Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination by Benedict Anderson

Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination Reviews

• 
  Camilo Ruiz Tassinari

  I bought this book when I heard of the death of Benedict Anderson, whose Imagined Communities I had read –as any other social science student- during college, to my great delight. Later I had glimpsed at some of his essays published at the New Left Review, and I’m a great fan of his brother, Perry, but I had not had the time to put my hands on any other of his books. The extent of his erudition somehow always seemed to form a –imagined- wall between a reader that has no idea on his area of specialization –South East Asia- and the author.
  I was very happy to find out that The Age of Globalization is written for a lay audience, even if the exuberance of its conception and writing, and the quantity of trans-national connections, similarities and parallelisms laid out throughout the book does forbid –as any good book should- a careless reading.
  If some critics felt that Imagined Communities displayed the thread of its argument on too abstract a level, The Age of Globalization seems like a micro-macro case study of some of the theories of the former. But Anderson built such a powerful, international theory that a case study inspired on it required him to jump from the Philippines to Cuba to Spain, to Japan and China and to France and Italy. Not that any of this is done carelessly; on the contrary, the attention to the small detail of the best micro-history is present here at an impressive level.
  One might wonder why this book has received much less attention than Imagined Communities… Does it have to do with the original, rather dull title? Perhaps, but I doubt so. This is a hidden little jewel and the answer might lie in the fact that the book is beyond standard genres of historical writing: no national history, no international grand narrative in the style of Hobsbawm, no literary essay and focused on a group of men largely forgot in their own, peripheral countries –not to mention in the West… Anderson’s originality and inventiveness might have precluded his last major work from being properly understood. For the time being, at least. One can undoubtedly claim that a given work was indeed ahead of its time if, years later, it becomes a classic. Let’s wait. And in the meantime, let’s keep reading Anderson.
  
• 
  Meg

  The meandering style, and the moves from ultra close-up details on individual lives to broad-scale descriptions of international history, didn't work well for me. At the same time, it was fascinating to read a detailed account of the work of various novelists-turned-liberationists from the Philippines and to see how they were connected to movements going on all around the world at the end of the 19th century.
  
  In many ways Anderson doesn't make a full argument for it, but the dominant recurring theme throughout the book is the way in which anarchism as a social and political theory inspired much of the action that directed the major course of events in this time period. While often anarchism is seen as esoteric and ineffective, Anderson reminds us of its prevalence and its incredible consequences in this period of history.
• 
  JC

  I started reading this book a long time ago on a trip to Singapore, but abandoned it because I had a very poor quality photocopy of it that was difficult to read. I only picked it up a few months ago again, near the end of summer, in preparation for travelling to Cuba. It is now freely available on
  Anarchist Library. The book itself is very heady and exalted, bookish as Anderson tends to be, the sort of thing people read between LRB articles on a flight to some academic conference. It's global literary history that takes a glimpse into the intellectual life of the great Filipino anti-colonial figure, Jose Rizal, and the fairly radical literature he was reading, despite his reputation as a moderate critic of colonialism advocating non-violent means. There's a great little passage in this book about Rizal, during his time in Paris, wandering "round the Louvre, casually noting that part of it was burned by the Commune in 1871". There's also fantastic stuff on Isabelo de los Reyes a folklorist, anthropologist, and a Christian socialist who was a founding figure in the IFI Church (Iglesia Filipina Independiente), which a number of my Filipino Christian communist friends are a part of today. Isabelo is sometimes considered the "Father of Filipino Socialism," and while he was influenced by socialists and Marxists, I don't think he identified as a Marxist himself. There's some fantastic anarchist history throughout, especially Spanish anarchists and their connections to anarchists in both Cuba and the Philippines. There's some fascinating history that connects the lives of both Jose Marti (whose statues I saw littering every little corner of Cuba, including the Presbyterian church I stayed at while in Havana) as well as Andres Bonifacio (the founder of the Katipunan, who is still celebrated each year by Filipino communists, and who they teach about in educational sessions based on Joma Sison's PSR book) -- both these revolutionaries in Spanish colonies, led armed uprisings against their colonizers around the same time at the end of the 19th century. It was fascinating to learn about the ways Cuba's anticolonial struggle was connected to that of the Philippines.
  
