The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 1 of 2) by Dean C. Worcester

Rare book about the Philippines by Dean C. Worcester, once referred to as the “P.T. Barnum of the ‘non-Christian tribe’ industry by James H. Blount, a former judge in the Philippines and an active member in the Anti-Imperialist League.

"Worcester made use of numerous photographs he took of non Christian tribes to support his arguments that the Philippines needed a strong US presence in order to become civilized.

The books were criticized and viewed as abhorrent propaganda which tends to make the people of the United States believe that the Filipinos are still in a semi-civilized state, gee stringed and without any idea of hygiene and that the US needed to maintain its control of the Philippines for as long as possible.

In the Philippines, critics tried to limit the impact of Worcester’s photographs. In February 1914, the Philippine Assembly passed a law that prohibited the taking, exhibiting, possessing, or using of any photographs of nude or semi-nude Filipinos. A second law outlawed the taking of non-Christian Filipinos out of the Philippines for the purposes of exhibiting them in expositions and fairs.

Despite such resistance to Worcester’s photography, his influence over American perceptions of the Philippines continued long past his death in 1924.” Sourced from Dean Worcester's Photographs and American Perceptions of the Philippines by Mark Rice, 2011

New York, The Macmillan company, 1914. vol 1 and vol 2

illustrations, map ; 23 cm. 128 plates Good Condition