31 short stories and 108 poems represent a literary history of English writing in the Philippines, from the turn of the century to the present.

Part of the American Literatures Initiative Series In the late nineteenth century, American teachers descended on the Philippines, which had been newly purchased by the U.S. at the end of the Spanish-American War. Motivated by President McKinley’s project of “benevolent assimilation,” they established a school system that centered on English language and American literature to advance the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, which was held up as justification for the U.S.’s civilizing mission and offered as a promise of moral uplift and political advancement. Meanwhile, on American soil, the field of American literature was just being developed and fundamentally, though invisibly, defined by this new, extraterritorial expansion. Drawing on a wealth of material, including historical records, governmental documents from the War Department and the Bureau of Insular Affairs, curriculum guides, memoirs of American teachers in the Philippines, and 19th century literature, Meg Wesling not only links empire with education, but also demonstrates that the rearticulation of American literary studies through the imperial occupation in the Philippines served to actually define and strengthen the field. Empire’s Proxy boldly argues that the practical and ideological work of colonial dominance figured into the emergence of the field of American literature, and that the consolidation of a canon of American literature was intertwined with the administrative and intellectual tasks of colonial management.

As the inaugural volume of the new Brill book series Gendering the Trans-Pacific World: Diaspora, Empire, and Race, this anthology presents an emergent interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field that highlights the inextricable link between gender and the trans-Pacific world. The anthology features twenty-one chapters by new and established scholars and writers. They collectively examine the geographies of empire, the significance of intimacy and affect, the importance of beauty and the body, and the circulation of culture. This is an ideal volume to introduce advanced undergraduate and graduate students to Transpacific Studies and gender as a category of analysis. Gendering the Trans-Pacific World: Diaspora, Empire, and Race is now available in paperback for individual customers.

"The relative abundance of water has exerted a major control on all aspects of life in Australia, from the distribution of eucalypts and kangaroos to the customs of Anglo-Australians and Aborigines. Water is thus one of the dominant themes of this book, as are my ambivalence toward many of the situations in which I found myself, and my gropings toward a philosophy of balance between humans and their environment..." -- Ellen E Wohl, from the Preface. The tropical rain forests of northern Australia are among the most beautiful, rugged, and remote in the world. During the summer months, the mountains and forests here are lashed by cyclones, creating floods of tremendous intensity. Drawn to this area to research flood deposits in an effort to relate the history of flooding to regional climate, geologist Ellen Wohl studied three rivers: The Burdekin and Herbert Rivers in northeastern Queensland and the East Alligator River in the Northern Territory. RAIN FOREST INTO DESERT is Wohl's unique record of the time spent in this enchanting, secluded world and her efforts to obtain not only scientific data but a deeper understanding of the place, its culture, and its history. A blend of natural and human history, personal adventure and discovery, and the intriguing field work Wohl conducted in often dangerous surroundings, RAIN FOREST INTO DESERT is an intimate and skillfully crafted account of one woman's experiences in this relatively unknown and fascinating region.