author
James H. (James Henderson) Blount
1869–1918
A lawyer, soldier, and sharp critic of American imperial policy, he wrote from firsthand experience in Cuba, Santo Domingo, and the Philippines. His best-known work explores the American occupation of the Philippines with the perspective of someone who had served there himself.
1 Audiobook
The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912
by James H. (James Henderson) Blount
About the author
Born in Clinton, Georgia, in 1869, he studied at the University of Georgia and later at Columbia Law School. He went on to serve in the Spanish-American War and later worked in public roles that took him to the Caribbean and the Philippines.
Blount is best remembered as the author of The American Occupation of the Philippines, 1898-1912, published in 1912. That book drew on his own service as an officer in the Philippines and as a United States district judge there, giving his writing an unusually direct, personal connection to the events he described.
Records from Emory and Columbia also note his involvement in the anti-imperialist movement and his service as a State Department representative in Santo Domingo during the 1914 revolution. He died in 1918, leaving behind a body of work shaped by law, military service, and strong views on American power overseas.