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A History of the Vietnamese
The history of Vietnam prior to the nineteenth century is rarely examined in any detail. In this groundbreaking work, K. W. Taylor takes up this challenge, addressing a wide array of topics from the earliest times to the present day including language, literature, religion and warfare and themes including Sino-Vietnamese relations, the interactions of the peoples of different regions within the country, and the various forms of government adopted by Vietnam throughout its history. A History of the Vietnamese is based on primary source materials, combining a comprehensive narrative with an analysis which endeavours to see the Vietnamese past through the eyes of those who lived it. Taylor questions long-standing stereotypes and cliches about Vietnam, drawing attention to sharp discontinuities in Vietnam's past. Fluently written and accessible to all readers, this highly original contribution to the study of South-East Asia is a landmark text for all students and scholars of Vietnam.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionAsia
712 pages, ebook
First published May 1, 2013
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399 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 24, 2016
The central argument of Taylor's book is questioning the continuity and unity of a nation called Vietnam that have been "proved" by other historians, either ones in the 13th-14th century, or those in the 20th. He states:
and that
And indeed the whole book has been able to do just that. Instead of trying to find an "essential Vietnamese" that drives changes and makes what the country the way it is today, instead of looking for an underlying structure of the country, either in tradition, in culture, in humans' "characteristics," or in geography (as many would do, for instance take Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies), Taylor puts emphasis on contingencies in history, on humans and the choices they make to deal with the problems they have on hand. Without a doubt, Vietnam's geographical position plays a great role in constraining the availability of choices the country has. Yet more important is the interaction between human agency and the environment it inhabits.
The book's coverage from third century BC until the 14th-15th century is particularly illuminating. I have never read such a clear account and nuanced argument of the Vietnam's ancient past like this. Starting from the time of Trinh-Nguyen, the scene becomes incredibly complex and it is so much more difficult to follow the story, especially the section deals with the 20th century when there are so many things going on in the governments of both the north and the south, involving many international interests. Taylor strives to make the story as simple as possible. Of course, this book is only a survey, we readers could not be so greedy to expect more than that. But for my part, I am dissatisfied with the treatment of the events in 20th century. And after all, the interpretation of this period is still largely controversial.
Taylor seeks to "see the Vietnamese past through the eyes of those who lived it." This is too difficult, and I could not feel the effects. In order to understand the people and their world views in the past, it takes more than looking into political changes. In fact, A History of the Vietnamese is very much traditional in dealing mostly with politics only, though Taylor some times switches to talking about literature and arts. A short survey like this book could hardly cover everything related to the cultural sphere. Nevertheless, it is a valuable contribution to understanding of the past of the nation called Vietnam.
The Vietnamese past does not display an internal logic of development leading to the present. Rather, it reveals a series of experiments designed by successive generations as solutions to perennial problems of social and political organization. These experiments have failed, have reached an impasse, or have been overcome by the possibilities or the violence of larger contexts. None has been a final solution.
and that
Vietnamese history is a convenient name for what can be known about a certain aspect of the past. What makes it Vietnamese is that the events which it is comprised of took place in what we now call the country of Vietnam and that certain versions of it have been taught as a common memory to generations of people who speak the Vietnamese language, thereby inducing a sense of ownership. I find interest in the Vietnamese past not because it is Vietnamese but because it is about how human society has been organized and governed during many centuries on the edge of an empire.
And indeed the whole book has been able to do just that. Instead of trying to find an "essential Vietnamese" that drives changes and makes what the country the way it is today, instead of looking for an underlying structure of the country, either in tradition, in culture, in humans' "characteristics," or in geography (as many would do, for instance take Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies), Taylor puts emphasis on contingencies in history, on humans and the choices they make to deal with the problems they have on hand. Without a doubt, Vietnam's geographical position plays a great role in constraining the availability of choices the country has. Yet more important is the interaction between human agency and the environment it inhabits.
