It was America's first imperial war, and America's last war of the frontier. It was a war of battles, of frontal assaults, of artillery, and flank attacks, and barbed wire and trenches. It has been termed an insurgency, a revolution, a guerrilla war, and a conventional war.
As David 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 between the Spanish and the allied United States and Filipino forces; one fought between the United States and the Philippine Army of Liberation; and one fought between occupying American troops and an insurgent alliance of often divided Filipinos — the war marked America's first steps as a global power and produced a wealth of lessons learned and forgotten. It was a war fought between a young, growing republic, and the people that republic had just liberated from one of Europe's oldest empires. And it was a war waged not only on the battlefield and in the jungle, but in the hearts and minds of the people of the Philippine archipelago and the American heartland. It was a campaign so convincing that forty years later those same Filipinos fought valiantly against their Japanese liberators, who vowed to save them from the Americans, a campaign so convincing that an immensely popular American general staked his reputation returning American power to those islands. It was the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), and it has been neglected for a long time, lost in the shadow of the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and the two World Wars.
David J. Silbey holds a B.A. in History from Cornell University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University. Prior to his appointment at Alvernia College in 2001, Dr. Silbey was an Instructor at Duke University (1997-1999); Visiting Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University (1999-2000); and Visiting Assistant Professor, Bowdoin College (2000-2001). His other works include The British Working Class and Enthusiasm for Warfare, 1914-1916 (London: Frank Cass, 2005), "'Over the Dirty Waters:' Indian Soldiers in the British Army during World War I" in Timothy Dowling, ed., Personal Perspectives on World War I (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2005); and "'It Hurt Too Much to be American:' Japanese-Americans and the Experience of World War II" in Timothy Dowling, ed., Personal Perspectives on World War II (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2005).