A guide to the multidimensional facets of the Philippines, including an assessment of the legacy of Benigno Aquino Jr, and the country's transition to the Ramos presidency.

* Contents * List of Illustrations * Preface to the Fourth Edition * 1. The Rules of the Road * Kinship and Other Relationships * Social Values * 2. This Very Beautiful Pearl of the Orient Sea * Nature's Terrors * The Physical Environment * Wet Rice * Sugar, Hemp, and Coconut * Land Ownership and the Distribution of Rural Wealth * Other Crops and Resources * Manila * 3. A Singular and a Plural Folk * The Plural Society * Lowlanders and Uplanders * Migrants * The Chinese * The Mestizos * The New Filipinos * The Ilustrado Elite * The Function of Education * 4. The Search for a Usable Past * The Spanish Era * The Nineteenth Century * Ilustrado Nationalism * The Decade of Struggle * Ilustrado-American Collaboration * Historical Ambiguities * The American Interregnum * 5. The Religious Impulse: Global and Local Traditions * The Spanish Church * Iglesia Filipina Independiente * The Roman Church During the American Interregnum * The Local Tradition * Islam * Religion Today * 6. Collaboration and Restoration * The Trauma of World War II * The Old Order * 7. The Marcos Era * The Man Himself * The Constitutional Presidency * Martial Law * The Communist Insurgency * Economic Growth and Decline * New Players and Old * Disease and Decay * 8. The Age of Aquino * The First Blush * The Politicized Army and the Militarized Party * Prosperity and Stability * Nationalism Resurgent * A Democratic Conclusion * Change and Stasis * 9. The Ramos Years: Solid, Stolid, Successful * The Ramos Presidency * The Election of 1995 * Economic Progress * National Stability * Postneocolonial Realities * The Endgame * 10. The Estrada Anomaly * Jose Ejercito Estrada * The New Regime * Security and Insecurity * Conclusion * Glossary * Bibliography * Index