MANILA, Philippines - Most who know their Philippine history have some knowledge of the famed Siege of Baler in 1898, the strange-but-true story of the last holdouts of the Spanish empire who, half-starved and wracked by disease, refused to surrender to Filipino revolutionary forces that surrounded them.
New research underpinning a recently published book, The Devil’s Causeway by Matthew Westfall, now dramatically expands our understanding of this tale of heroism and heart, placing Baler and its historic siege as the backdrop to a long-forgotten United States Navy debacle that altered the course of the Philippine-American War.
Influential Library Journal sums the book up as a “harrowing circus caused by an incompetent launch commander, short-tempered insurrectionists, the media, the US Army, grand strategy, and American politics…. Westfall has brought to life the people and societies that clashed at the end of a century when America was determined to build a worldwide empire.â€
The Devil’s Causeway is available exclusively at all Fully Booked Bookstores.