Book Launch: 'Reinventing Marcos: From Dictator to Hero' by Keith Dalton
When:
Fri, 2 May 2025
Where:
Hedley Bull Lecture Theatre 2, Australian National University (ANU)
Cost:
Free
Add to Calendar2025-05-02 18:00:002025-05-02 21:00:00Book Launch: 'Reinventing Marcos: From Dictator to Hero' by Keith Dalton
President Ferdinand E. Marcos held power for 21-years and lost power in four days. What happened and why is recounted in this book by Keith Dalton, a former foreign correspondent in the Philippines for 10 years. He writes of a ruthless and repressive dictatorship – responsible for 110,000 deaths, imprisonments, torture, and ‘disappearances’ – overthrown in a People Power revolution in 1986. Through despotism, nepotism, and corruption Marcos built an empire of greed. Thirty-six years later, in 2022, his son, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. was elected president buoyed by a social media disinformation campaign that claimed his father was the Philippines best-ever president who presided over a ‘golden age’.
Untrue. Marcos was a dictator, and it was a ‘bloody age’, says Dalton. Before he reached the Philippines, Dalton travelled alone for two years through Southeast Asia, a typewriter in his backpack. In Manila, he found Marcos at the peak of his power. He stayed. Ten years later Marcos was overthrown and Dalton watched it happen.
The hosts of the event, the Philippine Australian Association and the ANU Philippines Institute, hope you can join us at the Hedley Bull Theatre 2, Hedley Bull Building (ANU) to launch Keith’s book and listen to his fascinating and compelling stories as a freelance journalist reporting on the most tumultuous political period in modern Philippine history.
E-book versions of the book are available at https://www.keithdaltonauthor.com/product-page/reinventing-marcos-1 and there will be hard copies available to be signed by the author during the launch.
This event is free and open to the public. To confirm your attendance, please RSVP to maria.liwag@anu.edu.au.
Hedley Bull Lecture Theatre 2, Australian National University (ANU)
ANU COLLEGE OF ASIA & THE PACIFICcap.web@anu.edu.auAustralia/Sydneypublic
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Social media disinformation has turned former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos into a man he never was.
The ANU Philippines Institute and the Philippine Australian Association cordially invite you to the Philippine Studies Group Seminar Series 2025 with Keith Dalton on his book 'Reinventing Marcos: From Dictator to Hero'.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos held power for 21-years and lost power in four days. What happened and why is recounted in this book by Keith Dalton, a former foreign correspondent in the Philippines for 10 years. He writes of a ruthless and repressive dictatorship – responsible for 110,000 deaths, imprisonments, torture, and ‘disappearances’ – overthrown in a People Power revolution in 1986. Through despotism, nepotism, and corruption Marcos built an empire of greed. Thirty-six years later, in 2022, his son, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. was elected president buoyed by a social media disinformation campaign that claimed his father was the Philippines best-ever president who presided over a ‘golden age’.
Untrue. Marcos was a dictator, and it was a ‘bloody age’, says Dalton. Before he reached the Philippines, Dalton travelled alone for two years through Southeast Asia, a typewriter in his backpack. In Manila, he found Marcos at the peak of his power. He stayed. Ten years later Marcos was overthrown and Dalton watched it happen.
The hosts of the event, the Philippine Australian Association and the ANU Philippines Institute, hope you can join us at the Hedley Bull Theatre 2, Hedley Bull Building (ANU) to launch Keith’s book and listen to his fascinating and compelling stories as a freelance journalist reporting on the most tumultuous political period in modern Philippine history.
This event is free and open to the public. To confirm your attendance, please RSVP tomaria.liwag@anu.edu.au.
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About the Speaker
Keith Dalton
Keith Dalton
Keith Dalton was a foreign correspondent in the Philippines for 10 years – half the time Marcos was in power. He saw first-hand the political suppression, the militarization of the country, the human rights abuses, the cronyism, the corruption, and the economic plunder of the nation. And when a People Power revolution toppled Marcos in 1986, Dalton watched it happen.
‘Reinventing Marcos’ is his memoir of those years. Keith tells his story to preserve the truth against social media disinformation that has turned Marcos into a man he never was by rewriting history, denying facts, and concocting ‘new’ truths.
Book Launch
Details
Date
–
In-person
Location
Hedley Bull Lecture Theatre 2, Australian National University (ANU)