  One example about the anarchist history that I particularly enjoyed, and shared with my partner who is into Jane Austen was this little unexpected tidbit about the anarchist Felix Feneon (who coined the term neo-impressionism to describe Seurat and other related artists he promoted as an art critic, as well as edited the works of Rimbaud and Lautremont, and frequented Mallarme's salons, the symbolist poet that greatly influenced Debussy, a composer that Feneon was also aquainted with and chose to be his music critic upon becoming editor of Revue Blanche):
  
  "On April 4, 1894, after Henry’s arrest (with swift execution certain), Fénéon planted a bomb on the window-sill of the fashionable Foyot restaurant opposite the Senate, which killed no one, but caused some grave injuries. As we have seen earlier, he was soon arrested. It is typical of his sang-froid that while awaiting trial on capital charges, he set to translating Northanger Abbey, a copy of which he surprisingly found in the prison library."
  
  I still recall the first time I attended a PSONA event, I was asked if I had read anything about the Philippines, and I struggled and said I had read part of this book by Benedict Anderson, and also one book by Joma Sison. And the person I was talking to mentioned they were not familiar with Benedict Anderson. I get the sense from Anderson's postscript, when discussing the national democratic movement in the Philippines and Sison, that he maybe finds the movement somewhat parochial, dogmatic, or dated. Interestingly though the sort of 'horizontal' org he mentions as the refreshing alternative no longer has a functioning site, yet the ND movement continues to persist as well as the IFI Church, so I think there are certain things Anderson was a bit off on when writing this postscript:
  
  "In January 2004, I was invited to give a preliminary lecture on some of the themes of this book by the famously radical-nationalist University of the Philippines, where the influence of (Ilocano) José María Sison’s Maoist “new” Communist Party, founded at the end of 1968, remains quite strong. Arriving much too early, I filled in time at an open-air campus coffee-stall. A youngster came by to hand out leaflets to the customers, all of whom casually scrunched them up and threw them away once he had left. I was about to do the same when my eye caught the title of the one-page text. “Organize Without Leaders!” The content proved to be an attack on the hierarchies of the country—boss-ridden party-political, corporate capitalist, and also Maoist Communist—in the name of “horizontal” organized solidarity. The leaflet was unsigned, but a website was appended for further enquiries. This was a serendipity too good to keep to myself. I read it out loud to my audience, and was surprised that almost everyone seemed taken aback. But when I had finished speaking, many hurried up to ask for copies. I cannot be sure if Rizal would have been pleased by the theme park in Amoy, but I feel certain that Isabelo would have been enchanted by the leaflet and rushed to his laptop to explore the website manila.indymedia.org. He would have found that this website is linked to dozens of others of similar stripe around the world. Late Globalization?"
  
  Either way, a very fascinating and enjoyable read nonetheless.
• 
  Daniel Burton-Rose

  Some academics still think they're cutting edge for citing Imagined Communities, but this is what people should be reading now!
• 
  Renata Lessa

  [I'm writing a short review for now, but I might expand it later, since I have to write an actual review for this book for university.]
  
  3.5
  
  Under Three Flags presents some good points, the main one being the connection between anarchism and the anti-colonial nationalist movements. This connection is established not in terms of ideology (or at least not predominantly), but in terms of transnational mobilization. To analyze this possibility Anderson sets out to follow the lives of two interesting figures in the History of the Philippines: José Rizal and Isabelo de los Reyes.
  
  However, I have to say this book is structured in a very weird way. If on the one hand it permits the author to be extensive and make every possible inquiry, on the other hand it makes for a frustrating reading experience at times, since we as readers have to glean the points being made throughout the chapters.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Kahfi

  Bisa dibilang buku Ben Anderson merupakan pionir dari penulisan sejarah anarkisme, yang selama ini anarkisme kerap berada di bawah selubung gerakan Marxis dalam perkembangan sejarah komunisme.
  
  Adapun selain itu, salah satu kelihaian Ben Anderson adalah mengkaitkan silang sengkarut antara beragam fenomena yang terjadi dalam kurun waktu sejaman, kemudian menghasilkan suatu kesimpulan yang begitu menggugah.
  
