The Blood of Government - by Paul a Kramer (Paperback)

About the Book

Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines

Book Synopsis

In 1899 the United States, having announced its arrival as a world power during the Spanish-Cuban-American War, inaugurated a brutal war of imperial conquest against the Philippine Republic. Over the next five decades, U.S. imperialists justified their colonial empire by crafting novel racial ideologies adapted to new realities of collaboration and anticolonial resistance. In this pathbreaking, transnational study, Paul A. Kramer reveals how racial politics served U.S. empire, and how empire-building in turn transformed ideas of race and nation in both the United States and the Philippines.

Kramer argues that Philippine-American colonial history was characterized by struggles over sovereignty and recognition. In the wake of a racial-exterminist war, U.S. colonialists, in dialogue with Filipino elites, divided the Philippine population into "civilized" Christians and "savage" animists and Muslims. The former were subjected to a calibrated colonialism that gradually extended them self-government as they demonstrated their "capacities." The latter were governed first by Americans, then by Christian Filipinos who had proven themselves worthy of shouldering the "white man's burden." Ultimately, however, this racial vision of imperial nation-building collided with U.S. nativist efforts to insulate the United States from its colonies, even at the cost of Philippine independence. Kramer provides an innovative account of the global transformations of race and the centrality of empire to twentieth-century U.S. and Philippine histories.

Review Quotes

"Blood of Government does valuable work in laying out the intricacies of racial (re)formations in the service of and against colonialism. . . . This book has much to offer those interested in Phillipine-American relations as well as postcolonial studies, and, surprisingly, given its length, leaves one wishing for more." -- Journal of American History

"The Blood of Government is a very important work. . . . It [approaches] its subject in a fresh and provocative way." -- American Historical Review

"The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines is richly illustrated, clearly written, and full of vivid conceptualized terms. . . . The skillful way in which Kramer interweaves cultural, social, military, and political narratives makes his book a standard-setter in international history. It is a must-read for historians interested in imperial culture, racial formation, comparative empires, and nationalism, as well as those with area-studies interests in Philippine and US history." -- International History Review

"A formidable assessment of the intertwined nature of race and U.S. imperialism." -- Journal of Southern History

"A very significant contribution to the study of American imperialism. . . . [The Blood of Government] presents a thorough and thoughtful study of the imperial relationship between the United States and the Philippines. . . . A solid contribution toward building a new historiography of U.S. empire." -- H-Diplo

"An important work not only to the field of Philippine-American studies, but also to the studies of race and imperialism in general." -- Journal of American Studies

"Compelling. . . . The author shows impressive command of . . . the sources in the United States and the Philippines, ranging from personal papers, newspapers, and military civilian archives. . . . Highly recommend[ed]." -- CENTRO Journal

"Kramer has pulled . . . many skeins together under one cover for more general audiences. Recommended." -- CHOICE

"Moves easily -- and often brilliantly -- across geographic and disciplinary boundaries to probe the dynamics of racial formation in the context of the U.S. Empire. . . . A truly transnational study of empire in which forces in the metropole and colony carry equally explanatory weight. . . . Sure to be a touchstone of transnational history for years to come." -- Journal of American Ethnic History

"This commendable transnational history should serve as a welcome invitation to both Americans and Filipinos to scale each other's boondocks, so that in these 'remote areas' of misunderstanding, which have caused many wounds in the past, lasting healing may finally take place." -- Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

About the Author

Paul A. Kramer is associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University.