ABSTRACT
When officers of the U.P. History Club invited me to address this gathering, they suggested a subject which was so broad it encompassed virtually the entire area covered by my latest book. I was initially reluctant to accept the invitation for 1 wondered if it had been motivated by a desire on the part of the organizers to secure for their club members a sort of “history without tears”—in other words, a chance to get the substance of the book without having to wade through it. I decided, however, that such a suspicion was unfair to the U.P. studentry whose reputation for scholarship has always been widely accepted-although it is not always deserved. On the other hand, the invitation indicated a residual interest in my work or at least evidence that 1 am still being read. 1 therefore decided to renew my association with a segment of U.P. society by discussing with you some ideas regarding Philippine history. For the most part 1 will be restating some of the main themes of A Past Revisited.
