Campaign for the American Reader: Pg. 69: "A War of Frontier and Empire"

David Silbey is Associate Professor of History at Alvernia College in Reading, Pennsylvania.

His new book is A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902. I asked him to apply the "page 69 test" to it; here is what he reported:

Having Marshall McLuhan look over one's shoulder is a bit intimidating, I have to say. And, like many authors, I realized that I was going to have to go back and look at page 69 to remember what it covered. In an odd way, thus, I replicated McLuhan's decision-making process: I read and judged page 69 of my own book, coming to it something of a blank slate. Oh, I knew the story of the larger book, but the page itself was a mystery. The difference, of course, was that I wasn't trying to decide whether to buy it, but rather to figure out if McLuhan had been right. Was page 69 (or any interior page, really) representative of the book?
I think Marshall is chuckling quietly behind me at the moment. Page 69 picks up the story at the very beginning of the war between America and the Filipinos. The United States has successfully defeated Spain and acquired the Philippine Islands for the bargain price of $20 million. Unsurprisingly, the Filipino revolutionaries, led by their President Emilio Aguinaldo, objected to this sale. Within a month of the announcement of the final treaty, on February 4, 1899, a nighttime incident between Filipino and American forces in the defensive lines around the capital city of Manila has led to a night of confused fighting. In the morning, as page 69 starts, the American Army gathers itself and launches forward into the offensive. It could have been a suspenseful day, with the armies fighting back and forth. It should have been a suspenseful day, as the Filipino Army of Liberation had had months to fortify their lines. But it wasn't. The Americans swept all before them and convincingly won the Battle of Manila. Aguinaldo thus faced a difficult choice: continue fighting a conventional war, or retreat to the hills, abandon the fledgling Filipino Republic of which he has just led the creation, and undertake a guerrilla war that could stretch years if not decades. The events of page 69 mark not only the start of a war, but foreshadow both its end and the start of another, much murkier conflict.
Here is page 69 in its entirety:

for permission to go over to the attack. Otis agreed and both MacArthur and Anderson launched their troops into the assault. The prospect was not, at first, promising. The Filipinos had had many months to fortify their lines and connect the blockhouses with lines of trenches and other emplacements. If they fought tenaciously, they could inflict heavy casualties on the attacking Americans.

The troops in MacArthur’s Second Brigade attacked first, at 8:10 a.m. The First Colorado and First Nebraska Regiments struck Blockhouses 5, 6, and 7, and the lines in between. In both cases, the units took their targets relatively easily. The First Nebraska, in fact, made it past Blockhouse 7 and captured the San Juan Bridge and Hill beyond it, putting them across the San Juan River.

To the south, Major General Anderson ordered a general advance against the lines of the Army of Liberation. It met with similar success as had greeted the Coloradans and Nebraskans. Anderson recounted, in his after-action report, the assault by seven companies of the First Wyoming and First California:

The movement began at 8:20 A.M. with a rush over the creek on our front, a cheer, and rattling volleys as the whole line advanced, not by rushes, but with a rush. The insurgent line fell back before our advance, fighting, however, with spirit. The rice-fields in our front were intersected with little irrigating dykes, and behind each of these, a stand was attempted, the Filipinos firing from behind them. Our men disdained these shelters and moved steadily on until raking fire was opened on them from the redoubt in the neck of the bend between Pandacan and Santa Ana. The Idaho Regiment made a turn

Thanks to David for the input.

Among the early praise for A War of Frontier and Empire:

"[T]he best brief introduction to the complex subject of the U.S. conquest of the Philippines now available."
—Publishers Weekly

"David Silbey provides a much-needed introduction to the Philippine-American War. In well-written and clearly argued prose, Silbey offers a smart and provocative argument for this war's complexity, brutality, and centrality to American as well as Filipino history. Everyone with an interest in American habits of empire should read it."
—Eric Rauchway, author of Blessed Among Nations

"Since at least the Vietnam War of the 1960s, the Filipino revolt of 1899 against the U.S. occupation has provided crucial historical lessons in regard to American mirages about Washington's ability to nation-build and install democratic systems in fragmented, non-industrial countries. Silbey masterfully and succinctly (and, at appropriate times, graphically) analyzes that revolt and its implications for the time of Theodore Roosevelt — and George W. Bush."
—Walter LaFeber, Tisch University Professor Emeritus, Cornell University

"Silbey's chronicle ... is fair and frequently surprising. As Silbey indicates, the Americans were hardly brutal imperialists; their motives for holding the islands were a mixture of self-interest and altruism. Although Filipino nationalists fought bravely, they were hindered by a fragmented political movement and erratic leadership. Silbey's portrait of the personality and career of Filipino icon Emilio Aguinaldo is particularly interesting. This is a well-researched examination of a struggle that, ultimately, helped forge a new nation out of disparate elements."
—Jay Freeman, Booklist