The book's coverage from third century BC until the 14th-15th century is particularly illuminating. I have never read such a clear account and nuanced argument of the Vietnam's ancient past like this. Starting from the time of Trinh-Nguyen, the scene becomes incredibly complex and it is so much more difficult to follow the story, especially the section deals with the 20th century when there are so many things going on in the governments of both the north and the south, involving many international interests. Taylor strives to make the story as simple as possible. Of course, this book is only a survey, we readers could not be so greedy to expect more than that. But for my part, I am dissatisfied with the treatment of the events in 20th century. And after all, the interpretation of this period is still largely controversial.
Taylor seeks to "see the Vietnamese past through the eyes of those who lived it." This is too difficult, and I could not feel the effects. In order to understand the people and their world views in the past, it takes more than looking into political changes. In fact, A History of the Vietnamese is very much traditional in dealing mostly with politics only, though Taylor some times switches to talking about literature and arts. A short survey like this book could hardly cover everything related to the cultural sphere. Nevertheless, it is a valuable contribution to understanding of the past of the nation called Vietnam.
January 11, 2014
No history book is perfect because nobody ever really knows the full story or the story they know is colored by views. That said, this is probably the best general history of Vietnam in the English language.
December 1, 2021
What I love about it:
- well researched & critical: events are examined from multiple accounts, including of Viet, Chinese, Cambodian; of historians, poets, linguists, kings, missionaries, conquerors. Primarily though, this is a history and not a anthropological, sociological or linguistic book. Questions are raised along the way: who told this account? potential interest in translating motivations behind results and actions? likely plot holes?
- colorful characters: dramas & intrigues abound, reigns and strategies differ. A lot of characters who got like 1 or 0 mention in our history lessons turn out to have great biographies, and probably have more influence on the course of history than the more popular names. I was particularly taken with history of the south, and with so much materials I'm going to search for V historical dramas from now.
- humor: for example: talking abt the parallel between the comical ending of Truyen Kieu and Nguyen Du’s perseverance at Gia Long’s court: “he believed that a dysfunctional Confucian family is still better than no family at all.”
- Vietnamese: the irony is, while the central tenet of the book is to questions the imaginary construction of a unified national Vietnamese identity, my takeaway from it is a better sense of identification with the concept. Perhaps history has a way of filtering down thru ages, perhaps as a people speaking this vague poetic language in this same long stretch of land surrounded by the Pacific, with many of the same differences and struggles, we can still relate to the way people who lived here hundreds and thousands of years ago reacted to the world.
- well researched & critical: events are examined from multiple accounts, including of Viet, Chinese, Cambodian; of historians, poets, linguists, kings, missionaries, conquerors. Primarily though, this is a history and not a anthropological, sociological or linguistic book. Questions are raised along the way: who told this account? potential interest in translating motivations behind results and actions? likely plot holes?
- colorful characters: dramas & intrigues abound, reigns and strategies differ. A lot of characters who got like 1 or 0 mention in our history lessons turn out to have great biographies, and probably have more influence on the course of history than the more popular names. I was particularly taken with history of the south, and with so much materials I'm going to search for V historical dramas from now.
- humor: for example: talking abt the parallel between the comical ending of Truyen Kieu and Nguyen Du’s perseverance at Gia Long’s court: “he believed that a dysfunctional Confucian family is still better than no family at all.”
- Vietnamese: the irony is, while the central tenet of the book is to questions the imaginary construction of a unified national Vietnamese identity, my takeaway from it is a better sense of identification with the concept. Perhaps history has a way of filtering down thru ages, perhaps as a people speaking this vague poetic language in this same long stretch of land surrounded by the Pacific, with many of the same differences and struggles, we can still relate to the way people who lived here hundreds and thousands of years ago reacted to the world.
November 21, 2013
Governance, economy, and culture of Vietnam in a thoroughly researched and well-balanced 700 pages. From being a vassal province or the southern empire to first Han, then Wu, Ming etc. Chinese dynasties in 200BC, through the Ly, Tran, Le, Mac and Nguyen dynasties, and ending with a beautifully concise 150 pages of the French and American Wars.
The stories Taylor writes are rich in characters and names. It can be difficult to keep up. For a scholarly work, this reads incredibly easy. Going forward, I'll be able to put more stories in context.
