Nick (Nicomedes) Joaquin is the largest writer in the modern Philippines. In this book he appears as a publicist, historian and cultural philosopher. The core of the collection is a vivid artistic and journalistic chronicle of the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986. The most colorful sketches tell about exotic Filipino healers and soothsayers, curiosities of political life, the specific role of Catholicism and local cults, cockfights, scandalous stories, social idols, etc. . The essay “Culture as History” polemically examines the problem of the synthesis of Eastern and Western cultures.