The Philippines in World History is the subject of the Forum section of the October 2017 issue of World History Connected, but its title conceals what the articles make manifest, which is the need for discourse on the marginalization of "small" societies in the pursuit of grand narratives. Without such discourse, practitioners of world history will be less likely to exploit the dynamic research and pedagogical opportunities that arise from the best "the macro in the micro" studies that both valorize human agency (which has been found wanting in grand narratives) and avoid the parochialism common in national histories. These articles seek to promote that balance in their effort to: contribute to our understanding of the many peoples and religions that spread to or were influenced by that archipelago; measure the impact in Asia of the modern technological changes that transformed global maritime trade; provide greater insight into the place of overseas Chinese in the shaping of Philippine history; and identify the more fluid conception of gender relations in the region, while also advancing our understanding of the place of the Philippines in the global pattern of anti-colonial resistance. What emerges from these studies is a vision of Philippine history that is richer in local, as well as global significance. Those interested in the history of the people of the Philippines will be delighted find in these articles that world historians, who have long addressed the famous Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade as a key episode in the growth of a global economy, are increasingly comfortable extending their study of that trade to include the Filipinos themselves, who crewed those galleons as they crewed much of the merchant marine personnel of Asia. They will also find that historians from many fields and disciplines are examining those crew members who left ship in Mexico, forging a link between their islands and the Americas that continues to this day. Moreover, readers interested in macro-political change will be asked to consider that the populist nature of the politics of the current President of the Philippines bears examination in the context of the contemporary global trend toward authoritarian regimes.
The Philippines and World HistoryGuest Editor, James Tueller
Introduction: Forum on the Philippines and World Historyby James Tueller
Toward a World History of Small Countries: The Philippines as a Global Connectorby Paul Adams
Layers of Time and Place: San Pedro Macati, Metro Manila, the Philippinesby James Tueller
Caquenga and Feminine Social Power in the Philippinesby Steven James Fluckiger
Violence and Imagination: Conquering the Chinese and Creating the Philippines, 1574–1603by Ethan Hawkley
Modernizing the Colony: Ports in Colonial Philippines, 1880–1908by Didac Cubeiro
Embracing the Pejorative, Challenging Authority: Resistance in Philippine and African and African Diaspora Contextsby Paul A Rodell
Articles
Identities in Crisis: Representations of Other and Self in Manchuria during the Plague Years of 1910–1911by Michael Corsi
Reading Vermeer's Hat: A Professional Reading Model for Novice World Historiansby Thomas Mounkhall
Book Reviews
Jan C. Jansen and Jürgen Osterhammel, Decolonization: A Short Historyby Abou B. Bamba
Glenda Sluga and Patricia Clavin, eds., Internationalisms: A Twentieth-Century Historyby Dave Neumann
Valerie Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History with Documentsby Christian Philip Peterson
Jonathan Lamb, Scurvy: The Disease of Discoveryby Dylan Ruediger
Richard Jean So, Transpacific Community: America, China, and the Rise and Fall of a Cultural Networkby Robert Shaffer
Valerie A. Kivelson and Ronald Grigor Suny, Russia's Empiresby Mark A. Soderstrom
Antoinette Burton and Tony Ballantyne, eds., World Histories from Below: Disruption and Dissent, 1750 to the Presentby Merry Wiesner-Hanks