The History of the Burgis

Description

200pp., coloured pictorial soft binding, with texts and numerous photographs and illustrations. Out of Print Collector’s item.

A chronicle of 500 years of Philippine history, Mariel N. Francisco and Fe Maria C. Arriola’s book traces the evolution of the ‘burgis’ – the Filipino term for bourgeois that was first used as a pejorative term to describe the nouveau riche. First published on the aftermath of the People Power revolution in 1986, the book offers a reading of the privileged class and their profound impact on Philippine society. This book won the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award for History for 1987 and – according to the late Gilda Cordero-Fernando – is the only GCF book that has ever made money. It has had seven printings, with 14,000 copies sold and an undetermined number of photocopies.