  Pada akhirnya, buku bertipe sejarah pergerakan merupakan asupan yang pas untuk mengisi ulang kadar nasionalisme setiap warganegara nya. Filipina punya buku ini, kita punya Di Bawah Bendera Revolusi.
• 
  Arif Abdurahman

  Ternyata novel bisa dijadikan sebagai rujukan sejarah, bahkan buku ini dibuka dengan kutipan dari Moby Dick-nya Herman Melville, yang disebut Benedict Anderson sebagai konsep "astronomi politik", yang memicu dirinya menulis buku ini. Ben Anderson, seorang akademisi gigih sekaligus poliglot sejati ini memetakan gelanggang perpolitikan dan kebudayaan di akhir abad 19. Dengan fokus memetakan hubungan antara penulis besar Filipina Jose Rizal dan perpolitikan dan sastra avant-garde di Eropa, juga soal globalisasi perdana antara gerakan-gerakan nasionalis dengan para anarkis global saat itu.
• 
  Ivan Labayne

  after, it mattered less to know whether rizal met engels or marx somehwere in berlin for isabelo delos reyes spent time with some anarchists in the ghastly montjuich, and basilio did something, which in retrospect, is sayang in fili
• 
  Dani

  I actually like this book more than imagined communities
• 
  Silvana

  I expected a more comprehensive history about global Anarchism (as per the title) but this one focuses mostly on the anarchic movement in the Philippines and some bits about its ties to other countries especially Spain and Cuba. It was not a problem since I got to know a lot about Jose Rizal who was a founding father of a neighbor country but the writing itself is all over the place it was hard to follow the narration at times.
• 
  J.Adams

  跳脫嘅寫法，唔按時序嘅歷史書，但仍然有可見嘅主題
  
  相對人物簡介，本書更多嘅一個人，同其他人或組織之間嘅連結，有時人係主角，有時地方係主角，有時組織係主角，又有時媒體係主角。
  
  見證住喺未有電報、飛機嘅十九世紀，唔同嘅革命家點樣跨越國界，同唔同嘅人交流、招兵買馬、投稿出版等
  唔同嘅殖民地（如：古巴、菲律賓）點樣此起彼落，互相影響，觸發一場又一場嘅革命
  
  呢種無國界嘅援助、情感連結、起義，正正就無政府主義。
  而孕育佢出嚟，可以話係工業革命浪潮之後嘅左翼思想、反帝國主義反殖民反奴隸制度反殘暴政權嘅想像。
  
  今時今日，香港看似全球化，但其實可能比起當年都仲係遠遠不如。
  畢竟當時香港仲係自由港，冇任何大國干預，資訊流通，所以吸引革命家都嚟避難、創作。
• 
  Raka Adrianto

  Anderson took us to a vast world of Filipinos in late 1800s. There, people already recognized themselves as the "Philippines" but similar stories to other East Indies colonies, they were scattered all over places with different views and ideologies. It occurred like so, until there's a young man called Rizal rose. He took a whirlwind of tours in Europe (a linguist himself who mastered prominent languages of subcontinents around that era, he went on to catch his dreams in the "motherland" and earned doctorate degree in science/ medicine). It's unthinkable how Anderson reconstructed this story and tried to find evidence, and later he came up with anti-imperialism theories.
  
  Fast forward: Sadly, Rizal was condemned and forced to close his chapter abruptly when he came home. But like every movement in those "distorted" times, his death left a much greater impact for the people. The rest was history.
  To me personally, it resonated very well with the story of Dutch East Indies and how both Archipelagos (Malay/ Filipino's) have almost similar decolonization processes. We rarely touched this topic in our history classes, let alone neighboring countries next to Indonesia. So ultimately I find the book enriching my knowledge in this arena.
  
  The only comment I can say: sometimes the pace of writings can be a bit "random". This is my first read from Anderson, but closer to the end of the book I got used to it. Or simply because I just never encounter this writing style somewhere else. Nevertheless, it's still good.
• 
  Levi

  ok siya, research-wise, sa pagkokonek ng international currents ng anarchism sa anti-colonial thought ng ilustrados. pero parang nakupot sa analysis kila Rizal, Don Belong, at iba pang mga ilustradong intelektuwal. nakulangan ako sa koneksyon nito sa Katipunan. implied ba na na-itransplant lang ito sa mga Katipunero via mga nobela ni Rizal at iba pang sabisabi ng mga intelektuwal ng panahon niya? paano naman ang independent na pagbuo ng radical thought sa mga Katipunero labas sa locus ng mga intelektuwal (mga manggagawa, papausbong na peti-b, ang malawak na kapesantehan sa kanayunan, sa siyang naging balon ng Reb Pilipino)? Kahit sana mga sulatin nila Bonifacio at Jacinto ay nasuri, kung hindi man iyong mga nasa labas ng punong kapulungan ng KKk. Interesante kasing malaman kung anung klaseng radikal na imahinasyon ang nabuo nila, dahil siguradong iba ito sa anarkismo at radikal na tradisyong kanluranin. Kakabit nito, maganda ring masipat ang posibleng tunggalian sa pagitan ng mga bubot na ideyang anarkista at proto-Marxist (konsepto ng estado). Isa pa, ano ang role na ginampanan ng mamamayan sa buong diskursong ito? Dapat kasi hindi natatali ang mga akademiko sa kasaysayan at epistemolohiya ng piling mga indibidwal lamang na nakapag-aral sa ganito ganyan at nakasalamuha si ganito ganyan.
• 
  Alvin Qobulsyah

