Philippine War: 1899-1903, Brian Mcallister

¶ … Philippine War: 1899-1903, Brian McAllister Linn describes the events of the Philippine War with great attention to detail from the arrival of the Americans to the resolution of the conflict. Told from a military strategy rather than a historical perspective, the book lacks the sort of contextual evidence that many readers will miss. However, McAllisted still manages to elucidate the significance of the defining battle of Philippine history.

The book is divided into two parts that help contextualize the American intervention. The first section addresses the "Conventional Operations" of the Philippine War, up until the all-out American occupation. Thus, the last chapter in Part One "The Occupation of the Archipelago" provides a segue for Part Two: "The Archipelago." Where Part One offers a chronological battle plan, Part Two incorporates more of the nuances of the Philippine War and addresses the gray areas of the American occupation. On the one hand, the Americans had clear ulterior motives in the decision to participate in the liberation of the Philippines from the Spanish. On the other hand, the Americans did also engage in brutal tactics of war that defined their role as imperialists too.

Brian McAllister Linn, who is professor of history at Texas a & M. University as well as the Harold K. Johnson Visiting Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army War College, specializes in this era of American history. His other published titles include the U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902 as well as Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific 1902-1940. Therefore, the 2000 publication of the Philippine War: 1899-1903 fits in well within this repertoire. The book's detail and insightfulness into the regional conflict make it an exemplary addition to a military bookshelf.

In the Philippine War, Linn argues for a middle ground perspective on the American involvement that many readers will find refreshing. Although Linn does admit that the United States Army was guilty of torture and brutality, the author pushes those realities inside to focus instead on the broader strategies used. Success in the Philippines depended on the complex interplay of realities, argues Linn. On the one hand, Emilio Aguinaldo's tactics failed miserably because there was no indigenous nationalistic movement. Without a unified front, Aguinaldo failed whereas the Americans seized the opportunity to rescue a fractured archipelago and somehow emerge as heroes rather than Imperialist invaders. Even when America did play the role of the Imperialist invader, the nation did so with aplomb that would establish the United States as a dominant world power. Linn does not linger too long on the implications of the Philippine War but does suggest that a comprehensive overview of this period of history does reveal that the Spanish-American War was instrumental in laying the foundation for a global superpower.