(Book Review: The Making of a Nation)

Fernando V. Beup, Jr.
Kas 110

BOOK REVIEW: John N. Schumacher, S.J., The Making of a Nation: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Filipino Nationalism.
Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1991. 269 pages.


Nationalism and the Re-examination of the Filipino Self

The question of nationalism is at once sensational if not a volatile issue riddled with contradictions, paradoxes, and even doubts. Its volatility is perhaps best illustrated by the differing opinions each person has on the matter, and oftentimes it fires up emotions and even causes deep divisions among the people engaged in its discussion. Such power nationalism yields cannot be overemphasized especially in the Philippines where nationalism is a byword among politicians, academicians, students, and even the common people on the streets. What indeed is nationalism? Who and what sorts of people claim to be nationalistic? By what standards would one measure nationalism, if it could be measured at all? Can one actually build an entire nation on the mere concept of nationalism?
The collection of essays in John N. Schumacher’s The Making of a Nation provides a penetrating look into the many facets of nationalism—from its inspirations to its manifestations—and proffers explanations to the many questions about the powerful nature of the national spirit that gave birth to the Philippine Republic. Here Schumacher examines the growth of nationalistic fervor in the context of the 19th century Philippines when the country had been opened up to world trade and consequently ushered in a new era of intellectual flowering especially among the upper class of Philippine society.
In the process of shedding some insights on the development of national consciousness, Schumacher begins with the chapter, “The Historian’s Task in the Philippines,” which sets the overall tone and purpose of the book. The author’s clear purpose—made similarly explicit in the book’s introduction—is to provide a volume of essays meant to give Philippine historians (and students of history) various perspectives and better appreciation of the nationalist heritage that the heroes of the Philippine Revolution have bequeathed to the country in the hope that it would pave the way for national unity and the realization of the vision as articulated by the Revolution’s most celebrated hero, Jose Rizal.
The leading characters that comprised the Katipunan are put under scrutiny as regards their milieu, their writings and actions that serve as key to their aspiration of carving out a nation out of more than a thousand islands. Expectedly, the cast of characters that dot The Making are very familiar ones: Rizal, Burgos, del Pilar, Bonifacio, etc., pointing at once to the book’s concentration on the Filipino intelligentsia, and hence, to the acknowledgment of their “superior” role in the making of a nation. To this, Schumacher makes up by recognizing the need to look at history “from below” as proposed by Reynaldo Ileto. Yet it is the insights that Schumacher gives on the role of the ilustrados in the Revolution that make up much of the strength of the book. By examining the possible underlying motives and the events that had transpired during the formative years of the revolutionary movement, Schumacher arrives at highly convincing findings that the revolution itself would not have been complete, much less successful, without the invaluable contributions of the ilustrados. To them Schumacher credits the articulation of the ideas and aspirations that would otherwise have been dispersed and incoherent if left alone to the ordinary masses. To a considerable degree, the book has thus reassured us of the nobility of the heroes’ intentions even as they are continued to be subjected to intense criticisms from some quarters.
The collection of essays is, rightfully, as what the author describes it to be—“a kind of intellectual biography of…[the author’s] past thirty-five years of research into the birth of the Filipino nation.” The way the essays have been ordered does reveal the growth of the author’s comprehension of the nationalist movement, or, as Schumacher himslef puts it, a representation of his “evolving understanding of that nationalist movement and the dynamics of its development.”
The Making of a Nation can best be understood with a good background of Philippine history especially of the Spanish colonial period. And because a substantial number of book titles and references are mentioned in the essays, it would help to refer to these works as well for in-depth understanding of the issues tackled. Yet even without the benefit of prior knowledge of said works, the book can still be appreciated as an excellent overview of the different schools of thought dominating the issue of Filipino nationalism.
The book is especially commendable for revealing the nuances of nationalism especially because it puts under close scrutiny the documants, people and events that helped shape the national consciousness. Hence, it serves as a guide to the labyrinthine world of a country undergoing birth pains as it tries to resolve the questions of nationhood. The topics it discusses are varied, from Rizal to present-day readings of nationalist history; and they progress in such a way that one can get an ever wider view of the issue as one moves from one chapter to the last.
Most notably, the book allows itself to dawn upon the reader that nationalism is not merely a single idea of love for country but a complex—and oftentimes problematic—dynamics of events and personalities, motives and intentions, of means and ends. Nationalism manifests itself in different forms, and we give meaning to them according to the demands of our times. In this regard, nationalism is not neutral; and consequently, our general judgment of the persons behind any nationalist endeavor is inevitably colored by our personal, social, economic and even geographic position and circumstance.
It is by presenting to the Filipino reader the various readings of nationalism that one is moved to re-examine the reasons and the purpose by which he assumes and demonstrates his national cosciousness and identity. Perhaps it is by putting once more to the fore the importance of understanding what it means to be a Filipino that the book achieves its most noble purpose.

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