The Bluejacket's Manual

Few people read about the Philippine Insurrection in American History. At the treaty ending the Spanish American War, the US purchased the Philippine Islands. However, the Filipinos who fought alongside the Americans against the Spanish felt betrayed and declared war against the occupying American troops. From the period of early 1899 through 1908, the US fought a protracted war said to have been more brutal than the fighting in the Philippines during World War II. The Bluejacket's Manual deals with the experience of a young Navy sailor bound by his duty to God, country and the Navy. Torn between the relationships developed in the Philippines; he struggles to save his body and soul during the period from 1898 to 1904. Originally fighting the Spanish then alongside the Army against the Insurrectos in the jungles of the north then facing the deadly Moros from the islands in the south, the sailor works to subdue a hostile people to America's will. The book is written in a manner that reflects the American patriotism and moral activism of those times balanced against Filipino aspirations.