Awards
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Synopses & Reviews
Review
"His treatment of the indecisiveness of President McKinley over the issue of empire and of the egotistical General MacArthur make the work a definite purchase for libraries. Weaker in treatment is the post-independence period, where Karnow concentrates upon Marcos and Aquino, both of whom he knows....Those who love swashbuckling history will enjoy this work." Library Journal
Review
"Perhaps the best journalist writing on Asian affairs." Newsweek
Review
"An impressively researched study of an adventure in empire that dared not speak its name." The New Republic
Review
"Though Karnow claims that U.S. imperialism in its former colony, the Philippines, has been "uniquely benign" compared to European colonialism, the evidence set forth in this colorful, briskly readable history undercuts that prognosis. He shows that a succession of U.S. presidents and administrators coddled the archipelago's 60 or so ruling families, perpetuating the feudal oligarchy that continues to this day, and widening the gap between rich and poor." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A brilliant, coherent social and political overview spanning three turbulent centuries." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Stanley Karnow has written the ultimate book brilliant, panoramic, engrossing about American behavior overseas in the twentieth century." The Boston Sunday Globe
Review
"This is a peculiar and often misleading book....Karnow is one of America's sentimental imperialists. He laments the errors of those who intervened, but not the act of intervention itself. Rather than criticize or condemn American colonialists, he emphasizes that they intended to help....In Our Image is full of ethical judgments, and in the main they indicate the author's inclination to explain away the American colonial impulse." Peter Tarr, The Nation
Synopsis
"A brilliant, coherent social and political overview spanning three turbulent centuries."--San Francisco Chronicle Stanley Karnow won the Pulitzer Prize for this account of America's imperial experience in the Philippines. In a swiftly paced, brilliantly vivid narrative, Karnow focuses on the relationship that has existed between the two nations since the United States acquired the country from Spain in 1898, examining how we have sought to remake the Philippines "in our image," an experiment marked from the outset by blundering, ignorance, and mutual misunderstanding.
"Stanley Karnow has written the ultimate book--brilliant, panoramic, engrossing--about American behavior overseas in the twentieth century."--The Boston Sunday Globe
"A page-turning story and authoritative history."--The New York Times
"Perhaps the best journalist writing on Asian affairs."--Newsweek
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 453-475) and index.
About the Author
Stanley Karnow won the Pulitzer Prize for this account of America's imperial experience in the Philippines. In a swiftly paced, brilliantly vivid narrative, Karnow focuses on the relationship that has existed between the two nations since the United States acquired the country from Spain in 1898, examining how we have sought to remake the Philippines "in our image," an experiment marked from the outset by blundering, ignorance, and mutual misunderstanding.