Campaigns of Knowledge

“Examining the cultures of U.S. colonialism and military occupation in the pedagogical formation of colonial subjects in the Philippines and in occupied Japan, Campaigns of Knowledge demonstrates not only the brute force of colonial domination but also its enforcement and contestation through culture, language, forms of kinship and household, and education. By illuminating the mechanisms of colonial schooling in the Philippines and Japan designed to inculcate ‘American’ national values, this book also sheds important light on the broader project of U.S. empire—from compulsory boarding schools for Native Americans to the cultural imperialism employed overseas in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and now the Middle East.”
—Lisa Lowe, Samuel Knight Professor of American Studies at Yale University

“Campaigns of Knowledge is unprecedented in its careful comparison of U.S. colonial educational efforts in the Philippines and Japan under American occupation. Focusing on the contrasting orientalization of ‘undercivilized’ Filipinos and ‘overcivilized’ Japanese by American planners, Schueller demonstrates how similar pedagogical techniques sought to produce independent individuals who were at the same time submissive to imperial authority. But in looking at the cultural productions of colonized subjects, including film and literature, Schueller also shows how these individuals seized on the lessons of colonial rule and sought to inflect, rearticulate, and undo its various aspects. This truly important book brings together the U.S.-occupied Philippines and Japan—and beyond—within an expansive comparative framework ranging across postcolonial educational studies, Asian studies, and Asian American studies.”
—Vicente L. Rafael, Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington, Seattle

"Schueller examines sources from the colonial archive and cultural texts to illuminate how American educational reforms served as a technology of biopower to make 'racialized pedagogical subject(s)' in the Philippines and occupied Japan.... She shows the ultimate failure of colonial education, dramatized in scenes such as chaotic schoolrooms and subversive folklore, read as forms of 'decolonial knowledge' emerging from 'embodied material experiences.'... This book is most appropriate for graduate students and researchers working in cultural studies (especially those focusing on Asian American studies or US empire) and postcolonial studies. Summing Up: Recommended."
—Choice

"(A) deeply analytical treatment of education in the U.S. occupations of the Philippines and Japan.... Schueller’s most valuable contribution (is) that the soft power of schooling so central to earlier American colonial projects remains as salient as ever in a neo- and post-colonial world."
—Pacific Historical Review

"(C)ompelling and thoroughly researched.... Schueller provides an invaluable history of US pedagogical subjugation and the strategies of resistance produced by education as an imperial technology."
—American Literary History

"Campaigns of Knowledge skillfully weaves together two stories of twentieth-century American empire, moving beyond a traditional political-military history of competing statehoods to elevate native voices through deep cultural analysis.... Schueller’s privileging of affect, of literary analysis, and of imagination—while sometimes uncomfortable for a historian—pushes the field forward."
—American Historical Review

"(A)n invaluable contribution to postcolonial studies and the history of education.... Campaigns of Knowledge would be a welcome addition to courses focusing on comparative history, the history of colonialism, race and racism, and the history of education. Schueller’s ability to weave complex histories that rely on a number of different theoretical lenses produces a rich examination of an otherwise underemphasized element of the U.S. education project."
—Philosophy and Global Affairs