Southeast Asia: Past And Present

by D.R. SarDesai

Southeast Past and Present offers a balanced and readable account of the region from ancient to modern times, covering traditional history as well as current events. D. R. SarDesai avoids overemphasizing the importance of the period of European colonial rule as he introduces us to the regions and peoples of Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, East Timor, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Readers will find insightful introductions and chronologies at the beginning of each part to aid in understanding the global and political implications of the events discussed.The seventh edition is thoroughly updated to offer coverage of current events, including the historic 2012 elections in Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi's successful bid for election to the Parliament, the rise of Yingluck Shinawartra to the position of prime minister of neighboring Thailand, and the consolidation of the ASEAN and its consideration of China's claim to the South China Sea. Combining thematic and chronological approaches with the study of colonialism, nationalism, historical and cultural heritage, and current events, Southeast Asia manages to convey an Asian point of view throughout.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Cultural, Read For School

763 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Dr. Damodar R. SarDesai is Emeritus Professor of History at UCLA. He formerly served as both Chair and Vice-Chair of the History Department at UCLA. Professor SarDesai is one of the world's leading South-East Asia scholars, although he has also researched & written extensively in the field of South Asian studies, and is perhaps best known as the author of 'Southeast Asia: Past & Present', which is now in its seventh edition. Professor SarDesai has received so many grants, awards and honors during the course of his career that I am not even going to attempt listing them.

Reviews

[Ian Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Partial re-read of a college textbook. I was really just reading the chapters on filipino history. Absolutely fascinating and i am sooooo enamored by anti-colonial movements. The philippines has the largest educational system in southeast asia!

I will say in the writing it was tough to keep track of all the names and abbreviations but i suppose thats just on me.

[Jason Wexler · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a dry recitation of names and dates, which is ironic given that the preface lambasts that variety of history book. Like most cultures or regions which are (in some way) subordinate to another one, southeast Asian history is all about using the writings of the dominant culture to prove that they are meaningful on their own. After 4 years of reading histories from all over the world, I am developing a rule of thumb... if you write a history of a region and you spend more than between a paragraph and a page, discussing the Pleistocene (particularly the lower and middle paleolithic) you are almost certainly padding your book, further I doubt you have much interesting to report.

[Vivek Agarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed book on the social, political, economic and colonial forces that shaped the formative years of the countries in the ASEAN as we know them today

Good book to read if you would like to learn about the key players who had the strength to build a movement and a revolt to stand up to the colonialists

And then there is the chapters on post colonialism which is also very detailed about how they built their countries and some who ruined it further for personal gains

[Jocelyn Howell · Rating 2 out of 5]

SO biased that I genuinely do not know if I can trust all the information I got reading this book. 2 stars instead of 1 just because if you ignore all the excessive biases there is some good info.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Southeast Asia: Past and Present is a detailed, thorough, and very dry history of SE Asia, from early history up until the present. (I'm reading the 2009 edition, and it has political information up to mid-2008). The book covers all of SE Asia and has individual chapters for most countries. The early chapters were sometimes short on detail, but that's due to the limited knowledge we have of early SE Asian society and civilization.

The more modern chapters (from the 1900s onward) are a whirl of political parties and politicians, and while that probably *is* what makes up modern history in most countries, I would have preferred a heavier focus on events and less of a focus on the political wrangling. As a reference it could be useful, but I guarantee that in two weeks, I won't remember who the PAP was and why they were different from the MRRC or the VNQDD.

The author occasionally uses Indianisms, and while the overall editing of most of the book is quite good, there are a few sloppy mistakes in the last chapter, which deals with events from the past few years. There is also occasional editorializing (it's funny to see how many deeds were "dastardly"--a particularly common word in Indian journalism that's otherwise used mainly in really bad fiction.)

I would have preferred a "lighter" history of SE Asia with more narrative content and fewer political facts, but for what it attempts to accomplish this book is very thorough and workmanlike.