A Short History of South-East Asia

by Peter Church

"If one could only have one book on South-East Asian history, this incisive and accessible book will fill the gap admirably. It offer in a nutshell and interesting historical perspective of each country."--Dato Zaid Ibrahim, Member of Parliament for Kato Bharu, Malaysia

"A Short History of South-East Asia is one of my best references whenever I need to look for factual information and explanation about major events in South-East Asia, covering the most recent period and going back more than a thousand year."--Narongchai Akrasanee, Former Thailand Minister of Commerce

"Any businessman doing or wanting to do business in SE Asia must understand the history of the area if he is to be successful. The history of each country plays an important part in understanding the country's culture and behaviour. This easily read book provides this invaluable information - ignore it at your peril."--Mike M. Courtnall, President, Asian Building and Manufacturing Markets, BHP Steel Limited

"Succinct, reliable, historical surveys of each state of ASEAN, reaching right up to the present day. Such a country-by-country approach has real value for the business visitor of the tourist moving around this complex region. No one seeking to identify opportunities and dangers in Southeast Asia can ignore the historical processes that shape the different societies."--Anthony Milner, Basham Professor of Asian History, Australian National University

"This authoritative, concise, balanced and accessible history neatly fills the gap between the tourist guides and the weighty academic tomes. It gives the reader an authentic "feed for history", so necessary to understand the present."--Stephen Grenville, Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia

"The interpretation of events in this book has managed to capture to a considerable degree Southeast Asian perceptions of its history. To have achieved this in such a brief text is impressive."--Nono Anwar Makarim, Founder and Counsel to Makarim and Taira Chairman, Aksara Foundation, Jakarta

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Asia

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book attempts to be middle ground between short travel-guide style synopses of Southeast Asian countries, and book-length histories of each country in the region. The book succeeds in that! The histories of the countries are definitely longer and more in-depth than you will find in a travel guide, and they are definitely shorter than a book-length treatment. From that perspective this book is successful, but there are a couple major knocks against it.

In shortening the history: 1) some sections get overfilled with names of kings, etc. that bog the story down; and 2) the big picture story of each country gets lost.

History is, essentially, stories, so histories recorded without stories are merely a list of facts (and quite dry). In a travel guide, that is permissible, but in a book it is not. This book would be helped by omitting some of the facts (names) and focusing more on the story of each country.

The end of this book has a nice set of simple maps of each country, but inexplicably omits a map of the entire region so readers can place individual countries in their context. This seems like an oversight, but by the fifth edition you would think someone would have caught this mistake.

All told this is a good book for getting a general overview of the history of Southeast Asia. It isn't designed to be comprehensive, and it's not. It appears to be fair and balanced, but perhaps people with more insight into the region would dispute that. This is worth it to read, though it could be improved.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative book. It was okay but not great. Guess I expected more. I probably wouldn't recommend this one.

[Toshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Born as a Japanese, haven’t been experienced war and serious conflict except through internet and TV, working for world consumers, and living in Singapore, this 200 page book is quite concise yet very thorough to open my eyes about what is surrounding me. To understand the different ethnic/cultural/religious acceptance in each ASEAN country, the political stance today, this book is excellent source explaining different historical background of each ASEAN country in their history. This should be good for school teacher to use as text book. For example, this is for me the first time to understand Vietnam war was more a continuation of French colonial era to Japanese occupation to independence movement... Why Myanmar was so late to realize its peace in 2011… The basis that Thailand is almost terrorizm-free... How The Philippines is sympathetic to the United States… etc. etc. Also importantly for me, what happened during WWII inherited various perspectives toward Japan in each country. This 5th edition was published in 2009. I hope the author continues to revise to add more recent drama.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't really a book one reads but rather a book one reads relevant chapters in as the need arises, and for that it is perfect. This is my 'go-to' book when I need a quick and concise country overview to either get me started on a new research project, or remind me of key historic chains of events. It focuses on political and economic history as do the short 'curated' recommended reading lists at the back, broken down once again by country. There is a small Index but most readers will want to read the country chapters in their entirety. There are simple but useful maps for each country in the back with just enough information. I've kept this book on a shelf within arm's reach of my desk for the past eight years. It's not exciting reading but sometimes like a famous detective once said, "The facts, ma'am, just the facts".

[Francesca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I wanted to reread about my country, the Philippines. Indeed, it was a short book. But I would say it was short enough to give some historical information if you're intrigued about the history of south-east Asia. I'll be honest, when it comes to writing essays and DBQ's about history, I'm not really good at it. But I've always been so fascinated with the past. How each event led to what we have today. Though, again, it may be short. But this book shows a glimpse of events and dedicates its chapters to important events of a country for you to further explore on it. I agree with the other reviews, it's a short introduction, a bit dry, but it does the job of providing "A Short History of South-East Asia."

[Shahriar Kabir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to know South- East Asia. Approach is quite neutral while describing critical matters happened in this region.

[Jeroen Van de Crommenacker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gives a reasonable overview of the individual countries, but a bit too dry for my taste.

[Jap Hengky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who might want to learn more about ASEAN might find this good reading.

[Chris Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably would have given it a 3.5 if I could... a little slow a points and a page turner at others, but it's a good introduction for someone new to studying the region and its history. Gives an in-depth analysis country-by-country of how historical events and figures shaped the economies, politics, and cultural norms of each member nation of ASEAN from ancient times to 2005.

[Wens Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accessible and intelligent overview of South-East Asia, with a chapter on each of the SEA nations. The book is only 200 pages long, and is in its 4th edition as of 2006.

[Nuno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too short. But a great introduction to the region .

[Johnny Ly]

Good book!

[Henrique Cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple and short yet interesting overview of the history of the ASEAN countries. Definitely recommend for any curious mind eager to know more about south east asia.

[yun with books · Rating 3 out of 5]

must read for IR student who took Southeast Asian subject.

[Lydia]

Brief overviews on the histories of all the nations in South East Asia. Lots of information, dense and dry, but edifying and worth the read for some basic grounding in the region.

[C. Adam Volle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just read the Wikipedia entry for each country mentioned in this book.

[Manuel Baraja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como su propio nombre indica, una historia bastante breve de cada uno de los países.

Bien como introducción aunque, por la propia naturaleza del libro, se quedan bastantes cosas fuera.