Alfred McCoy_An Anarchy of Families the Historiography of State and Family in the Philippines

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. Rn Rn~rchq of F~milies": The Historiogr~phq of St~te ~nd Familq in the Philippines

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Alfred W McCoy r' .For historians of the First World, national history is often the sum of its institutional pans-corporatiOns, parties, unions, legislature, and)exc_c;:_utive. Historiaris of Europe and America usually treat rhe family as an aspect of social history not as an institution that can direct a .;arion's destiny. In-the-Third·-World-, by contrast, the elite family has long been a. leading actor in

tjle unfolding. 'of the ·-national pageant. More specifically, in the Philippines, elite families can be seen as both object and subject of history, shaping and being shaped by th