Silbey, David

views updated

Silbey, David

(David J. Silbey)

PERSONAL:

Education: Cornell University, B.A. (magna cum laude); attended St. Peter's College, Oxford; Duke University, M.A., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Humanities Department, Alvernia College, Francis Hall, Room 223, Reading, PA 19607. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian and educator. Alvernia College, Reading, PA, associate professor of history; has also taught at North Carolina State University, Duke University, and Bowdoin College. Jamestown Project (think tank), New Haven, CT, senior fellow.

MEMBER:

Phi Alpha Theta.

WRITINGS:

The British Working Class and Enthusiasm for War, 1914-1916, Frank Cass (New York, NY), 2005.

(As David J. Silbey) A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902, Hill & Wang (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to books, including Personal Perspectives on World War I, edited by Timothy Dowling, ABC-Clio (San Francisco, CA), 2005, and Personal Perspectives on World War I, edited by Timothy Dowling, ABC-Clio (San Francisco, CA), 2005. Contributor to periodicals, including Social History of Medicine and Journal of British Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

Historian and educator David Silbey is the author of A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902, "a big-picture account of an unremembered war that has uncomfortable parallels with ugly little wars that followed," observed a critic in Kirkus Reviews. After a resounding victory in the Spanish-American War, the United States purchased the Philippine Islands from Spain in 1898, sparking outrage from anti-imperialist Americans and Filipino nationalists. On February 4, 1899, American forces clashed with Filipino soldiers in Manila, and several months later thousands of American troops landed ashore to occupy the islands. Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino forces began a guerilla war against the Americans, but the insurgency was defeated in 1902, though sporadic fighting lasted for years. "Though the American victory involved episodes of brutality, Silbey demonstrates that it was sufficiently quick, decisive and humane," noted a critic in Publishers Weekly. "Schools and hospitals were built for civilians," Silbey noted in an essay on Slate. com. "Insurrecto leaders who turned themselves in were often given amnesty and appointed to official positions in the civilian government. Filipino trade was supported. The legal system was modernized." The author concluded, "America succeeded less by waging war and more by waging politics, politics that co-opted much of the Filipino population and isolated the revolutionaries." "This is a well-researched examination of a struggle that, ultimately, helped forge a new nation," observed Booklist critic Jay Freeman.