This innovative analysis of the Philippine historical crisis is accompanied by a critique of a U.S. racial formation in which Filipinos constitute the largest Asian group. Literary and artistic expressions by Filipinos manifest a new emerging identity defined by the multicultural debates crossing the Pacific, transforming the Philippines into a borderland of East and West. Caught betwixt the Asian continent and the hegemonic power of the United States, the Philippines occupies a contested space between past and present. Between the memory of colonial experience and an emergent nation-making dream, can a meaningful future be envisioned? This provocative book explores this problematic zone of difference through a critique of the Western production of knowledge in the context of local resistance. While Americanization of the Filipino continues, the encounter of globalizing and nationalizing forces has precipitated a profound political and social crisis whose outcome may be a paradigmatic lesson for many so-called third world countries. What happens in this Southeast Asian nation may foretell the fate of the ideals of democracy and social justice now beleaguered by the market and the unrelenting commodification of everyday life.

"This collection is an indispensable part of Philippine studies." - Multicultural Review

"In one of the most thoroug, hard-hitting, perspicacious analyses on the subject, San Juan dismantels the myths surrounding US-Philippine relations and lays bare the harsh realities US imperialism has wrought on its former "showcase of democracy"." - Against the Current

"In this trenchant survey of both the historyand contemporary status of relations between the Philippines and the United States, E. San Juan…display[s] his talent for provocative analysis." - Pilipinas

"One of the most thorough, hard-hitting, perspicaious analyses on the subject." - Journal of Contemporary Asia

"This book is a must read for Philippine specialists as well as specialists of Asian-American affairs." - Journal of Asian and African Studies