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Matthew Westfall

Goodreads Author

Born

New York City, The United States

Website

http://www.matthewwestfall.com

Genre

History

Member Since

October 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/amphion

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Matthew Westfall has devoted much of his professional career to tackling poverty in the developing world. As a regional director at a multilateral development bank, Matthew oversees a portfolio of urban infrastructure investments in water supply, sanitation and urban transport in the Central and West Asia region.

Matthew is also an award-winning writer, producer and director of film and video productions that address some of the most intractable issues in our increasingly urban world: megacities, slums and managing the urban environment. His films, garnering an array of festival awards and featuring celebrity narrators such as Malcolm McDowell, Willem Dafoe and F. Murray Abraham, have been broadcast worldwide. He has produced public service Matthew Westfall has devoted much of his professional career to tackling poverty in the developing world. As a regional director at a multilateral development bank, Matthew oversees a portfolio of urban infrastructure investments in water supply, sanitation and urban transport in the Central and West Asia region.

Matthew is also an award-winning writer, producer and director of film and video productions that address some of the most intractable issues in our increasingly urban world: megacities, slums and managing the urban environment. His films, garnering an array of festival awards and featuring celebrity narrators such as Malcolm McDowell, Willem Dafoe and F. Murray Abraham, have been broadcast worldwide. He has produced public service announcements, featuring the music of Enya, which aired globally on CNN and Bloomberg. A keen advocate of change, Matthew has written and produced several flagship publications on the urban sector, including the popular Garbage Book and Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: The Cities Data Book.

Matthew's independent documentaries have been showcased at the Hawaii International Film Festival, New York's Museum of Modern Art, and at scores of festivals across the US, Europe and Asia. For his documentary On Borrowed Land, executive produced by Oliver Stone and funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Matthew received the prestigious Paul Davidoff National Award for Advocacy Planning from the American Planning Association in 1991. Starting out in architecture, he also won the architectural design competition for the Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1988. A graduate of the University of Colorado-Boulder (Environmental Design) and the University of Southern California (Urban and Regional Planning), Matthew began his career in international development with the Peace Corps.

Born in New York City and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, Matthew currently resides in the Philippines with his wife Laurie, three daughters and their ever-loyal French bulldog, Magnum. Matthew spends his free time reading, writing and collecting as a means to explore the fascinating history of his adopted country.

The Devil's Causeway is his first work of narrative nonfiction. ...more

47 posts
Matthew Westfall's Blog

The Sultan of Sulu, circa 1884

An extremely rare and wonderful photograph of Sultan Jamalul Kiram II, (1863-1936), which I recently discovered in France, apparently from an old German collection. Inscribed in the photograph’s border: “Der Sultan von Sulu und sein (Oncle) State-Secretair”, which translates to “The Sultan of Sulu and his (Uncle) State Secretary”. Date of the photograph is a guess — Kiram was born around 1863, and

Combine Editions
Matthew Westfall’s books

Average rating: 4.06 · 85 ratings · 25 reviews · 2 distinct works

	The Devil's Causeway: The True Story of America's First Prisoners of War in the Philippines, and the Heroic Expedition Sent to Their Rescue 4.06 avg rating — 85 ratings — published 2012 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Devil's Causeway: The True Story of America's First Prisoners of War in the Philippines, and the Heroic Expedition Sen 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The History Book ...: THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR	73	516	Oct 26, 2025 11:49AM
THE WORLD WAR TWO...: Author's Page	986	577	Nov 09, 2025 06:17PM
THE WORLD WAR TWO...: New Release Books on WW2	3319	1283	Jan 20, 2026 04:24PM

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Matthew’s Groups

The Filipino Group — 8621 members — last activity 9 hours, 47 min ago
Goodreads - The Filipino Group (GR-TFG) We are Filipinos who love to read anything we get our hands on and who love to meet and discuss these things ...more

THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP — 2693 members — last activity 12 hours, 23 min ago
A chance to discuss books covering the Second World War, the battles, campaigns, leaders and weapons. Tantum librorum, tam brevi tempore (So many ...more

The History Book Club — 25846 members — last activity Jan 20, 2026 03:13PM
"Interested in history - then you have found the right group". The History Book Club is the largest history and nonfiction group on Goodread ...more

Book Giveaways — 5491 members — last activity Jan 08, 2026 04:22AM
The place to go to tell others about your book giveaways and contests. And where book lover's can go to find ways to get free books. We all love those ...more

Book Haven — 11264 members — last activity 47 minutes ago
This is a group for people who enjoy many different genre's. If you are someone who appreciates a good book, regardless of the genre...this is the gro ...more

History is Not Boring — 2060 members — last activity Sep 23, 2025 03:56PM
Why do people think history is boring? I don't get it. ...more

Military Readers & Writers — 157 members — last activity Sep 15, 2021 08:51AM
A place to present current and/or future writing projects related to the military or discuss nonfiction books about the military or war.

THE Group for Authors! — 12969 members — last activity Jan 19, 2026 12:59AM
This is a group for authors to discuss their craft, as well as publishing and book marketing.

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