  As a millenium adolescence whom started his colonial history spectrum from the age of "Boedi Oetomo". This magnificent works has bringing me further understanding the deeper context of the Bismarckian mindset and the sorrow sunset of Spanish Empires.
  .
  When the Indonesian' Father of Nation Soekarno was well known for his speech (and his opus in his time in Bandung), I never expected about whom Josè Rizal is for our Filipinos brothers and sisters. It was astonishing when I found he was fighting and built his nation's conscience from his two opus novels: Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo, and his tearful last testament Mi último adiós before he was shot by firing squad in Bagumbayan.
  .
  The intercontinental and transpacific connection between anarchist in several places of the remaining Spanish Imperium was presented delightfully by Uncle Ben. And maybe it is anarchism that is more threatening to capitalism rather than communism. It was intangible, unpredictable, and rather live even in individual level without the needs of the organization discipline and rigid hierarchy that were more easily ambushed by the capitalist. Beautiful English and Spanish translation by Ronny Agustinus.
• 
  Probo Darono Yakti

  Buku yang ditulis Ben Anderson ini bercerita banyak tentang perjuangan kaum anarkis di imperium Spanyol. Terutama menggarisbawahi peran Jose Rizal dalam perjuangan kemerdekaan Filipina. Ben bercerita dengan cara yang sangat detail. Bagaimana menggambarkan situasi saat itu membawa pembaca untuk kembali pada era itu dan merasakan berada dalam situasi yang mencekam karena praktik pembunuhan.
  
  Hal ini ditengari banyak kesewenangan yang dilakukan oleh pemerintahan kolonial Spanyol pada wilayah overseasnya: Kuba, Filipina, dll. Tentunya banyak hal yang dapat dipetik pada kisah-kisah ini: keberanian untuk menulis dan latar belakang intelektual. Perjuangan dimulai dari secarik kertas yang dibubuhi tulisan dari pena. Apa yang telah ditulis oleh Rizal dalam El Filibusterismo atau Noli menggentarkan semangat bangsanya untuk merdeka. Buku ini sangat layak untuk siapa saja yang ingin mengerti perjuangan bangsa Filipina dalam meraih kemerdekaannya, ataupun memahami situasi anarki yang berujung pada pembubaran salah satu imperium terbesar dunia, Spanyol.
• 
  catparov

  Saya menemukan istilah menarik dari sini, yakni, astronomi politik. Karya ini lumayan kompleks, di dalamnya melingkupi penjelasan politik, sejarah, bahasa, dan sastra.
  
  Lewat buku ini kita dapat mengetahui perbedaan model penjajahan dari negara satu dengan yang lainnya. Spanyol cukup peduli untuk merawat dan menularkan kebudayaannya di negara koloninya. Kita bisa melihat Universitas pertama di Asia Tenggara berdiri di Filipina. Jose Rizal menulis karya sastranya sebagai pemantik semangat antikolonial juga terhitung mengesankan. Sebab karya Rizal adalah karya pertama yang ditulis oleh pribumi Asia Tenggara di tengah praktik kolonialisme.
  
  Di luar itu, semangat antikolonialisme dapat ditularkan lewat perjalanan dan komunikasi (surat menyurat).
• 
  Frank Keizer

  Very original. Anserson investigates the links between anarchists and anti-colonials in the late 19th century, spreading three continents and many more countries, as if it were a novel from the same period. There is no central thesis - maybe something like Early Globalization through telegraph and steamship - only rapidly shifting scenes. Did you know the Filippino nationalist and 'father of the country' José Rizal read Multatuli? There are many more interesting facts in this book, and a lot of funny asides too.
• 
  Bookshark

