Caught betwixt the Asian continent and the hegemonic power of the United States, the Philippines occupies a contested space or borderland between past and present, East and West. Balancing the memory of colonial experience with an emergent nation-making dream, this innovative book asks if a meaningful future can be envisioned. With seven million migrant workers flung across the globe, Filipinos seem to have become hybrid, transnational subjects. In this provocative work, E. San Juan explores this problematic zone of difference through a critique of the Western production of knowledge in the context of local resistance. While Americanization of Filipinos continues, their encounter with globalizing and nationalizing forces has precipitated a profound political and social crisis whose outcome may be a paradigmatic lesson for many so-called third-world countries. The future of this Southeast Asian nation may foretell the fate of the ideals of democracy and social justice now beleaguered by the market and the unrelenting commodification of everyday life. Will Filipinos continue to be Americanized Asians, or evolve into a new nation in the turbulent Pacific Rim of Asia?