A Singular and Plural Place" definitely describes how such diversity- the mountain people, the farm people, the city people, the elite, and the poor, the 1000+ dialects are actually one in the Philippines. The fact that there are 1000+ separate islands yet are all part of the Philppines physically brings together this same idea of many being one. This is a definite must read for anyone trying to understand the culture, people and politics of the Philippines.

A Scholarly General Overview of the Political an d Personal

This book is definitely a scholarly level book that is aimed toward those taking a somewhat intellectual look at the "plight of the Filipino." The book is written very well, and seems to be fairly neutral when analysing the historical elements of how the Philippine Islands have progressed in the last couple centuries.The book is quite good and offers a lot of information to provide a fairly well-balanced view of the PI. Many would say it is too high-level, meaning, too general, but, for those that are wanting a peak into the political climate, as well as how the filipino has struggled to "become," then this book is definitely for you.If you are looking for light reading, this book isn't for you. Anyone intersted in Filipino, Filipino tradition, marrying a Filipina/Filipino, this book will give you a much needed advantage to understanding the culture, by understanding its historical context and the struggle of becoming a unified nation.I highly recommend it..