  Though there are a few good moments in this book, it reads like an afterthought, as if it contains the material that just didn't quite fit into Imagined Communities. There was too much historical minutia for my taste, and too little synthesis or theorizing. It will be useful to add to a footnote answering the objection that anarchism is fundamentally white or Western, but overall I didn't get as much from this book as I'd expected I would.
• 
  Krisno Wahyudha

  Kupikir tentang sejarah bangsa Rupanya tentang anarkisme awal mula di asia. Khususnya asia tenggara. Nama Jose Rizal lalu Zola muncul disini dan saya sedikit pajam mengapa Jose Rizal menjadi pahlawan di Filipina dan bukunya yang hanya 2 dan langka itu menjadi tanda sejarah yang menggerakan perlawanan thd kekejaman kolonila. Pastinya si penulis memberi pengetahuan segar tentang sejarah anarkisme, berat tapi sesuat dg bobot nya.
• 
  Sam Waugh

  A quality and gripping piece of historical exploration, but probably less-so in its own right than as a companion to Imagined Communities, Anderson's seminal work.
  
  This book doesn't necessarily build too much on Imagined Communities, and almost acts more as a detailed case study. I imagine that it would also be difficult for someone unfamiliar with Imagined Communities to follow this, especially with how Anderson switches between analysis and narrative so swiftly and frequently.
• 
  Ross

  Brilliant history bringing together the features of late 19th century revolutionary intellectuals around the world. The book links through Jose Rizal personalities as diverse as Liang Qichao, Sun Yatsen, Mallarme and Marti. Truly globalization in its infancy.
• 
  Luke

  Literature in the Phillipines as a lens on the global influence and movement of ideas pushing anti-colonial and anarchist rebellion in the 1890s. Meandering and light overall, casual about the research's gaps and loose ends.
• 
  Ryan Alam

  i read the book with a tough time, it was serious book about hostory and anarchism. best part ? Rizal and Philiphines story
• 
  Ronaldo Lima

  Apesar de apresentar uma metodologia de pesquisa muito interessante, Anderson se propõe a falar de um tema muito específico o que dificulta nossa proximidade com o texto.
• 
  Bimana Novantara

  Sepanjang membaca buku ini, saya berpikir betapa orang-orang Filipina sudah kasak-kusuk memperjuangkan kemerdekaannya sejak abad ke-19 dari luar dan dalam negeri dengan cara-cara intelektual (menulis, berorganisasi, membuat jurnal yang berisi tulisan-tulisan pemikiran), sedangkan orang-orang kita masih menggunakan cara perang dan perjuangan fisik yang sifatnya parsial-kedaerahan, atau masih adem ayem hidup di bawah kolonialisme Belanda.
  
  Saya takjub dengan Isabelo de los Reyes yang menggunakan folklor dari negeri asalnya sebagai cara untuk menentang dominasi penjajah dan kaum agamawan yang dominan di Filipina jajahan, atau dengan Jose Rizal yang menyerap gaya penulis-penulis Eropa-Amerika (salah satunya Multatuli si penulis Max Havelaar) dan ide-ide anarkisme yang subur di Eropa kala itu untuk lalu secara tidak langsung ia gunakan untuk menulis dua novel yang menjadi inspirasi kawan-kawannya untuk melawan kekuasaan Spanyol (meski tidak semua sejalan dan sepakat dengan sikap Rizal).
  
  Siapa sangka perjuangan para intelektual Filipina bersifat sangat global pada masa di mana globalisasi masih merupakan istilah yang langka. Korespondensi surat para tokoh perjuangan itu menjangkau ke banyak tempat di Amerika, Kuba, Eropa, Cina, dan Jepang. Ini menurut saya benar-benar luar biasa karena tentunya para pemikir-pejuang itu adalah orang-orang yang memiliki gairah hidup yang besar yang teguh dengan pilihan sikap dan tindakan yang diambil selama hidup mereka. Tabik untuk mereka semua!
• 
  Menser

  beautiful, fascinating original historical account of end of america's anticolonial revolts and the onset of the east (such as Philippines) even tho he really does not understand "anarchism" in any genuine sense it really dont not much matter; the stories are great, the writing unusually gripping and the distinct anti-racist cosmopolitanism of anarchists (as opposed to the socialists of that period) was highly intriguing.
• 
  Broadsnark

  Benedict Anderson is brilliant. Somehow he manages to tell a scattered story of nationalism and all its influences through the bios of two Filipino writers. It's a fascinating book, covering a lot of territory. And it makes international connections in a way that no other book I have read does - from Europe, Asia, Americas...Really well done.