William Howard Taft and the Philippines: A Blueprint for Empire

For most Americans, William Howard Taft is remembered—if at all—for his girth rather than any particular accomplishment. Historians often have Taft rather uncomfortably squeezed between Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Adam D. Burns, in his study of Taft and the American occupation of the Philippines in the first decades after the Spanish-American War, attempts to give us a more nuanced and meaningful interpretation of this somewhat forgotten figure. Burns argues that Taft initially took a skeptical view of America's imperialist venture in the Philippines. Unlike other anti-imperialist critics who wanted the United States to depart as quickly as possible, or the virulently racist and militaristic expansionists who sought to beat down and exploit the Filipino people, “Taft believed that, once involved, the United States had a duty to make the best of things” (p. 9). America's withdrawal from the Philippines would simply lead to chaos in the islands and perhaps...