Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot

About the book

Austin Craig traces José Rizal's ancestry, childhood, education, travels, writing, and public activity in a biography that emphasizes the development of his ideas. Family influences and encounters beyond the Philippines help explain the reformer's range of interests, while the discussion of his books places literary work within a larger challenge to colonial abuses. The account follows persecution and sacrifice as part of the process through which Rizal became a national figure. Published under American colonial rule, it also presents a distinct interpretation of that legacy, explicitly linking Rizal to the new administration's educational ideals. Readers should therefore distinguish the biographical material from the political framework in which Craig arranges it. The result is both a life and a document of early Rizal commemoration.

• Intellectual formation
• Colonial reform
• Making a national memory

Why read it

Read it for a detailed early biography whose own historical viewpoint is an important part of its interest.

English biography with introduction by James Alexander Robertson