Book Reviews An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines edited by Alfred W. McCoy. Madison: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1993. X+S4Ipp, $24.95, paper. Everyone familiar with the Philippines is cognizant that several dozen landed families dominate the entire country. The mes Lopes, Durano, Cojuangeo. and Osmena need no introduction. Beyond that is the need to understand how these families have shaped Philippine history. Given their wealth and interests, it can be difficult to amass the necessary information to make such an assessment. A useful startin this direction is Alfred W. McCoy's An Anarcly of Faris. Hopefully this volume will lead to further work and more detailed case studies of individual families. Contsibutors to An Anarchy of Families assert that the large landed families have been instrumental in shaping the Philippine nation state and specific Filipino institutions, particularly these in government and public life. The resource base of these families puts them in social class above Filipino peasants and urban workers, in addition to which many of these families have produced generation after generation of gifted professionals and entrepreneurs. It should not be surprising, therefore, that they tend to associate what is good for themselves with what is good for the Philippines. Once they obtain access to governmental power, these families utilize the state to further their own interests and financial status. This pattern of behavior serves to promote corruption end the development of a ‘weak Filipino state that can be directed very easily by those who possess wealth The relationship between landed family and the state is an important one, and Ant Anarchy of Families’ authors have illuminated some of the regional variations of this theme. Increasingly, Philippine histonography has shown how much variation exists ‘within the archipelago. A\tacks on Filipino elite are very common, but in this book we see some elites deserving of criticism and others worthy of praise, although most fall somewhere in between. Evidently the elites of the Philippines are more complex than might appear at first glance ‘One major theme that the authors attempt to probe is the families’ reliance on violence to obtain their objectives. This varies from family to family, and the Osmenas and Pardo de Taveras, in fact, shun the practice. But we need to understand why many landed families do feel that violence is so necessary to maintain their 17% Crossroads 10:2Phipps interests and how the tendency to violence shapes Philippine developments. To the extent that thete families influence government policy, violence tends to become thoroughly {nstittionalized. Given the excessive lft-and right-wing violence of the late Marces and Aquino years, this is avery important topic. Do the families understand! what their violent actions are dolng to the Philippines ac a whole? Are they making the country into a place whichis unlisable? Ifthe landed families do not comprehend these everts is this because ofa deeply ingrained cultural atitude toward violence ard hegemony? Perhaps the most interesting chapter is that by Ruby Paredes cn the Pardo de Taveras family. Trinidad Hermenogildo Pardo de ‘Tavera has the reputation of being the black sheep of Filipino history, particularly irom the nationalist school perspective, because ct his willingness to cooperate withthe Spaniards (and later with the “Americans) and his advocacy of Philippine statehood. Ruby Paredes {queitions this steootype. We must consider the possibility that Pardo de Tavera genuinely beleved the Philippines would be better off in a dependent status. If so, that would make him as much & patriot as Andres Bonifacio of Emilio Aquinaldo. His solution imply proved unworkab ‘Mita Pardo de Tavera isan interesting care study in landed families. Her carcer was by any estimation illustrious and distinguished. If the landed families are as tersible as some allege, how could they produce individuals such as this? And how can they [Produce individuals such asthe current generation of Ostnen, Who {re revitalizing Cebu? The individual studies in An Anarchy of Families contain exhaustive research. It is clezr that to assemble their respective ‘esays the authors did a vast amount of detective work. The source ‘material, Doth published ars archiva, is prodigiots and varied and say explain why a work such as this as not appeared until now. While not every landed family can be inehided in a book such as this, there are several that pethaps should have been included and were not. The Flizaldes, he Marcoses, ard the Romualdezes ‘come to mind most readily. The authors make the assertion that the Marcos regime attempted to supplant the landed families but ultimately failed. Perhaps a chapter on the Marcos family might have shed more light on this. Were the Marcoses 2 new type of landed family? Will they carry on over several generations asthe (Onenents have? (Cressrads 10217 Book Reviews An Anarchy of Familie is an important work in Filipino historiography and belongs on the bookshelf of every Flipinist. AS mote research is done on these fame, our perception of them will, surely change. This book may very Well aston that process. Tames Berk (zean Courty Colge