This volume, a compilation of selected historical essays, is envisioned to capture the kind of information that global Filipinos need and to serve as a quick reference for them during their interactions with other people in foreign lands - whether they are in Australia, Europe, the United States, the Middle East or Asia and the Pacific. There are now an estimated 7.9 million Filipino expatriates living and working in 193 countries throughout the world.

The essays have been grouped into three parts. The first provides answers to the question of Filipino identity, and how that identity formed. What are the symbols of Filipino identity, national and political? The second part discusses why Filipinos became known as 'brown Americans of Asia,' explains how the Americans changed the lives of Filipinos with their Pacific adventure, and how the Americanization of the Filipinos was realized easily. The final part talks about global Filipinos, how they survive outside the Philippines, and the problems they encounter. How does Filipino migration help the Philippines survive? The book also presents a discussion of two issues needing clarification - the Philippines' territorial claims on Sabah and the Spratlys, and the life of Imelda Marcos, the most maligned woman in Philippine history, who is compared to another controversial figure in another country's history - Evita Peron, the former First Lady of Argentina.