The stories Taylor writes are rich in characters and names. It can be difficult to keep up. For a scholarly work, this reads incredibly easy. Going forward, I'll be able to put more stories in context.
June 9, 2025
I loved Vietnamese history. Ever since I was a child, my father who is also really fascinated about history himself, took me to bookstores to find books about Vietnamese history. I read about kings and emperors protecting the Vietnamese nation from the beginning of time. I felt the presence of the country "Vietnam" throughout those books.
This book presents a separate approach, however. Rather than proclaiming like most Vietnamese historians that a nation like Vietnam has existed since ancient times, the events only happened on the land that we call now Vietnam. In fact, the entity Vietnam that exists from North to South nowadays only began to come into existence in the 19th century. This is not a new idea that I read about, having read about the History of Vietnam by Christopher Goscha, but this book goes into more detail as to the stark difference between the North and south due to their history.
Much of my knowledge about Vietnamese history has been upended, with me realizing the nationalist approach that the past books I read about. Still, it's always good to challenge my thinking about what I know, what is Vietnam, and what it is to be Vietnamese.
This book presents a separate approach, however. Rather than proclaiming like most Vietnamese historians that a nation like Vietnam has existed since ancient times, the events only happened on the land that we call now Vietnam. In fact, the entity Vietnam that exists from North to South nowadays only began to come into existence in the 19th century. This is not a new idea that I read about, having read about the History of Vietnam by Christopher Goscha, but this book goes into more detail as to the stark difference between the North and south due to their history.
Much of my knowledge about Vietnamese history has been upended, with me realizing the nationalist approach that the past books I read about. Still, it's always good to challenge my thinking about what I know, what is Vietnam, and what it is to be Vietnamese.
July 28, 2022
Generally very well written, it gave me many shocking analysis of the true nature of the forces at work in Vietnamese history. What motivated the leaders and the heroes should really be considered the good of their own clan and the socio-political forces they represent, and not pure patriotism. Reading Vietnamese history in English also offered me insights into the true nature of many concepts that I was already familiar with.
More than the first half was filled with excitement up until the Tây Sơn rebellion where I think the author was not as familiar with as ancient and medieval history of Vietnam.
The lack of diacritics in the book and the use of pinyin for names of Chinese people, even for Sĩ Nhiếp who was practically the first autonomous ruler of Vietnam, were really annoying. So was the practice of referring to kings by their birth names rather than their posthumous names, the latter of which is what Vietnamese people know them of. Every Vietnamese person has heard about Trần Nhân Tông, few knows who Trần Khâm was.
More than the first half was filled with excitement up until the Tây Sơn rebellion where I think the author was not as familiar with as ancient and medieval history of Vietnam.
The lack of diacritics in the book and the use of pinyin for names of Chinese people, even for Sĩ Nhiếp who was practically the first autonomous ruler of Vietnam, were really annoying. So was the practice of referring to kings by their birth names rather than their posthumous names, the latter of which is what Vietnamese people know them of. Every Vietnamese person has heard about Trần Nhân Tông, few knows who Trần Khâm was.
November 22, 2018
A monumental history of the lands and peoples that comprise present day Vietnam with the majority of the book devoted to the centuries before European contact and conquest. Taylor focuses on the steady influence of China over Vietnamese politics and culture over the centuries with comparatively brief periods of French, Japanese and American involvement in the region in the 19th and 20th centuries. There is a strong emphasis on royal court politics and dynasties including the policies and personalities of successive rulers. Women played a prominent role at court and often helped to determine which one of the numerous princes within the extended royal family would become the next ruler. The Vietnam War is summarized relatively quickly in the second last chapter but the events of this conflict have received extensive attention in other works of Vietnamese history. A detailed and comprehensive history from the earliest surviving sources to the present.
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July 2, 2025"easily the best option for pre colonial history bht i think his coverage the post 1945 period is just a mess (ridiculous detail on south vietnam and virtually nothing on north vietnam"
February 27, 2023
Finally! An english language history of Vietnam that details history before the Vietnam war.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews