"Art and War in the Pacific World makes valuable interventions in the study of the Pacific. . . . Mancini’s approach is a useful model for historians and art historians writing about the exchanges that influenced the movement and appearance of ‘art, artifacts, and architecture’ within and outside the region. By placing the Philippines at the centre of imperial conflict, Mancini has set the stage for future studies of the trans-Pacific world within a colonial context."—Journal of Pacific History
"Through its temporal, geographic, and maritime expansions, the book successfully articulates the limits of the spatial and scholarly borders that define American history and material culture studies. Art and War in the Pacific World demonstrates that the geographic boundaries of colonies, nations, and continents that determine the divisions of our fields are largely of scholarly making. Examining the far more complicated worlds of early modern and modern actors in the Pacific Americas brings provocative new questions to light."—Winterthur Portfolio
"Mancini expertly highlights the entwined nature of art and war through examining how the spoils of war are valued and circulate into private hands, how artwork from the Philippines made its way to California missions, and the impact that warfare can have on city planning and architecture."
—The Journal of American History
“In this meticulously researched and powerfully argued account, J. M. Mancini makes clear the degree to which the violence of war, rather than simply trade, was key to the global circulation of objects and information about architecture during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She reveals Manila’s importance to the fortunes of first its British and then its American invaders.”—Kathleen James-Chakraborty, author of
Architecture since 1400 “This is a path-breaking study that shifts our attention from the Atlantic world to the Pacific, the competing Spanish and British empires, and the forms of cultural exchange that took place across China, Spain, the Philippines, Britain, and the Americas. It has opened a new front in historical scholarship on American visual culture. Such a complicated subject demands narration and interpretation with subtlety and nuance, and Professor Mancini’s book more than meets the challenge.”—Michael Leja, author of
Looking Askance: Skepticism and American Art from Eakins to Duchamp