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E-book
Author Go, Julian, 1970-

Title American empire and the politics of meaning : elite political cultures in the Philippines and Puerto Rico during U.S. colonialism / Julian Go
Published Durham : Duke University Press, 2008
©2008

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 377 pages)
Series Politics, history, and culture
Politics, history, and culture.
Contents Introduction: Colonialism and Culture in the American Empire -- Chapter 1: Tutelary Colonialism and Cultural Power -- Chapter 2: Domesticating Tutelage in Puerto Rico -- Chapter 3: Winning Hearts and Minds in the Philippines -- Chapter 4: Beyond Cultural Reproduction -- Chapter 5: Divergent Paths -- Chapter 6: Structural Transformation in Puerto Rico -- Chapter 7: Cultural Revaluation in the Philippines -- Conclusion: Returning to Culture
Summary An assessment of Americans efforts to provide the elite of Puerto Rico and the Philippines an education in self-government in the early years of U.S. colonial rule
When the United States took control of the Philippines and Puerto Rico in the wake of the Spanish-American War, it declared that it would transform its new colonies through lessons in self-government and the ways of American-style democracy. In both territories, U.S. colonial officials built extensive public school systems, and they set up American-style elections and governmental institutions. The officials aimed their lessons in democratic government at the political elite: the relatively small class of the wealthy, educated, and politically powerful within each colony. While they retained ultimate control for themselves, the Americans let the elite vote, hold local office, and formulate legislation in national assemblies. American Empire and the Politics of Meaning is an examination of how these efforts to provide the elite of Puerto Rico and the Philippines a practical education in self-government played out on the ground in the early years of American colonial rule, from 1898 until 1912. It is the first systematic comparative analysis of these early exercises in American imperial power. The sociologist Julian Go unravels how American authorities used “culture” as both a tool and a target of rule, and how the Puerto Rican and Philippine elite received, creatively engaged, and sometimes silently subverted the Americans’ ostensibly benign intentions. Rather than finding that the attempt to transplant American-style democracy led to incommensurable “culture clashes,” Go assesses complex processes of cultural accommodation and transformation. By combining rich historical detail with broader theories of meaning, culture, and colonialism, he provides an innovative study of the hidden intersections of political power and cultural meaning-making in America’s earliest overseas empire. -- Publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
In English
Print version record
digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Elite (Social sciences) -- Philippines -- History
Elite (Social sciences) -- Puerto Rico -- History
Political culture -- Philippines -- History
Political culture -- Puerto Rico -- History
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Sociology -- General.
Colonial influence
Elite (Social sciences)
Political culture
Kolonialismus
SUBJECT United States -- Insular possessions -- History
Philippines -- Colonial influence
Puerto Rico -- Colonial influence
Subject Philippines
Puerto Rico
United States
Philippinen
Puerto Rico
USA
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780822389323
0822389320
1283022907
9781283022903
9786613022905
661302290X